One thing I have learned in my experience both as a freelancer and as an employee is that one’s value may be quite high, but one’s only paid what one negotiates for oneself. For some employees, negotiations are handled solely by a union, and if one wants to directly influence negotiations one must learn and become a part of the union structure. For just about everyone else, independent contractors and employees alike, the terms of “employment” are dictated by the contract(s) agreed to. What does this mean? It means that we must always be informed and alert. The terms that we agree to must cover our life expenses, our business expenses, and protect us as much as possible. There is no magic formula for evaluating whether it is a good idea for any of us to sign a contract or agree to a term. Make no mistake: Though it is incredibly common for people to be employed without a contract, or independently contracted without a contract, it is not wise. Dependent upon circumstances, even something as simple as an email dictating terms of an agreement may constitute a contract, and it is well worth having such agreement so there is no ambiguity.

For purposes of this blog post, we are assuming the reader is an independent contractor. The following items are items you seriously want to read and understand in any offer of employment or contract.

• Non-compete clauses. Many contracts have these. Basically they say you will not work for clients of the company within a certain amount of time after leaving. Be very aware when signing contracts like this. Some non-competes dictate that you shall not work within a certain geographical area. Though we cannot be sure of the legal enforceability of such contract, we can be sure to review terms and have terms reworded to suit our needs. Do not skimp on negotiating with regard to these agreements and/or associated penalties for violating the clause.
• Page rate or pay rate. This is an extensive area that you must do some mental work for. Do not simply set a rate. You want to set expedite rates, daily rates, rates for the copying of exhibits, the binding of transcripts, or the delivery of transcripts. You must do your best to anticipate the different situations that may come up in the scope of your duties. Will you be performing roughs? Will there be a minimum fee? Will there be an hourly or appearance fee on top of any other charge? Will there be a waiting fee? In the end, if a company refuses to pay you, the contract will guide a court, arbitrator, or regulatory entity in determining how you should be paid.
• Hiring and firing terms. This is important for review because you must know where your duties begin and end. Are you obligated to provide services after a job has concluded? Is the “employer” obligated to hire you again for work on the same case? Is the client entitled to “discharge” you before the full service has been rendered and does that affect your pay? These terms can severely impact your bottom line and are not something you should ignore.

Now, having used the term employer, employment, et cetera, one may wonder what that’s about. To me, it is all employment, and all under the umbrella of employment for one simple reason: In this country with fairly few exceptions employment is at will. Employers can fire for any reason, no reason, or a made up reason, as long as it’s not an illegal reason. Independent contractors face this same issue and generally have even fewer rights under the law. Therefore it is imperative for every reporter to know and understand that their value may be much more than what they are paid, and that is directly tied to the deals they’ve made. You may be tempted to assume that whatever is being offered is whatever you’re worth. Don’t fall into this trap. Sell yourself, because the person hiring you will almost never offer you top dollar if they can get you to do the work for less money.

Early in court reporting education we learn that this can be a rewarding and wonderful field for a variety of reasons. There is money to be made. There are lawyers and litigants to be served. There are a thousands of people that need the accurate voice-to-text service that the best of the best of us provide.

So many also learn this career can be a lot of rejection. Because court reporting (steno) is a skill as opposed to a science, it is literally something we will fail by design. We must try, try, and try again before we do well. We can’t study it and know all there is to know before we walk in and take the test. If we’re average or above average, there’s a good chance we will fail a court reporting test. Who can blame us? The passing score is 95 percent. The words are coming at a hundred or so words every minute. There is no end to the obstacles we face in a testing scenario, let alone the real world. There’s rejection in the real world too. There are hundreds of lawyers that love what we do and the records we make, but it is rarely those lawyers we remember. To be honest, the ones that stand out in my mind to this day are the ones that seemed needlessly cruel or insulting. To keep it short, many of us are just predisposed to remembering the people that suggest we aren’t doing our job right because we can’t take down a five-person crosstalk with the Eye of the Tiger booming over a loudspeaker in the middle of the protest chant three stories below.

What can we do to handle our feelings of rejection on a day-to-day basis? Let these tips, tricks, and solutions guide us a little bit in seeking serenity in a fast-paced world

1. Remember we are not alone. This comes first. It is the first thing we can do in a moment of rejection or a stressful situation. Have we just failed? We are not the first or last to do so. We are among many. We can also be among the many that picked themselves up from failure and did great things with their lives and careers.

2. Analyze the situation. In a moment of rejection, fear, or distress, it is easy to focus in on our feelings and become consumed by them. We must press ourselves not to do that. Look at what’s happening outside of our feelings. If we failed a test, is there something we can do better next time? If a client is complaining, is there something we can do in the moment, within our professional scope of responsibilities, that’ll ease the tension in the room? If we step outside our skin and look at the situation for what it is, we can come up with innumerable ways to solve whatever is wrong.

3. Take a break from the situation. We’ve reminded ourselves that we are not alone and analyzed the situation. At this point, if we are still feeling an impact on our performance from the rejection or stress, then it is best to request a break. Dependent upon the situation, we can request five minutes to compose ourselves, a bathroom break, or if all else fails, claim an emergency situation. The break, when exercised, should be as a polite and professional as possible whether in a school or work setting, but we also must be assertive. A word of caution: Analyze the situation and decide if taking the break will cause more rejection in the future. For example, if we are in the middle of a heated closing argument by a renowned defense attorney in a televised murder trial, we should probably avoid taking a break from the situation.

4. Hang in there. If we cannot break it is often advisable to “just do the best job possible.” Most work we do does not require perfection. We want to be perfect, but we don’t need to be perfect, and no one expects us to be perfect all the time. If our current best is good enough, keep going, and don’t regret it.

