Pros
Working from home
Higher pay than some other transcription companies **EDIT** Recently there's been some type of restructuring in the company and the pay rates have gone down. Not sure what's happened (being kept in the dark), but urgent jobs especially with a one-day turn around now offer HALF the rate they were before, meaning we make half the amount of money. I'm incredibly disappointed and am seeking employment elsewhere.
Kontras
Completely inconsistent work - some weeks there's a bunch of jobs dumped on you at once with tight deadlines. Other weeks there's absolutely nothing. Working on weekends is usually necessary, as many jobs go out on a Friday and are due Monday. You never know what your week will look like, so it's very hard to plan anything in advance. Also, you cannot pay bills or rent based on this position, as there is no steady income.
Unpredictable pay dates - you have to keep track of your own jobs and the total money earned and send in an invoice twice a month. There have been times it's taken over a month to receive my pay and other times, I've received it in 1-2 weeks. It's definitely not like a typical job where you know you'll get paid by a certain date each month. It's always up in the air, but they are honest and eventually they will pay you.
No training whatsoever - you need 2 years transcription experience, however they don't provide you any information on what's going on. After a month of working for them, I was finally sent a link to a guide showing some guidelines....up until then I was completely winging it. Why not give the transcriptionists the guidelines from the start?
Kept in the dark - I never know what's going on with my work. We receive no feedback whatsoever UNLESS of course a client mentions a complaint and then, believe me, you'll be hearing about it. Receiving no positive feedback for all the hard work you do and then the rare time a client complains, you get reprimanded and berated. That's no way to work. I'm sure most of us have low morale because of this. I know I do.
Hard work - some may think transcription is easy, but many of these jobs are extremely hard to hear, have people with accents, huge groups of people, etc. (You get a slightly higher rate for these jobs, but the work is still very difficult). Some long interviews are extremely boring and I've had completed transcripts with tens of thousands of words. Your fingers get sore, your back hurts, your eyes are tired. It's not easy work and it's hard on the body.
Feeling unappreciated - there's no appreciation shown toward the transcriptionists. I've never missed a deadline since I started working over 6 months ago and go out of my way to create good quality transcripts. A simple, "Good job" or "Keep it up" would be nice occasionally. You feel like you're just a pawn for them to make money with, which is essentially exactly what you are.
No benefits and HUGE tax takeout - since this is a contract job, there are, of course, no benefits (I wouldn't expect there to be any). It's important to keep in mind that since you'll be taking your own taxes out, it will be near 30%!! Come tax time, you'll be hit hard all at once. It can seem like you're making a good hourly rate with some jobs, sometimes $15-20 if you're really fast, however, you must remember this is actually closer to $10-14 after your tax amount is deducted.
In conclusion, if you don't absolutely need to work from home, it is not worth it. Your income will never be consistent, the work is hard, you're unappreciated. The only true "pro" is that you are able to work from home.
