Big news! I actually can’t believe I haven’t already shared this.. I was so excited when it happened that I felt like shouting it from the rooftops, and now every time I have to tell someone what happened, I’m like “wait, are you sure I didn’t already shriek this at you?”
So I was getting steadily more unsatisfied with my job at Inscribe. They’re a great company, and the sense of community was really strong there. Every day I had a solid idea of how the company was doing, and I appreciated that. The trouble was, somehow there was ALL THIS WORK except on the account I was assigned to. I was stuck doing almost nothing for my entire shift most of the time, and on top of that, I really hated my shift schedule. I was on the edge of quitting for a solid couple of weeks, and the only thing that kept me hanging on was the hope that it would pick up eventually and the knowledge that I really need the experience in order to keep going in this field. It was SO TEMPTING to quit and just pick up an office job. I even had some great local opportunities. Every time, I had to remind myself that I picked this career for some really good reasons, and I need to stick with it, now more than ever. If I don’t get the experience I need right now, my entire course will have been for nothing, and I just don’t feel like throwing that much time and effort away. And I really feel like I’ve been guided here by fate or whatever else. I was born with a particular skillset, and that skillset is perfect for this career. For instance, I’m a good speller, I’m great with grammar (I don’t bother with all that when I blog though, so no fair calling me on typos!), I’m a speedy typist (which makes me also really good at piano and guitar hero), I love medicine and related terminology (terminology was my best subject when I did medical office admin), and I enjoy semi-monotonous tasks, especially when I can use little tricks to speed myself up and see how productive I can be. Unlike my sister, I don’t need or want to be integral to the functioning of an organization I work for – I want as much flexibility as possible, and if that means they could take or leave me, I’m fine with that. I just want to get paid for what I do, and I want to be valuable enough to them that they don’t want to see me go. Other than that, I NEED to be independent from them, and this contractor thing is perfect for that.
So anyway, I’m struggling along, and then things got worse when Rainer started working at his new job. His schedule is 9-5 or thereabouts, but he’s incapable of leaving work on time. He gets busy and absorbed, and before he knows it, what felt like 10 minutes going by has actually been 40, and he ends up getting home half an hour before I have to start working, giving us very little time to think about dinner. I can’t even get dinner cooked for him when he gets home, because I have NO CLUE when that will be. Not to mention, because my shift required me to stay up late, I had to sleep in to stay sane, so I was often still working my other part-time job when he got home.
We lived like that for a good week and a half before I finally started thinking that maybe quitting was the best thing after all. I’d been applying to other jobs, but nothing was coming through, and the cardiologist was still coming through with some great hours – who knows, maybe it would actually stay that way, right? But then it hit me that I was being pretty ungrateful. I had hoped and hoped for a job – any job – in my field, and I had sworn that I would work nasty hours if that was what it took to make this work for me and our future family. And then as soon as it came down to actually working the nasty hours and missing out on parts of my social life, I was going to quit?? I decided to hunker down and make the best of it, and of course keep my eyes peeled for other opportunities. I looked into booking time off for some of my more important upcoming social engagements, and was actually reassured when I discovered how lenient they were about booking time off. Then I called the office manager and told her about my schedule woes. She said she’d start looking for something I’d like better, and I felt even more encouraged. A couple of days passed, and I heard about a job with a small company in Nevada, I think. I applied, and right away got asked to test for them.. I took the test a little unwillingly.. the rumor was that this company didn’t pay well, and their reputation wasn’t shining. Sure enough, I was offered a job with them, but I told the lady that I had to think about it. I just got this sketchy feeling from her, and of course the pay really was awful. She offered me the schedule I wanted, but I just wasn’t sure I could work for so little money (not to mention, I hate supporting companies that take so much advantage of new MTs by offering work to newbies for practically no money).
The next afternoon while I was debating what the heck to do, fate threw me a bone. Remember the company that had called me awhile back and booked an interview with me but then cancelled at the last minute because they’d already filled all their positions? Well, I’ve been keeping in touch with that same lady every so often since that phone call, hoping that one day something would actually come up, and she’d remember my name first.
