I really need to take you on a quick time machine ride. It’s 2010. New stenographers are graduating in New York City, and many of us are told there are too many reporters and not enough work. When we do get work with an agency, we’re thrown into whatever job regardless of skill level. A true trial by fire. I lucked out, my first was an interpreter job. One acquaintance of mine was put on a med mal or something beyond her skill level and immediately quit the field to become a dental technician. We were also, by any sane metric, being underpaid. When I write about this stuff, I do it with all those memories in my heart. We fought hard through school, and a lot of us didn’t make it in the working world. I know the knee-jerk reaction of reporters is to play into survivorship bias and say “well, others made it, they could have too!” Congratulations! Some of us made it through a rigged game! Good for us! It’s time to use our position as survivors of the rigged game to unrig it so that we’re not chuckle-fucks telling students what a great field this is only to have the income drop through the floor.
These companies did everything in their power to drive us out and drive sole proprietors under, running down the page rates and running up other costs to siphon more and more of the money in this field away from the reporter and into their pockets under the guise of “competition.” Now they’re doing everything in their power to build digital. According to multiple sources I’ve talked to in the last few years, they’re told to say digital is the future or something similar when questioned about steno v digital.
Digital reporters, I know this sounds like good news because some stenographers have been nasty to some of you. The reason it’s bad is they’re pushing all this recruitment and holding your hands through the early stages so they can “diversify” the worker pool and pit us against each other, decreasing rates across the board. The companies would rather let me call them frauds than defend their reputation. That’s how much money is at stake here. It’s fairly easy to come to this conclusion. Company executives have a duty to make decisions that make companies more profitable. Their compensation is often tied to company performance in some way. The finance guys think digital is like 50% more profitable. Supply and demand, supply of reporters goes up, demand stays about the same, price goes down. That price is your income, just so we’re clear. Even if you don’t buy into believing it’s fraud, you have to see the clear money incentive these companies have.
Consumers, if you’re reading, this pretty much demonstrates why stenographers are making all this noise. You’re comparing a workforce of people that had to self-teach anything the 2-year education didn’t cover with people that are scripted after whatever the training program time is (6 weeks?) And they are pretty much going to charge you the same prices for both while pocketing, allegedly, 50% more profit. I get that everyone thinks our steno lobbying is the only thing that keeps us afloat, but I gotta be honest, our associations would find it difficult to be less effective. I’m not saying it’s all their fault, but let’s look at the reality: We’re losing jobs even in states with heavy licensing requirements like California and Texas. Digital has come into play even where it’s illegal. If our lobby can’t combat illegal activity, it’s pretty fucking weak. For contrast, your organizations kill robot lawyers with zeal and efficiency.
If it’s not our lobby keeping us afloat, what could it be, I wonder? Could it be that even in 2023 modern stenography is more efficient than the other methods? Hmm…