5. Call for backup. What of when our current best is not good enough? What do we do when we’ve followed all the other steps and still can’t handle what’s been thrown our way? Call on somebody. For students, this might be a friend or confidant. For working reporters backup might be the agency, a close friend, or a supervisor. Calling for backup might also entail letting the powers that be know we cannot continue. This is a rare and perhaps controversial topic, but the bottom line is we are all humans with complex emotions and obligations. If something has been thrown onto us that is so heavy we cannot continue a job, it is much better to admit it. Some of the best jobs are those we refuse to take.

6. Prioritize your health. As stated, we are humans with complex feelings. If feelings of rejection are defeating us constantly or affecting performance, we may want to consult doctors, therapists, social workers, or other professionals. There are hundreds of us with all sorts of anxiety disorders, eating disorders, aches, pains, and worries. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and our profession to get ourselves to a healthy place so that we’re good and our work is good. Don’t let the stigma of mental health treatment, disability, or a medical condition prevent us from being all we can be. Sometimes prioritizing health doesn’t even require seeing a professional. Sometimes all it takes to handle rejection or stress is a vacation, a good book, a blog, a hobby, or a group setting/meeting.

7. Become an agent of change. Once we have learned to handle rejection, stress, or pain, it is time to take our healing to the next level. Chances are high that if we had a problem, someone out there has the same problem, or will someday have the same problem. We must take responsibility for our communities, workplaces, and the field at large if they are to improve. Helping others cope with the hurdles of reporting or life comes with its own sense of rejection and additional challenges, but it is the ultimate triumph to be a mentor, introduce court reporting at high schools, or even present courses to bar associations regarding who we are and what we do. Bravery is not about being unafraid, but being willing to act despite fear. Handling rejection is not about being the paragon of perfection, but about taking all our challenges and making something of ourselves regardless.

Too often we throw up our hands and say, “I don’t like politics” in discussions of law and elected officials. Who can blame us? It feels like the entire system ticks along the same way no matter what we do or who we turn to. The law is confusing and sometimes even scary for most of us.

That said, from time to time, court reporter issues come up in politics, and it is important for us to fight on the right side of those issues. Sometimes this is done through group lobbying, like the NYSCRA. In recent memory we have had a defeat or two. There is nothing saying that we cannot try again. There are other laws that have passed for the betterment of New York that also included us tangentially. Then there are laws which benefit us directly, like the General Business Law 399-cc. The summary of it is it puts the attorney of record on the hook for transcripts that he or she orders. 

What about when something is not done through group lobbying, or what about if an individual wants to propose a law, or write in support of a proposed law? In New York State, laws must pass through the State Senate and the State Assembly. They are then signed by the governor. Every New Yorker has a State Senator and State Assemblyperson that they can write to talk about laws they feel should pass. The New York State Senate site has tools for finding your state senator. The New York State Assembly site has a tool called “Who Is My Assembly Member”.

Now that we have the tools to know who our elected officials are for New York State laws, and can find their website or their webform to write them an email, what do we say? It isn’t my business to tell anyone what to say, but below, I give some useful tips from my experiences in writing state legislators. These are the things that have gotten me the best responses. 

1. Be polite. The time to be mean is in the voting booth. The person you are writing won an election and you are dependent on them to help you. Even if you do not like their policies or political party, you should not be insulting or rude.
2. Be simple. As court reporters, we deal with words all day at 225 words per minute. We can write out a book in the amount of time it takes others to write a sentence. Remember that your state legislator is probably not a court reporter. Your state legislator may not even be a lawyer. Use simple words and simple language to describe how you’re feeling. Stay away from using terms of art. For example, let’s say a legislator wanted to add an extra tax to scopist services and you didn’t want that. If you tell them it’ll make scoping 25 cents more a page, they won’t understand very well. If you tell them it’ll increase the costs of your business by 25 percent, it’ll help them understand very well.
3. Be succinct. A staff member of your legislator or your legislator is going to sit down with your message. If it is nine pages long they are more likely to skim it. If it is only a paragraph or two they will probably read the whole thing.
4. Start with something nice. “Good morning to you and your staff” is a really nice way to start a message because it acknowledges the staff who are probably reading the message. 
5. If you have something nice to say, say it. Take a second to look at things your state senator had voted yes on. If you agree with what he or she did, tell them. Simple things like “thank you and your staff for all your hard work and voting yes on law XYZ.” Be brief but stay positive. 
6. Talk about how the law might affect you personally, or how you believe it will affect people in your state. I wrote in support of the court reporter law that would mandate the use of court reporters in NYC courts. I was a deposition reporter at that time. I wrote to my legislator, very honestly, that it would not benefit me personally but I felt that there were dozens of hardworking professionals maintaining the record, and dozens more training to maintain the record, and that a record maintained by a court reporter was important to New Yorkers because court reporters have been maintaining records for decades. We are the best for the job because it is all we basically train to do. I told my legislator it was important to have records made and maintained by court reporters because these records could change the case of lawyers and litigants in New York State, and could decide somebody’s fate or cost someone a lot of money. 

Those are my best tips. I’ll end this all rather unceremoniously by saying I have only gone into state law because that’s where we see a lot of the action for our field. There is also federal law. Every United States Citizen has two federal senators and a representative in the House of Representatives. You can write your congresspeople for help with federal agencies and/or proposals/comments with regard to federal law. 

 Most actions start out as ideas. Your ideas are valuable, but if you do not share them with the appropriate people, then they can never happen. Don’t be disappointed if a state senator disagrees with you, just be more active. Encourage them to keep their mind open and tell them you will keep your mind open. If all else fails, in the next election, you can always vote against them or donate to a different candidate.