Understanding British Accents

To be honest -- maybe it's because I never worked in the same kind of businesses in the States -- but I think all of this transcribing is a pretty old school way of doing business anyhow -- the first guy even had me type HIS emails!  Geez - how inefficient is that?!?!! 

You'll get used to it. You'll find that just about every company does audio typing. My boss doesn't often ask me to do emails but I do them occasionally. It's not that unusual. When you're first starting off with audio typing, you'll have to ask them to speak slowly and clearly until you get a hang of what that person is saying. It'll take some time, you'll just have to hang in there until it all kicks in for you.

the places I worked in the States -- people always typed their own e-mails and many typed/wrote their own correspondence (right on the PC) -- but might do like a draft & then give it to someone like me to fact check, clean up the spelling/grammar & make it look pretty, etc.

This is my experience with working in the States as well.  Assistants spent their time doing important things--like running the office.
You would have to be computer-literate to get a management position, anyway.
When I worked in the States,  I always typed my own correspondence, answered my own phone, etc.   I taught the assistants how to do my job, so they could take some of  the  work load off of me, and cover for me when I was out of the office.  I got reviewed on how I trained assistants, and if  all the assistant did was type and take dictation, I would have gotten in trouble for not utilizing their skills effectively.  (If the assistant hadn't already quit out of frustration and boredom.)

This is my experience with working in the States as well.  Assistants spent their time doing important things--like running the office.
You would have to be computer-literate to get a management position, anyway.
When I worked in the States,  I always typed my own correspondence, answered my own phone, etc.   I taught the assistants how to do my job, so they could take some of  the  work load off of me, and cover for me when I was out of the office.  I got reviewed on how I trained assistants, and if  all the assistant did was type and take dictation, I would have gotten in trouble for not utilizing their skills effectively.  (If the assistant hadn't already quit out of frustration and boredom.)

Exactly!  I am just so much more accustomed to what I perceive to be a more efficient, and generally more highly skilled (as in your description) work environment.  (Sigh)  Similarly, I learnt the business and I wrote (not typed from dictation) the correspondence myself, etc -- I was a legal/correspondence specialist (writer) at my last US job (among doing many other things).  But here, I am gritting my teeth & trying to be nice about 'the British way' anyway -- while griping after work to my husband that I'm going to start teaching courses here in how to speak clearly & use diction.   (As well as a 12-step group for computer-phobes.)

PS - sweetpeach, maybe I should commute to York & be your admin ass't?

As a temp in both countries I can pretty much assure you that it's crap in both places.  There are still plenty of jobs for transcripition people in the USA too.  Heck they even have degrees in it still at these local college type places. 

What I find is that in the older generation it is very common to find people that are not comfortable with computers or know how to use them, but prefer not too.  There are also places that are slow to transition to any new thing that comes in.  Changing a corporate culture is very difficult and will happen slowly. 

Where I am working now the manager is absolutely wonderful, she just dislikes her computer and prefers to not type out things that she has already written.  She is comfortable writing with pen and paper.  I on the other hand hate to write anything out and would rather type anyday.  I even got a keyboard for my palm pilot when doing my Masters so I could have my in class notes typewritten!

  As a temp in both countries I can pretty much assure you that it's crap in both places.  There are still plenty of jobs for transcripition people in the USA too.  Heck they even have degrees in it still at these local college type places. 

Yes, it is as I suspected.  I have not temped before this, so there you go.

Back to struggling with British accents...  Up 'til now, I was just struggling with my husband's accent (and tendency to mumble generally)...but on the job, it's been challenging.

Back to struggling with British accents...  Up 'til now, I was just struggling with my husband's accent (and tendency to mumble generally)

The first time I spoke to my guy I had to ask him to repeat almost everything he said!    The accent in the part of Scotland I'm in is infamous for being one of the hardest accents to understand, especially when spoken casually. But somehow I've finally gotten used to it and I kinda feel like like I've mastered a foreign language. 

