Posted on 04/24/2006 by Walk the Planks
Viewed: 431 times
Well, I used to be a court reporter in PA, and a little in FL. I did that for 12 years. Everyone always thinks -- court reporting, wow, you must be earning so much money, blah, blah, blah. It is truly a lot of fluff!!!
Court reporting agencies seem to dole the good work out to reporters that have been there for a long time. Some have their favorites, and some prefer little and cute ones. The little and cute ones that can make their "clients" happy, if you know what I mean.
Court reporting is a lot of non-stop hard work. It literally can go around the clock. If you are sitting in court all day or even at a deposition, and you write 300 pages, and if the lawyers need the testimony tommorow, guess who's going to be up all night working -- and only at a page rate, which is doubled, but still...
On top of this, you are considered self-employed. You get no benefits and pay quarterly taxes. Sometimes the lawyers don't pay right, so you may have to wait months to see your money for their work. Work varies, and sometimes good work is not easy to find. Jobs cancel and you're running every which way -- with hundreds and hundreds of pages of testimony waiting to be put out. Then the insurance companies are giving the agencies a lot of work in bulk, but it's contract work -- which means a reduced rate for the reporter; meaning, the reporter is doing the work at a cut rate. Some reporters have scopists and typists, but that takes time to find someone reliable; and then you're putting more money out to pay someone. And not to mention, the court reporting equipment is so expensive.
I'm not court reporting anymore, and I'm glad. I feel like I gave 12 years of my life to the profession and don't have much to show for it. I've had to cancel many plans along the way and let down friends.
Now I have a career job, which does have benefits. I work 8:00 to 5:00, and I'm hearing that people are now screwing with me because I now have benefits -- as if, I'm not entitled to them.
Well, for years, while I was court reporting, I had to put my medical needs on hold, because of no benefits. I grewup with benefits, and this is how I feel comfortable.
Who the hell are these people that get off doing this to someone because she made an improvement in her own life? Jealousy stinks, but I think people should either learn to mind their own business or get all of the facts first!
POST A COMMENTtawanda(04/25/2006)
My experience with temp agenices has been about the same. They have their favorites that they keep assigned - everyone else is just gravy for "little" day jobs.
tawanda(04/25/2006)
I'm curious about how they are attacking you now that you have benefits. Are they targeting you for using them? If so, that's illegal. Is your medical condition such that you would qualify for protection under the ADA(permanent impairment, preceived by others as having an impairment...)?
tawanda(04/25/2006)
Do you know how your employer purchases their medical benefits? Are they self-insured (premiums pay for claims), fully insured (premiums pay for claims and put profit in pockets)? Are they upset by your using the benefits or, in the event that you accrue leave and use tjat to cover your absences, could that be what's bothering them? Who pays your premiums - are you responsible for them, does the company pay them, or do you share in the cost?
Walk the Planks(04/25/2006)
I'm sorry. I didn't make myself too clear. Temp agencies are different from court reporting agencies; although, they do assign jobs. I guess in that regard it's similar. And certain individuals at my place of work and other big mouths seem to feel that I have enough money, so that I don't need benefits or something. It's disgusting. My finances and my benefits are none of their business, first of all. There are just some reporters out there who like to talk and brag, put on a show about how much money they earn and how great it is. Court reporting schools will tell you that you can earn so much money -- boulderdash!!! The money jobs are there, but they're few and far between for most reporters -- unless of course, you own an agency and take all of the good work for yourself. Then there's real-time, which is the closed captioning stuff you see in courtrooms, on television or for the def students in colleges. A lot of money is there, if you can get the work. We're talking a tremendous amount of work, schooling and expense. For me, after working as a reporter for 12 years, I would have to re-learn how to write on the machine to make it real-time compatible. So many words in the English language can be written the same way on a steno machine, like, "your" and "you're." It's fine on the paper tape of the machine and in private edit, but if you're doing real-time, the lawyers are seeing everything you write on a computer on their table. Then if there are any names and unusual spellings, the reporter needs to get those beforehand to have everything pre-set into the machine to come up translated; otherwise, everything looks like gobbledegook to a person trying to read the text, unless you can read steno. Then lawyers and people talk on top of each other all of the time. Guess what? It is impossible to write two people at once, so someone's words are going to be missing from the text. Then, finally, if you have been writing all day, or are overtired and not having a good day, it reflects in your writing, which means, text can literally be missing out of the transcripts from natural human error. Stenography and closed captioning are not a complete science. It takes a lot of money for the equipment and a lot of training -- on top, of trying to get all of your other transcripts done, taking more assignments, family obligations and daily life stuff. You literally have no time for anything other than reporting. You can be a reporter and only take a job here and there, but agencies don't really like that because you're not there for their needs. It's seriously a lose-lose career. You lose your personal life, social life, family life -- everything gets backed up and jammed. Things get put on hold because you're trying to satisfy certain lawyers on certain cases to get their work to them. And then you will get a phone call from a more patient attorney who's looking for his transcript, which is something you took at a deposition two or three weeks earlier and haven't had time to get to it yet. Then you have to get that out to make sure that client doesn't get upset. Does this sound like a fun career path??? And people are upset because now I have benefits???
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