topic Re: Working from home? in Among Friends

Working from home?

DMM05 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 00:34:21 GMT

Hi. Was hoping for some advice from anyone who works from home. I. Would like to do some kind of work from home to help out financially but do not know where to start as far as seeing ads etc. Who can you trust ? Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Working from home?

I am still oxox — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 00:40:01 GMT

I worked from home, for 12 years but I started out working in the office and post 9-11 it was more difficult for my bosses to keep their office space so we all telecommutted.

Be careful if a job sounds too good to be true it might be

Re: Working from home?

PA Mom-mom — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:15:57 GMT

I used to see and hear a lot of ads for working from home. They were all bogus. They wanted you to send money for a list of companies who would hire you. BAD! There are aslo some who get work from you for almost no reimbursement. Some major retailers, including QVC, have customer service people working from home on a company provided computer. That is what I would suggest. You have to be available at predetermined hours for that kind of work. If you are a skilled writer/editor, you have some options for writing professionals.

Re: Working from home?

fthunt — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:22:42 GMT

I don't want to rain on your dream; but this was a hot issue 30 years ago. Scam after scam - work from home, learn medical transcription, do phone solicitations, etc., but..............first you have to shell out money to buy the course or the kit. So many woman, wanting to earn extra money while being stay at home moms - got burned. Out money and no job. If you know somebody in your town or neighborhood who needs (and I don't know your skills) a helping hand at their business - that would be ideal situation for you. Please don't answer ads in the back of magazines nor spend your money up front. Good Luck

Re: Working from home?

Kachina624 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:28:17 GMT

I would completely disregard any ads. Companies using people to work from home usually select long-time workers who they know they can trust. My sister's nationwide company recently had an opening for someone to work from home and over 50 of their present employees applied for it. In all my 32 years of working in the employment arena, I never saw a work from home opportunity.

Re: Working from home?

x Hedge — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 02:05:29 GMT

My neighbor works from home as a full time cs rep for Amazon. Its a legitimate job.

There used to be a lot of 'work from home' scams, (probably still are), but technology has created some real opportunities for more people to work from home.

Re: Working from home?

Nonametoday — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:50:21 GMT

Many people work from home. These are usually contract workers who are doing some kind of telecommuting but you have to be your own employer, get your own business up and going if you do not already have a skill, trade or education that can be done in that way. What are your talents, what are your skills, what are your desires, amount of money you want to make? There is work from home from babysitting, to laundry for others, to teaching English as a second language in virtual classrooms, to IT (computer) work, medical coding, transcription (but you better have great English, spelling skills, be able to think fast and have good working knowledge of the medical profession and ability to hear and see better than the average bear), and almost the same with coding. If you are not already someone who does either of these, do not be deluded by companies who will teach you and find you a job. There are some headhunters who work from home. Do you have any public relations skills, ever worked in Human Resources and have a lot of knowledge of labor law? Lots of stuff to be done from home up to and including sewing but these are usually for people with well-known and well-established workplace skills and knowledge who have enough client skill and database to work from home. Real estate is another sort of work-from-home if you have a client database, selling on e-Bay and Etsy. Create a blog of somethign you know a whole lot about, like decorating, cooking, etc. These ladies with these blogs are doing well, cooking and cecorating a lot and are being paid by their advertisers.

Re: Working from home?

Snowpuppy — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:56:48 GMT

I agree that a lot of the legit jobs are CS. There are hotel chains that have CS reps/reservation reps that work at home. Employers save money on office space and if you're disciplined and have a quiet home atmosphere it might work.

Check out Indeed to see if any opportunities come up.

I work for a traditional employer that offers telework but only after 1 yr on the job.

Re: Working from home?

KCDiva — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 02:17:14 GMT

I have been working from home for 7 years and I work for a very large company. They are not all fly by night situations. It makes perfect sense in may cases for employees to work from home. So much to the fact that I would quit if I couldn't work from home. It is very common place. Yes there are many shady situations and you need to really be careful but working from home is extremely common. There would most likely be a period of time where a new employee would have to work in the office for a short time. Do you have any contacts who can help you? I'm afraid researching work from home jobs may bring only scams. Have you talked to a recruiter? I am older and have worked most of my life and work from home was unheard of. The last company I worked for did not allow working from home until people started quitting to work for companies who offered the opportunity. I wouldn't do it any other way now.

Re: Working from home?

BirdieGal — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 03:57:14 GMT

I did for years as a ghost writer and belonged to a forum that I just tried to confirm if it was still there and it has changed.

So...the old forum was very informative and had lots of leads for different types of at home work opportunities.

I know nothing about the new version but it is:

workathomearena.com

Re: Working from home?

BirdieGal — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:06:45 GMT

I forgot, there is also WAHM.com

Re: Working from home?

chrystaltree — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:07:44 GMT

I don't think there are any work from home jobs available to people with no solid skills and who are not already working for a company that offers that to employees. That's just a myth. Yes, working from home is becoming more common in some fields. Generally, it's highly skilled professionals. I actually work from home now and my company is offering it to many others who really do not have to be onsite. Office space is expensive and it's cheaper to send people home to work but new hires don't have that option. People who have attendance issues don't have that option either. My former sister in law is a customer service rep for an online retailer, she works from home now but she had to work in the office for two years before she was allowed to work remotely. I don't what you are referring to by "trust". I think if there's some company or whatever that says they can find a remote job for you, they are lying and probably charge a fee for work they can't secure for anyone.