PS - sweetpeach, maybe I should commute to York & be your admin ass't?

Most likely, when I start working in England, I will be somebody else's ass't

My jobs in the US basically involved organizing things and making sure things ran smoothly, efficiently and quickly. Some "selling points" on my CV is that I constantly got things done ahead of deadlines, redesigned the way things were done, and made things run more efficiently.   I was always trying to weed out inefficiencies, and being commended for making things move faster.  Someone dictating a letter and then having another person type it, rather than just type it himself as he thought of it, would be #1 on a list of inefficient behavior.

Where I worked, everyone had computer access. People who had to travel outside the office had laptops.  I had access to my emails on my home computer.  Contracts, letters, and other important documents were communicated to the necessary people via email.  Everything was done as close to instantaneously as possible: you think of something, you type it yourself, you email it to whomever needs it.

Someone dictating a letter and then having another person type it, rather than just type it himself as he thought of it, would be #1 on a list of inefficient behavior.

I think that's a good idea however my experience has been that those people I work for can't type more than 20 wpm.  Every once in awhile my boss will type out her own letter. It'll take her twice the time to type it than it'd take me. It's changing but at the moment, these sweet little hunt and peck typers are keeping me in a job.

Every once in awhile my boss will type out her own letter. It'll take her twice the time to type it than it'd take me. It's changing but at the moment, these sweet little hunt and peck typers are keeping me in a job.

I'm assuming that your boss had to get some type of degree in order to get her job. How did she manage to get her classwork done?

I'm assuming that your boss had to get some type of degree in order to get her job. How did she manage to get her classwork done?

Your guess would be as good as mine.  

Well and the other thing too, when you're writing something -- it's not the same as purely typing it, either from copy or from audiotape (provided you can understand what the person is saying ).  I would think the typing it up as you're writing it would be slower ('cause you're thinking of what to say, how to say it, etc) than just straight typing -- yet both are getting accomplished simultaneously.  That's my take on it.  The funny thing is that the very first job I got over here -- I thought it unusual but I actually got hired as a letter writer -- and I was horrified that the expectation was for me to dictate my letters into a recorder for someone else to type.  And the process didn't seem to be up for question because that's the way the boss wanted it, she was afraid of computers (she wrote some of the letters herself) -- that was the way it had always been done & would be ever so...  I can't write like that (dictation into a recorder) & I quit after the first week thinking it was just that peculiar company.  Oy vey!  How wrong I was!  Well -- most of the folks there were thinking they'd lose their jobs in about 6 mos time anyway because the company had just been acquired by another like company...  My thoughts were...um, duh! of course you're going to lose your jobs if the other company is even one iota more modern/efficient than you folks are.

It's a status thing. Management people don't type their own letters, that's what a secretary is for. Until PCs appeared in every office a few years ago remember that typing was something you had to get right first time, or too many overtypings and blobs of correction fluid made for a scruffy looking letter, so you had a woman whose job was nothing else but to type. Now that it's so easy to make corrections on-screen it doesn't really apply any more, but some people are resistant to change and, as always in this country, "We've always done it like that!" will win the vote a lot of the time.
25 years ago I don't recall typing anything at college. Wrote it all out longhand.

as always in this country, "We've always done it like that!" will win the vote a lot of the time.

My experience working in the US has been exactly the opposite.  Practically every time I turned around,  some procedure was being changed in the hope that  it would increase productivity. And I was constantly being asked to find ways to make things run more efficiently.

  It's a status thing. Management people don't type their own letters, that's what a secretary is for. Until PCs appeared in every office a few years ago remember that typing was something you had to get right first time, or too many overtypings and blobs of correction fluid made for a scruffy looking letter, so you had a woman whose job was nothing else but to type. Now that it's so easy to make corrections on-screen it doesn't really apply any more, but some people are resistant to change and, as always in this country, "We've always done it like that!" will win the vote a lot of the time.

25 years ago I don't recall typing anything at college. Wrote it all out longhand.