I still can’t believe it actually frigging happened. I was just so excited that they actually called, but then I just kept hearing better and better news – the account is psychiatry, which I’ve always had a massive interest in and always wanted to do. It’s clinic work, w which is where I have all my experience and where I’m most comfortable – it also involves less of the picky terminology which means my speed is way better. And the fact that I’m working one specialty instead of acute care which was every specialty under the sun, including the boring general stuff, is awesome. The fact that it’s a clinic means it’s Monday to Friday work, no weekends necessary, and this account doesn’t have a strict turnaround time deadline, so I can be super flexible. There’s always lots of work to do, so I’ll never be sitting around waiting, and the pay is actually slightly higher than Inscribe was paying me, AND it’s full time! Oh yes, and daytime work.. AND they have no set schedule – I can work whenever I want as long as I meet a certain line quota (which, by the way, I know is no big deal now that I’ve worked a couple of days for them). The pros just keep on coming! Their platform is heaven on earth.. super quick and easy to use. They’ve eliminated a lot of the waiting time and needless steps that I encountered with Inscribe’s platform. Even the dictators speak so much more slowly and clearly.. and the account specifics aren’t nearly as, well, specific. You type verbatim, and you’re good. No need to correct contractions or medical abbreviations, just listen and type. Beautiful.
Needless to say, I’m on cloud nine. I love having my evenings back. The only tough part is going to be balancing this job with the cardiologist’s work, but he’s slowed back down a little now, and even if I end up having to dump his work, I’ll still have a full time job, which is way better than just having the cardiologist, especially when his work is soooo inconsistent. I hope not though, cause he’s gotten really attached to me, and I appreciate that I impress him so much.
Rainer’s also really enjoying his job still. He still hears nothing but great feedback from people who’ve met him.. The nice thing about being your boss’s friend is that stuff coworkers tell his boss about him, he gets to hear about later! And it’s even better that it’s all good news. He’s impressing people all over the place, and it’s becoming more and more evident that this is SO his niche. It’s no wonder that I felt so compelled to get him out of his work with Ezee and into this job. I have no doubt that he’ll be there for life unless fate has other plans, which quite frankly wouldn’t surprise me, but I’m choosing to be optimistic. We really need stability right now, and I think the heavens know that.
Other than that, I’m spending my days getting seriously excited for my brother’s impending homecoming after spending 2 solid years in Colorado. I really REALLY miss that kid.
Bedtime.
It’s been awhile, and that hasn’t been because I haven’t felt like writing, or because I haven’t had anything to say.. rather, it’s been because I’ve had SO much to say, and I needed to find the time to say it! Also, because it was easier to wait for the dust to settle so that I could share the final news rather than bits and pieces.
So, tidbit #1: I have a job! Well.. I have two jobs. I’m still typing for the local cardiologist, and my workload from him has somehow more than doubled in the last two weeks. My new second job is with a company called Inscribe, out of Kentucky. They have me working on one of their accounts, a hospital in New Mexico. It’s entertaining work, and I’m learning a lot.. there just isn’t very much work to go around. More often than not, I end up sitting here killing time waiting for jobs to come in. The second negative is that my shift is from 8pm to 1am, Sunday through Wednesday. I hate this shift. I love my evenings, and I almost never feel like working when it’s dark outside. Not to mention, this also means I’ve had to give up Sunday dinners with the in-laws, and I absolutely LOVED doing that.
Tidbit #2: Rainer has a job! And the great news is that it’s the job he really wanted and spent the last month going for! Things finally got resolved with getting his resume in, and he sailed beautifully through the interviews. Rainer’s biggest asset is his ability to get along with anyone almost immediately. He’s so fantastic at bonding with people and opening them up, and that’s what got him the job. That, and his sales background, as they had more people applying who had lots of supervision experience but no sales to speak of. But a large part of his job is contingent on earning the trust and respect of his team and then using that to persuade them to accept the upcoming changes to their jobs and motivate them to excel at the new challenges they’re going to be facing. That’s hard to do if people don’t like you. But he’s been there for four days, and he’s heard nothing but fantastic feedback, and it’s very encouraging.
Tidbit #3: I finally, FINALLY got my practicum issues sorted out. I thought I had started back when I found out I had to buy a new pedal, but then things went very quickly south with that one. The company ended up asking me if I wouldn’t mind doing my practicum somewhere else, because they’ve just been so slow lately that they don’t have enough hours for their paid employees, let alone students. I was pretty ticked about it, especially since they waited several weeks to tell me this, and I had already paid for a pedal to work for them. If I hadn’t gotten the Inscribe job, that would have been wasted money. But now I’m on the school practicum, so my instructions are clearer, and I’m getting real QA on every single report I do. Now if only I could find the time to work on it between working my two jobs…
So, the baby plans are potentially back on track. Unfortunately, all the money we had saved up went towards paying the bills during Rainer’s last month of unemployment, so we’re sort of back to square one with paying off the debt. And it’s not like my job makes things much easier, because I only get paid based on production, and if there’s nothing for me to produce.. well, you get the point. So I’m counting my blessings that the cardiologist is seeing tons of patients these days, and I’m hoping it continues.
