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Mostly quiet...
Jan. 4th, 2012 11:54 pmI had most of the item due today done yesterday before I hit the rack. This was a good thing, because the crew that was to remove some dead trees from the property decided to show up today to do the job.
That meant I had to closely supervise Shiloh this morning (I could not let her out on her own, as she would get in the way of the crew), and so I ended up submitting the job a bit closer to the deadline than I had planned. In any event, another job came in from the same customer near the end of the day.
* * * I got an email from an old client inviting me to send in an updated CV for inclusion (without any personally identifying information) in a proposal. Since (a) this client's top rate is 20% less than what I routinely get these days, and (b) they haven't sent work my way for almost 4 years, I'm in no particular rush to respond to the email, but it did focus my attention on a chronic peeve among translators, i.e., providing agencies with the raw material to fabricate an illusion of available freelance experience and depth in particular language combinations.
An extreme case of what I'm talking about occurred some years ago, when I was invited to submit a CV and a sample translation to an agency for inclusion—I was told—in a proposal that the agency won, whereupon neither I nor any of the other translators who had been approached to provide samples and résumés were offered any work at all. I later heard through the grapevine that upon winning the contract, the agency assigned the work to translators who were willing to accept rock-bottom rates, even if the work quality was commensurately low.
Was any personally identifying information actually included in that agency's proposal? In retrospect, I tend to doubt it, mostly because leaving such information out of the proposal (a) would allow the agency to pursue its course without having to provide potentially embarrassing explanations, and (b) would maintain the agency's role as intermediary, which is a big deal in this industry.
However, even if an agency were to use translator CVs in good faith, it will not be able to provide work if there isn't any.
A common tactic among clients is to promise a large volume of work, with a feverish exhortation to provide one's "best" (i.e., "steeply discounted") rate, whereupon the promised volumes never materialize (but the rate remains at the "best" level). I had an agency email me a few months ago, informing me that they had renegotiated their rate with their end client so as to reduce it, with the net result being that I was expected to agree to drop my rate by about 35% in order to be considered for future work. I responded with a very nicely worded email that basically said "poor business decisions on your part do not create an obligation on my part," and wished them good luck.
There may also be a dearth of work because (a) it just isn't there, or (b) the bean-counters experienced sticker shock once they realized just how much translations are going to cost. I've worked on projects of the latter kind, where a "freeze" was put on ordering any but the most essential translations, a tactic that succeeded mostly in retarding overall project progress because it took quite a lot of bureaucratic muscle to "unfreeze" a translation request.
The item that came in late today is about 80% done, for delivery tomorrow afternoon. I should probably go get some sleep.
Cheers...
That meant I had to closely supervise Shiloh this morning (I could not let her out on her own, as she would get in the way of the crew), and so I ended up submitting the job a bit closer to the deadline than I had planned. In any event, another job came in from the same customer near the end of the day.
An extreme case of what I'm talking about occurred some years ago, when I was invited to submit a CV and a sample translation to an agency for inclusion—I was told—in a proposal that the agency won, whereupon neither I nor any of the other translators who had been approached to provide samples and résumés were offered any work at all. I later heard through the grapevine that upon winning the contract, the agency assigned the work to translators who were willing to accept rock-bottom rates, even if the work quality was commensurately low.
Was any personally identifying information actually included in that agency's proposal? In retrospect, I tend to doubt it, mostly because leaving such information out of the proposal (a) would allow the agency to pursue its course without having to provide potentially embarrassing explanations, and (b) would maintain the agency's role as intermediary, which is a big deal in this industry.
However, even if an agency were to use translator CVs in good faith, it will not be able to provide work if there isn't any.
A common tactic among clients is to promise a large volume of work, with a feverish exhortation to provide one's "best" (i.e., "steeply discounted") rate, whereupon the promised volumes never materialize (but the rate remains at the "best" level). I had an agency email me a few months ago, informing me that they had renegotiated their rate with their end client so as to reduce it, with the net result being that I was expected to agree to drop my rate by about 35% in order to be considered for future work. I responded with a very nicely worded email that basically said "poor business decisions on your part do not create an obligation on my part," and wished them good luck.
There may also be a dearth of work because (a) it just isn't there, or (b) the bean-counters experienced sticker shock once they realized just how much translations are going to cost. I've worked on projects of the latter kind, where a "freeze" was put on ordering any but the most essential translations, a tactic that succeeded mostly in retarding overall project progress because it took quite a lot of bureaucratic muscle to "unfreeze" a translation request.
The item that came in late today is about 80% done, for delivery tomorrow afternoon. I should probably go get some sleep.
Cheers...