I figured that status & tradition must have a lot to do with it.  For Pete's sake, though, how long did it take to get computers into the workplace over here?  I've been working on a computer in offices for 20 years now!  And everything I've done for my education since high school (aka 'A' levels over here?) -- it was a requirement of the course that out-of-class written assignments either be typed on a typewriter or word-processed on a PC.  I graduated high school in May 1982, attended university 1982-1985 (but didn't complete a degree) then returned to university (and finally got a degree) 1991-1994.

My experience working in the US has been exactly the opposite.  Practically every time I turned around,  some procedure was being changed in the hope that  it would increase productivity. And I was constantly being asked to find ways to make things run more efficiently.

Ditto here!!  My last US job -- work procedures changed faster than most folks could keep up with!  And the thing is -- most successful US businesses...it's just a given -- either you keep changing, improving, gaining more efficiency/productivity/lower costs, or the business is going to be left behind.  I'm certainly not convinced that's all good (for the workers) but I didn't expect things here would be so far behind?  The other thing is US businesses (IME) -- particularly the ones that have been around awhile -- seem to emphasize customer service a lot more, the idea being (I think) that all other things being relatively equal between one competitor & another -- by providing a higher level of service, you're offering that extra edge for a customer to come to your company or stay with your company.  Customer service over here (also IME) is a complete & utter joke -- I mean, it's virtually non-existent.  If you can manage to get someone at a company to actually answer the phone ...they are probably not going to be able to help you -- 'Oh that's another department & I really wouldn't know anything about that.'  Maybe they offer to transfer you, maybe not...the call gets dropped in transfer, or you get the other department -- 'Oh no.  That's not this department. I can't believe they transferred you here. I don't know anything about that. This is the Midlands office -- you should be speaking with the West Yorkshire office.' (But I just spoke to them and they said to call you.) 'Oh I'm sorry but I really don't know what to say & I can't help you -- we don't handle that here...'

They are working to improve customer service and efficiency as well as effectiveness here in the UK -or at least that has been my experience.   God help you if you ever travel or have to live in South America, Arabic nations or even Spain or Italy. 

I am so sorry that some of you seem to find the UK so backwards technology wise and customer service wise and it seems in most things from reading your posts.

Maybe in the perfect USA you have not dealt with the likes of Comcast in the USA who took 4 weeks to get my phone sorted out or Bellsouth who recently told me there where no repair tickets on my parents phone line when one had been in for 5 days causing me undo worry and having me phone neighbors, or perhaps the snotty Kroger clerk that can't be asked to be polite, or the GA DMV offices which are nothing short of the worst system I have ever had the experience to witness in ANY country. 

I have worked with Corporate VP's that had me type their letters... why should they bother... that's what they had me for....  as a manager I had my admin do lots of work I could have done, but you know what.... that is what she was there for.... to allow me to manage more effectively.  A good manager will delegate tasks.  Why should a manager type their own letters or file their own work?  Use your own reasoning that a manager typing their own letters will be more efficient and apply it to most things in the office and you will see it would be much more efficient to have them do their own work from typing to copies to faxing and the like.  Oh except they actually have other job duties like oh... running the company or office...If you don't like audio typing (I don't) then ask for a job that does not involve it. 

As a matter of fact one thing I have learned in life is that you cannot change people and things around you.  What you can change is your attitude and reactions.

I rarely let this site get to me, but I can honestly say that this negativity couched in thinly veiled "warm fuzzy" attitude has gotten on my last nerve.     

Oh and the last latest research I have read found that productivity in the USA had hit an all time low..... people are calling out sick more often and getting less and less done in a work day and working longer and longer hours to do less.   Then again I highly doubt some people want a normal discussion on these matters and instead want a place to be negative.

Oh and guess what?  You are living in the UK... and they speak differently and have a different culture.... you have to change -not them.  They are not to blame for any insecurities you might have.

Moreover, many bosses graduated a long long time before computers were even in the picture.

Now I am going to go and do as I preached and change my reactions.