I’m not even minding the days by myself so much.. it hasn’t even been a full week, so it’s a little early to tell, but I kind of like the time alone so far. That is, all except for one little problem:
I have an intense fear of being alone. Those of you who may have been following me since my initial blog’s inception have figured that out long ago. My fear of being alone has gotten me into an obscene amount of trouble, and I only barely got over it enough to find myself someone decent instead of just someone who would put up with me. Now I have him, and I’m breathlessly in love with him, but at the same time, scared TO DEATH of losing him. It’s hard to even write about, because the thought not only brings me to my knees emotionally, it takes over my brain until it’s all I can think about. Half the time, it isn’t even that I have any valid worry about him at the moment.. I just get this thought like, what if one day it happens? And then BAM! I’m on the express train to Disasterville, and all I can think about is how awful it would be.
I HAVE to get over this. I have to stop thinking like that and let go of the fear. I need to have some kind of faith that this life is something I can live, no matter what happens to me. I can’t control whether or not I lose Rainer.. and someday it is guaranteed that I will, unless I go first, and even then, I’m still losing him. I can’t live in that moment, I have to live in THIS one!! But that is, for some reason, really difficult to do.
Anyway, that’s my update.
Rainer lost his job again. I can’t believe it.. but at the same time, I felt from the beginning that this wouldn’t last long. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t predict that he’d get fired.. but I had this gut feeling that this job wasn’t the place for him.
He wasn’t the only one let go. The whole company is downsizing. I don’t think they have a single Ontario sales guy left. They’re letting some of their admin staff go too.
Thus, there’s an awful lot more riding on this potential job with his friend. I really hope it works out. The resume and cover letter finally got finished and submitted, and he’s been told to expect an interview on Thursday or Friday. We really need this. If it isn’t this job, then his friend does have other places to put him.. they just aren’t quite as desirable. But at this point, we can’t be picky.
I, meanwhile, am back to waiting for the phone to ring. I was told to expect an interview and placement last Thursday, but hadn’t heard anything as of this morning, and I didn’t have any contact information for anyone who had called me. All I had was what was on my call display. Luckily, Rainer talked me into calling that number back to say that I hadn’t heard anything, as had been promised. The lady was really nice, and gave me the contact info for another woman who is supposed to now place me. If I don’t hear anything by later this afternoon, I’m supposed to call again, and we’ll go from there. She said that she thinks there still are positions to be filled, and I hope she’s right… especially because we need money to pay the mortgage, and I REALLY don’t want to join the ranks of people awaiting foreclosure.
I don’t want to be mad at Rainer, and i guess I’m not.. I’m just frustrated that we’re back to this stage so soon, and I’m disappointed that he couldn’t find it in him to work a little harder to prevent this. Still, I have to wonder if it could have been prevented, given that all the other salespeople are gone too. Maybe it’s just the market conditions. Still, I think i would be more confident of that if I knew Rainer had been putting 100% effort into the job. He simply wasn’t. And his consequence for that might be having to work in a job he doesn’t love just to pay the bills.
What a freakish day!!!! I finally got started on my practicum, only to have it put on hold again. I had my training scheduled for 9am this morning, and I was pretty excited about it. I was on a conference call with one of the Team Leaders for close to 2 hours. The system is not that hard to use, although I end up spending more time searching through databases of doctor names and visit numbers than I would like. That eats away at the amount of time I actually get to spend making money… although of course right now I’m working for free. There wasn’t actually any work available for me to do at the time, but the trainer managed to pull a couple of files for me to try out, and they went just fine. No mumbly speakers, and anything I didn’t know, I was able to find relatively easily.
The one BIG problem: My foot pedal doesn’t work. I managed to get assigned to the one company that has an account where a regular USB foot pedal doesn’t work. And let me tell you, trying to transcribe without a pedal is bloody awful. I managed, but it took me at least four times as long as it should have. That’s going to look really bad on me. I explained my problem to the team lead, and she directed me to HR, who told me that normally they lend pedals out to students, but currently they don’t have any available to lend. I was advised to purchase my own or borrow.. and those things are damned expensive. Luckily, I found one online for half the price they usually are. I just have to hope that it works when it gets here. Yay for credit card purchase protection!!
It’s been such an unbelievably frustrating day with all of this.. so it was really really nice to get a phone call from a different transcription company, one whom I applied with earlier this week. I had heard they were hiring, so I gave them a shot, even though the transcription test was practically impossible. One of my test reports was more blanks than words, I swear.. and yet, they called me this afternoon to say that I had tested really well, and they wanted to ask me some pre-screening questions which would lead to an interview if I “scored well.” After I was done answering about half a dozen quick questions about my computer capabilities and my long-distance plan, I was informed that I had scored very well, and that I should wait for the next step.
