Working pay and conditions
First of all, let me start by saying no one wants to do this job from what I can tell. This job gets about a month of paid training. I have officially just graduated the training actually. The training is 9-5 Eastern time. But they have workers all over the U.S. So, some people end up working 7-3.
My training class started with 10 people. All 10 of them were being trained as dispatch agents. Now one month later there are 2 of us. The other 8 new hires quit.
– For better jobs.
-Or they could not handle the learning curve 2 of the people who were hired were very old women who can barely use the computer. I see they tried to pick quality characters who were likeable for this role. Not for what they could actually do. You don't want the person answering your phones to sound like a dick, I guess.
– A couple of people could not handle the stress and negativity. Some of these patients schedule rides for are angry dicks who will curse you out. And it can happen often. Patients are mad their insurance declined a ride. They are mad they did not give 48 hours' notice, or their driver is late or did not come. They are mad another dispatcher hung up on them or disconnected. (If patients are rude with me, I too give a warning, and then hang up the second time.) They are mad your computer is slow. People can be really fucking negative or annoying. Or just weird. Some patients call from behavioral health hospitals. I had one call where an inpatient on discharge had a yelling match with another who was repeating the words ” HELP ME, HELP ME, HELP ME.” That's all she said. When the patient attempting to get a ride started yelling at the poor lady, all she did was say HELP ME, louder. I still wonder what she needed help with. And did she ever get help?
During training there are 2 paid 15-minute breaks. After training is complete there are 2 paid 10-minute breaks. Lunch is always unpaid and 30 minutes in length. Your breaks are not when you are tired or need to use the bathroom. Your breaks and lunch are scheduled around times when caller volume is expected to be low. So, you only get a break when things are slow and peaceful.
Going to the bathroom outside of your 10-minute break time s frowned upon and subtracts time for your 10-minute breaks. No matter what you are supposed to only have 20 minutes of breaks total and shitting counts for this time.
You don't want to have extremely long calls but sometimes it happens, and unlike call centers this is not punishable.
Sometimes a patient calls who violates their insurance frequently, (where they can and cannot go), so we have to thoroughly investigate where they are attempting to go and why. Sometimes a facility or Dr. calls and schedules transportation for 20 patients at once. Sometimes a patient says something suicidal on the phone and we have to keep the on the phone until authorities, or their case manager or therapist arrives. Calls can run long for a ton of reasons, and it is ok.
I do not get in trouble for unknowingly or accidentally allowing a patient to go somewhere they cannot go. This is also not punishable.
If the patient tricks me, or the computer system allows me to push the trip through, it is ok. I am not investigating whether or not they are committing fraud. There are people for that, that is not my job. I schedule the transpiration. That is, it. If a patient goes somewhere they are not allowed to go and we find out, their ride to that specific place gets cancelled. And if they went their knowing they were not allowed to go it becomes fraud and they can have fines or whatever the government decides to do. And usually nothing happens. They are only fined or charged if they wasted thousands of dollars in rides travelling to places their insurance does not cover.
We can work OT every Monday. 7 AM to 9 PM
Health Benefits after 60 days. I believe they are shitty, but I will see. The raises do not look promising, and the Vacation pay, and sick days are fucking minimal. Maybe paid holidays, I don't believe so. And the company has a two-star review from employees rating their time spent with the company. All of this for only 11 dollars an hour. They at least send you a shitty Dell computer to complete their work on. But it is monitored. And they will fire you for having fun on their computer. They have made that clear.
My trainer was energetic, open, funny and helpful. She has treated me like a person so far. Good people, at shitty companies. But it does make sense to have the trainer/supervisor be someone super likeable to encourage employees to stay
Why do I think there is money laundering involved*?*
– The insurance does not cover much. They are only allowed to go to so many places, and those places can only be usually less than 10 miles away unless their medical facility provides a medical override.
– By paying for the cheapest transportation possible, and paying all the ant workers shit, the people at the top get to keep whatever tax money they don't spend.
For this kind of work, you get a contract from the government, telling you that you need to meet certain criteria for patient care, or homeless care. And you get X amount of money to meet these criteria. If you do the bare minimum, meet the criteria, and still have X amount of money left over?? You get to keep it.
Edit: The owner is worth 18 million. I did not even check if he hired any of his friends or family to see if he put them on company payroll as well. But 18 million is still a really comfortable lifestyle being provided by an unpopular service no one has heard of.
Edit: I cannot find the owners salary.