I used to love my job in medical transcription--until Nuance took over the company I worked for.
Pros
The only one I can think of is that you get to work from home.
Cons
As a medical language specialist, I was perfectly content with the other companies I worked for from home; but ever since Nuance acquired them last year, I have been miserable with my job. Nothing but never-ending stress and absolute frustration. I wholeheartedly agree with all of the many negative reviews already listed here. The pay is absolutely ridiculous. They were very shady in explaining the drastic cut in pay we would be taking (which was right before Christmas last year), and tried to disguise it with the promise of a bonus incentive--which they failed to mention is completely unattainable, no matter how good of a job you've done in the past. There will ALWAYS be something that they find to be "wrong" to cheat us out of this bonus pay. It's so depressing to think of how I make drastically less each paycheck now than what I did before Nuance took over and ruined my once-loved job for me. With my other employers, I have always worked on a line requirement basis; but with Nuance, they make us keep track of hours and set up a minimum that we're supposed to attain each week. What is problematic about this is that apparently, they have grossly over-hired, and there is NEVER enough work on the accounts anymore. Before, I always had an abundance of work on my 3 or 4 primary accounts; now, even when I sit and stare at the computer for hours at a time, eagerly awaiting more dictation to be put on the system, as soon as the jobs are routed in, there are always a few others doing the same thing, so the work is gone quickly. It is nearly impossible for me to make up the hours needed each week. Like a previous poster said: We're expected to "flex" our hours when there isn't enough work, so that translates into that we should basically just be "on-call" 24/7, as if we have absolutely no life outside of this pathetic excuse for a job. So to remedy this problem, they give us a secondary account in which 90% of the dictators are horribly difficult; mostly ESL, and I'm now afraid to even attempt those jobs because now the FIESA system has been implemented, where points are taken off for every little error/blank made in the report, and I feel like it's pointless to try to transcribe these reports, when it's bound to reflect very badly on me if I don't get everything perfect. Many empty promises have been made; I remember specifically being told that once the systems moved over to electronic medical records, that we would go from MLS to Editor, and be paid twice as much. Apparently, that scenario is just the opposite--editors actually get paid less than the measly wage the MLS's are being paid. (And that was basically the only little bit of hope I had left for this job, so now I'm really feeling the pressure.) Every single aspect of this job is now micro-managed to the point where you can do nothing right; no matter how hard you work or try to improve in one area, there will always be something else that you're doing wrong, and they are oh so quick to point that out. Nuance is just like a sweatshop; stress level for the employees is at an all-time high, while the wages are ridiculously low. I never thought anyone could completely screw up an at-home profession, but Nuance has definitely accomplished that for me. It's almost as if they've thought up every way possible to push their employees to the breaking point, where they are so frustrated and hopeless, that they're forced to quit. Needless to say, I would absolutely NOT recommend this company to anyone. It's a nightmare.
