Avantages
There are so little pros. The camaraderie between you and your team. I was lucky to be on a team of people I've been working with for a long time, so I feel I was able to pick back up with them. As someone else stated, being paid hourly regardless of work flow is a perk. Compared to other interpreting companies, you are getting paid better (more on that in a bit). The amount of knowledge you gain in the healthcare field. It's inspired me to pursue other careers. Lastly, the feeling you get after a smooth encounter and the thanks you get from LEP(limited English proficiency) patients and sometimes the providers who are not rude.
Inconvénients
Pay disparity. Stratus acquired a smaller VRI interpreting company back in 2019 and those interpreters are being paid on the lower end of typical Stratus hourly wages. One person who put in their review stated they were being paid $21 an hour, yet some of those who were acquired from Stratus prior to the acquisition of AMN are currently being paid less than $20 an hour. Their "tenure raise" was given by just recently after being fully acquired by AMN Healthcare, which only meant that this raise was an increase of 3% and was only offered to those who were in good standing and interpreters who have been working for the company for over three years. This also includes the employees who were grandfathered into Stratus after the 2019 acquisition. And a good amount of those who were grandfathered in and qualify for the raise are still being paid less than $20 an hour even after this "tenure raise". If you worked for the company for less than three years, but over a year, you're out of luck. The micromanaging is extremely overbearing. Lose internet connection for over 5 minutes? Fill out a offline-time form. Were you on the phone with IT for 10 minutes? You guessed it. Fill out an offline-time form. It shows that you've been on a call for over an hour? They can access your computer to see what you're doing. Lately, if you're on a call past the end of your shift, even if its gone past 20 minutes of your shift ending, they will access your computer. PTO = sick time. If you call off using sick time, they use your acquired PTO hours to cover the time you missed. If you work part time, no paid holidays as part-timers are scheduled for holidays (which are paid time and a half if you work them), and No Call No Shows are treated way too seriously than they should be. Other issues: -The transition in being acquired initially by Stratus felt ostracizing and it still feels like some of the interpreters on the other teams are not as welcoming. -Mental fatigue after extremely complicated and/or sensitive encounters and you are expected to hop on another encounter right away when a call comes in. -If your internet or power goes out and you report the offline time during your shift, you will NOT be paid for it, even though it is completely out of your control. -You are constantly disrespected by the English-speaking providers with inflated and fragile egos. Example of what I've heard of: if you interpret for Spanish, people try to practice their Spanish with you on the line without you interpreting and if you try to explain that you cannot be used as a monitor, they can and usually flip out. And if you receive a bad rating, it feels as if it's always their word against yours. -It is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to get PTO approved. You have to request it months in advanced to even get a shot for it to be approved. Obviously this is subjective based on when you need the time off, but it's such a hassle to wait for it to be approved and then find coverage if your PTO request end up denied. -Changing your schedule seems to be just as difficult. -QA check on video presentation are measured to an unfair degree. If I get a 95% on my visual presentation, that's barely categorized as "meet expectations". -They do not reimburse or help pay for the CEUs you need to maintain your certification. -It's been said multiple times by others. Career advancement in this company is extremely rare. -Tech issues are never fixed; get used to hearing yourself over an echo, having audio delay, or hearing some metallic sounds in the background of your call that can hinder your accuracy in interpreting. -Their biannual reviews that are sent to employees to complete for company feedback are not truly anonymous. If they were, they wouldn't be using Microsoft Forms that requires you to be logged in to your account in order to complete it.