Re: Working from home?

BirdieGal — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:11:58 GMT

They do exist. I had/have skills and did work from home and not working in the same b&m business first. There are scams so one must be careful.

Re: Working from home?

GenXmuse — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:22:09 GMT

The Disney Store is hiring online workers.

Re: Working from home?

kitcat51 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:33:39 GMT

My neighbor works from home for UPS, she handles customer complaints & other questions. She trained online, had to pass a test & now is monitored for performance... holidays are difficult but all in all she likes it. The at home head hunter service she used had a long list of companies to choose from, even Disney booking vacation packages. Good Luck with your search.

Re: Working from home?

Moonchilde — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:31:17 GMT

Doing medical transcription from home is very far from a scam; the majority of medical transcription in the US is done from home.

One cannot do medical transcription cold without a great deal of not only training, but practice before a first job. Literally years of training and practice. Seriously. Years.

The old back-of-the-magazine "learn transcription" ads were misleading not so much because there were no jobs (at that time there were tons of jobs) but because the training they offered was never even close to sufficient.

Today, you might get a service to take you on for doctor's office notes (which use the least medical terminology) IF you have a very good aptitude for English spelling and grammar. But you are usually paid a pittance per line and beginners usually work the graveyard shift.

The only bona fide ways to learn medical transcription to the ability level to make decent ("good" money is no longer possible IMO) is from the training modules of the American Association for Medical Transcription (costly) or many semesters at a community college and even then your knowledge won't be as thorough as AAMT's courses. But you would perhaps know enough for a supplement to income, not to support yourself.

Re: Working from home?

BirdieGal — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:41:33 GMT

I had my own transcription business a long time ago (in fact my Costco card still has the business name on it).

I did train rain for a long time for it then worked for a doctors office before I decided to venture out on my own.

Nowadays, here anyway, doctors don't use that system much anymore as there are easier and more automated ways to accomplish that. You could see it coming though.

I shut the business down when the doctors were going to more modern methods.

Re: Working from home?

chrystaltree — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:46:17 GMT

@Moonchilde wrote:
Doing medical transcription from home is very far from a scam; the majority of medical transcription in the US is done from home.

One cannot do medical transcription cold without a great deal of not only training, but practice before a first job. Literally years of training and practice. Seriously. Years.

The old back-of-the-magazine "learn transcription" ads were misleading not so much because there were no jobs (at that time there were tons of jobs) but because the training they offered was never even close to sufficient.

Today, you might get a service to take you on for doctor's office notes (which use the least medical terminology) IF you have a very good aptitude for English spelling and grammar. But you are usually paid a pittance per line and beginners usually work the graveyard shift.

The only bona fide ways to learn medical transcription to the ability level to make decent ("good" money is no longer possible IMO) is from the training modules of the American Association for Medical Transcription (costly) or many semesters at a community college and even then your knowledge won't be as thorough as AAMT's courses. But you would perhaps know enough for a supplement to income, not to support yourself.

Thanks for that. It's unfortunate but there still people who actually believe that there are medical transcription and medical coding jobs available to anyone. They have no idea whatsoever about what the jobs really entail or the education or training that is required. I'm a certified coder myself but I work as a Health Information Management specialist, not as a coder. A lot of the transcription work is outsourced to India now. Medical coding too. The hospital I work for has not had in house transcriptionists for many years. The hospital my husband works for is in the process of outsourcing the majority of the medical coding to a couple of companies in India. Every year there are fewer and fewer of those jobs for anyone.

Re: Working from home?

OfCourse — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 05:50:35 GMT

@kitcat51 wrote:
My neighbor works from home for UPS, she handles customer complaints & other questions. She trained online, had to pass a test & now is monitored for performance... holidays are difficult but all in all she likes it. The at home head hunter service she used had a long list of companies to choose from, even Disney booking vacation packages. Good Luck with your search.

@kitcat51 Can you tell me the name of the at-home head-hunter service? I'd be very appreciative if you could.

Re: Working from home?

Moonchilde — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 06:38:56 GMT

@BirdieGal wrote:
I had my own transcription business a long time ago (in fact my Costco card still has the business name on it).

I did train rain for a long time for it then worked for a doctors office before I decided to venture out on my own.

Nowadays, here anyway, doctors don't use that system much anymore as there are easier and more automated ways to accomplish that. You could see it coming though.

I shut the business down when the doctors were going to more modern methods.

The level of knowledge and skill needed to transcribe doctors' office notes vs all departments and specialties in an acute care hospital is very different. Doing doctors' office transcription is not the largest segment of medical transcription as a whole.

Voice recognition software is okay for the former, not so much for the latter, which has to deal not only with a greater amount of terminology but a much larger variety of accents. Accents remain the largest stumbling block to using voice recognition. Canned reports are not all that applicable outside Radiology and in limited diagnoses with Pathology.

We used to get a kick out of people who had completed the community college courses and came to interview positive they would ace any tests. They would listen to test dictation and were positive we'd given them the hardest dictation we had to test on. In reality we gave them the slowest, clearest speaking docs to test on - and all of our docs were accent-less. "No one could transcribe that!" was often the reaction.

Yes, one can learn to transcribe doctors' notes without years of training and practice and earn an income commensurate with that category. But Operative Notes to include all specialties, Oncology and Pathology, to name a small part of acute care hospital transcription is a whole different thing. To be able to transcribe it all to earn top dollar is not the same as office dictation.