Gotta trust my better judgment...
Sep. 10th, 2002 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThe constant reader will have noted that I said, yesterday, with regard to a job offered by client M: "Against my better judgement, I think I'm going to go for it."
Well, I already have cause for regret. Having already sent off a FedEx with 200+ pages of material to me, the project manager neatly accelerated the schedule by 15% (cutting 3 days off what was originally a 20-day work period), and imposed four additional milestones (in addition to final delivery). Two have to do with incremental deliveries (which I shall invoice incrementally, said invoices which I am sure will be ignored by the client), and two have to do with putting together a 50-term glossary and sending off the first 10 pages for the delectation of the editor.
There is a strong temptation to tell the client how small to fold each sheet of the document set and where to subsequently stuff them. That, however, would be unprofessional and repaying unprofessional behavior with similar behavior is not something that I do (at least, not when I have my head on straight). I just hope my e-mail to the project manager (wherein I noted the 15% shortening of the deadline with some chagrin) doesn't come off sounding too... I don't know... emotional?
In any event, I shall have to be very, very careful in the future when dealing with this client, that's all. This client is inexorably moving toward the "clent" end of the spectrum.
The only good news in all this is that I'll get to work - sort of - with Jim W., out of Georgia, who is a very good translator and a heck of a nice guy.
* * * The geomorphology article is moving along smoothly (or as smoothly as can be expected, given the subject matter). I ran across an abbreviation (мБС) that stumped me, all of my dictionaries, and pretty much every online source in my bookmark list (including the enormously helpful sokr.ru). The abbreviation is often found in documents that report on reference water levels in, for example, reservoirs. Eventually, after about 30 minutes of fruitless searching (I found plenty of hits for мБС, but none that also provided an expansion of the abbrevation), I hit upon the idea of searching only for "reference water levels" (отметки уровней воды).
Bingo! The search turned up one site (pravda.ru) that used the expansion (but not the abbreviation... go figure), in the following text: "...ОТМЕТКА УРОВНЯ ВОДЫ В ГОРЬКОВСКОМ ВОДОХРАНИЛИЩЕ ДОСТИГЛА 83,22 МЕТРА ПО БАЛТИЙСКОЙ СИСТЕМЕ..." ["...the reference water level in the Gorkiy reservoir rose to 83.22 meters per the Baltic system..."]
A search on Google for "meters" + "Baltic system" wasn't too helpful, and I'd already spent scads of valuable translation time on this abbreviation. For now, I'm treating it as "meters, Baltic system," and abbreviating it as "mBS" in English.
Anyway, I am just over 40% complete through the geomorphology article.
* * * As I drove past the Red Lion Inn on the way to go pay our phone bill downtown, I noticed some mushrooms growing out of a stump in the grassy area behind the Inn. I pulled over, got out, and walked over to the stump to see what was there. I found a couple of nice handfuls of oyster mushrooms (or something similar... I'm pretty sure they're edible), but considering their location (close to relatively high-traffic road and on property that has likely been treated with chemicals), I left them alone.
After paying the phone bill, I was sorely tempted to go driving for mushroooms, but reality called, and I went back home. I did notice, however, that there was a steady drizzle in the air in the late afternoon. We are getting moisture. Hopefully, it'll rain tonight, too.
Cheers...
Well, I already have cause for regret. Having already sent off a FedEx with 200+ pages of material to me, the project manager neatly accelerated the schedule by 15% (cutting 3 days off what was originally a 20-day work period), and imposed four additional milestones (in addition to final delivery). Two have to do with incremental deliveries (which I shall invoice incrementally, said invoices which I am sure will be ignored by the client), and two have to do with putting together a 50-term glossary and sending off the first 10 pages for the delectation of the editor.
There is a strong temptation to tell the client how small to fold each sheet of the document set and where to subsequently stuff them. That, however, would be unprofessional and repaying unprofessional behavior with similar behavior is not something that I do (at least, not when I have my head on straight). I just hope my e-mail to the project manager (wherein I noted the 15% shortening of the deadline with some chagrin) doesn't come off sounding too... I don't know... emotional?
In any event, I shall have to be very, very careful in the future when dealing with this client, that's all. This client is inexorably moving toward the "clent" end of the spectrum.
The only good news in all this is that I'll get to work - sort of - with Jim W., out of Georgia, who is a very good translator and a heck of a nice guy.
Bingo! The search turned up one site (pravda.ru) that used the expansion (but not the abbreviation... go figure), in the following text: "...ОТМЕТКА УРОВНЯ ВОДЫ В ГОРЬКОВСКОМ ВОДОХРАНИЛИЩЕ ДОСТИГЛА 83,22 МЕТРА ПО БАЛТИЙСКОЙ СИСТЕМЕ..." ["...the reference water level in the Gorkiy reservoir rose to 83.22 meters per the Baltic system..."]
A search on Google for "meters" + "Baltic system" wasn't too helpful, and I'd already spent scads of valuable translation time on this abbreviation. For now, I'm treating it as "meters, Baltic system," and abbreviating it as "mBS" in English.
Anyway, I am just over 40% complete through the geomorphology article.
After paying the phone bill, I was sorely tempted to go driving for mushroooms, but reality called, and I went back home. I did notice, however, that there was a steady drizzle in the air in the late afternoon. We are getting moisture. Hopefully, it'll rain tonight, too.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2002-09-10 11:03 pm (UTC)Said project manager has obviously been to the 'how to try and manipulate translators' school with my Swiss, French and other clients. Clearly a conspiracy!
I have an offer in for another 35,000 words, and said I could meet the deadline if I had it *today*. Well, it's only 7.50 a.m....
As for the 'milestones', that's another strategy, of course. You send the appropriate chunk in after burning the midnight oil, and about a week later (or more) the project manager will call and say: "I've just opened that part of the translation, and..."
Incremental invoices... excuse me while I roll my eyes a little. Tried it myself. Nope. You're right to be a tad pessimistic. Mind, one thing that *does* work for late-paying, recurring clients is to send future jobs passworded (or even threaten to). The deal is for you to release the password once the money for the previous one is in the bank. I've resorted to that three times - lost one client, kept the others.