Some people seem to regard translators as some lower-than-human species, and expect them to bid for work and to be willing to take anything that comes their way, as long as the customer pays. Customers often do not realize what trouble is involved in translation.
Some large international agencies seem to always have urgent work for freelancers on Friday afternoons.

I once was in the middle of the bush in South Africa, about 60 km from the nearest town, on a Friday at about 2:00 PM, preparing to pitch my tent and make camp on a game farm, when I received an assignment on my phone to be completed that same day. After explaining my situation to the company that was situated in England, the company decided it would be OK if I could do the translation on the Monday so it could be sent that Wednesday. Now why did they rush me in the first place?

No, professional translators do not work weekends (except on high surcharge), do not bid for work, are not at anybody’s beck & call, and do not do free sample translations.

Andrew, you actually are screwing us all by charging 3 cents per word. You WILL get work at up to about5 to 8 Euro cents, or 7 to10 US cents, or 50 South African cents per word, depending on the language combination.

The clincher? It was Easter Thursday at 7:30 PM, so Friday was Good Friday and, therefore, a holiday (3-day weekend).

To say I was pissed off at their cheek is an understatement. After counting to a thousand and mulling it over, I decided that my first impulse (to simply NOT answer since it was 7:30 pm and therefore, past office hours AND on the verge of a long weeked) might not be the best decision, so I took a deep breath and answered politely that:

1) It was by mere luck that I got to see their e-mail, since I usually close shop at 7 pm.;
2) That, unfortunately, I could not take that assignment, first and foremost because I was already up to my ears with work (meaning: I’m not idly sitting around waiting for you to save me), BUT
3) That for future reference, I do not work on weekends (I didn’t back then; I do now occasionally, at a surcharge); and
4) That I was sorry if this caused them trouble, but that assuming that I’d say yes at the last minute (and, again, on the eve of Easter holiday to boot!) had been their mistake, not mine (I phrased this more diplomatically, though).

Unfortunately, they didn’t see my reply until Monday morning (THEY, obviously, took off for the Easter holiday), but grudgingly admitted that the responsibility had been theirs and have kept sending me work semi-regularly to this day (and never again assumed I was at their beck and call).

Greetings

As for not working weekends, if I don’t draw a line and insist on taking a two-day break that most full-time working people enjoy I will soon burn out and won’t want to (or won’t be able to) translate anymore. If we don’t take a break we can easily develop carpal tunnel and no longer be able to type. Also, burn out means you aren’t at your sharpest. I suggest you start sending your resume out to translation agencies that specialize in your fields of specialization and your language pair. Have you read my guest blog post on Céline’s blog, Naked Translations, on my email marketing campaign (http://www.nakedtranslations.com/en/2009/email-marketing-for-translators )? A lot of translators at the conference came up to me and told me they had been successful following my advice. Join a professional organization like the ATA or NAJIT (or even a local chapter) and become active there. Attend smaller conferences in your field of specialization where agencies might be looking for someone with your qualifications. Start being active on translation listservs, answering questions and offering advice to your colleagues. The more active I am the more people know me and might contact me and/or suggest me to their clients in the future.

It’s hard work, but it does pay off! One of my friends used to toil away translating patents for $0.09 a word for a translator who charged more than that to the end client (to be fair he did the proofreading and polishing). Once she stopped working for him at that rate and started finding better paying clients she happily reported that last year was her best year ever (by an increase of 25%) and she is set to break last year’s record this year and it’s only November. It can be done!

A few years ago I had to regularly patrol the people claiming to be members of NOTA (the Northeast Ohio Translators Association – our local chapter of ATA here in Ohio) on ProZ. Most of the people claiming membership were not members and in fact lived overseas. We only have 1 overseas member who is originally from Ohio and still maintains an office here. It got so bad that I asked ProZ to remove our listing altogether. There are a lot of people on ProZ claiming a lot of things that they do not have to substantiate. That’s my main beef with ProZ.

What I cannot stand is rude requests without a shred of information, to boot (such as the one I mentioned in my post).

A problem that increasingly annoys me, though, is that of multinational agencies using multiple offices in various time zones for the same job. PMs in other time zones do not always seem to realise what time it is here. The other day I received an urgent e-mail request from an office in Asia around 6.30 AM my time, followed by another e-mail at 8.45 AM my time urging me to reply. The PM sending those mails was acting on behalf of an office in Europe, in my own time zone…

Like you, though, I choose to ignore unsollicited requests that are totally unfeasible.