God, I hope this works out. I am so excited to get real work, and I’ve heard good things about this company as well as the last one. It is at the very least encouraging that both of these companies seem willing to hire me without having done the practicum, and it’s great to hear twice in one week that I’ve tested really well. In a perfect world, they would be ready to hire me just as I finish the practicum, just so I can say I did it.. but at this point I’ll just be happy to be working.
Well, I had a bit of a close call last week.. I got an email from my course coordinator saying that a well-known transcription company was hiring. I sent them my resume right away, and I got an email back the very next day asking me to answer some questions about my computer and reference materials and to test for them. I was thrilled when they said my testing was good enough to qualify for an interview, and an appointment was set for Friday at 3:45.
I got a call from the interviewer at 2:45 saying that she was sorry, but she would have to cancel the interview. She’d just been informed by HR that all their positions had been filled. She was pretty nice about it – she didn’t even have to call me, but she said she felt better about delivering that news more personally than in an email. She promised that I would be on top of the list of people to call as soon as they have another opening.
It could have been worse, I suppose.. I could have interviewed with them and then been rejected based on my interview. To have the promise of being kept on the top of their waiting list is at least a better position than I was in at this time last week. But I’m still bitterly disappointed. To make matters worse, despite the fact that I had been contacted by the company I’m to do the practicum with and signed a contract with them, I hadn’t heard from them in over 10 days. Needless to say, it was a depressing weekend.
However, this morning I was finally contacted by an IT guy with my practicum company, and he just finished installing all the software I’ll need to work for them. He told me that he’d let the program coordinator know, and she’ll contact me to set up some training. He even copied me on the email, so I know the process is moving forward. I’m just really anxious to get started, as I’m not working this week, so I’d rather start this when I have tons of time to spare.
As for Rainer, he’s STILL trying to pull everything together to actually apply for this job. I’m a little worried that they’ll have filled that position before he finally gets his resume in. It’s not all Rainer’s fault.. he’s waiting for references to confirm their permission, and he’s waiting for a friend to look his resume over to make sure it’s good.. and he’s not very confident when it comes to writing a cover letter, but the one person who was going to help him with it (and is she ever good at it) got food poisoning over the weekend. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just not meant to be. I sure hope that’s not the case.
I did manage to have some fun yesterday.. I’ve been in desperate need of shoes that are newer than 3 years old and jeans that actually fit me and are comfortable. About a year ago, I bought two pairs of jeans, one at Old Navy, another at Jacob.. and both pairs are all I’ve had since then. They do the job, but they don’t fit well, and they certainly don’t look nice. I’m forever pulling the Jacob jeans up, and the Old Navy’s just look like I bought them at Walmart or something. They’re hideous. Don’t even get me started on my shoes.. my basic wear-with-everything pair is a pair of black loafers with heels, and they’re just so old and out of style that I can barely stand to look at them. I didn’t have anything fancier unless I wore my ankle boots (also from Payless) that are incredibly uncomfortable. However, anytime I’ve tried to go shoe shopping in the past couple of years, I’ve failed to find anything that appeals to me. It’s not because good shoes aren’t out there, it’s just because I lack the ability to see things on the shelf and imagine what they’d look like on me, or with the clothes I own.
So, I got my friend Terri to take me out shoe/jeans shopping, and she did a FANTASTIC job of helping me pick out some classic options. I now have a black shiny flat for more casual wear, and a pair of slingback, open-toed, Franco Sarto wedge heels for fancier stuff. Those babies will dress up a pair of jeans, and they’re fancy enough for dresses and weddings. Not to mention, they’re totally and completely comfortable.
Then we went to a jeans store and I picked up two pairs of jeans, one dark and dressy, one lighter and more casual. They fit me perfectly, and they look really good on me. Finally.
Now I just need to get a job to pay for all of it…..
Well, this is the new place.. I wasted FAR too much time contemplating changing the name of my blog to something else, but that would have meant changing the entire idea behind it. I don’t want this to be a couples blog (because let’s face it.. Rainer will never have a hand in this), and I don’t want it to be a family blog. This is for me. This title is the best way I have of indicating that this is just a record of my life as it happens, and that I’m figuring things out as they come off my fingers onto the keys.
There’s a lot of empty space in here, but I promise I’ll fill some of it up as soon as I can figure out more about how to work around this site.
faithworld