When you assume… May 18, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.trackback
You all know the saying – and for those of you who don’t… “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” I don’t know what is in the air today, but I have had two clients send me files for translation (needed back as soon as possible – of course) assuming I am available. One particular client in the Czech Republic sent me an e-mail at 2:30 in the morning (8:30 a.m. in Europe) and his colleague in China proceeded to send me the files to work on – and the files again because they had been updated and could I please use them. BTW, this was a client I fired last year… The second one just sent a PDF with the text they needed highlighted in a red box. Lots of single words (I think the context is chemistry but I’m not sure. And I don’t do chemistry.) in a QA form with no other context. And it isn’t even noon yet!
I am waiting on a large job that I was booked for two days ago, so I politely thanked both clients and told them that I was unfortunately booked and unavailable.
Musings from an overworked translator 
you are rejecting jobs – disgusting as they may be – and i craving for them.
César, I’ve been where you are. I’ve been marketing myself here in the U.S. for 10 years and before that in Germany for 6. It’s a lot of work, but once you have enough customers you too can have the luxury of picking and choosing your jobs. It takes a while, but there is plenty of work out there. Keep marketing yourself to reputable translation agencies and direct clients, and I promise you you too will be an overworked translator.
How did you respond? I hope you said “no”! It would make an interesting follow-up post if you described how you did so. Saying “no” is something that many translators say they have difficulty with, even for outrageous requests.
My response to these clients is always polite, “Thank you very much for the inquiry, but I am afraid I am booked for the rest of this week.” Sometimes I recommend colleagues who might be a better fit for the job, other times I just assume the client is working their way through their database and will find someone to take it.
A polite “No” is good for some. “Are you kidding?” would be a more appropriate response for those who send instructions such as: “translate only the words highlighted in yellow”… and so on… Geez…
I’m getting such requests from my clients everyday…. I always think, “Do you think I have nothing to do all day long waiting for you to send me jobs?”
You can also say no without saying no.
Yesterday a new agency that found my name in the ATA directory asked me to do a small Czech translation, which would be 40 dollars, my flat minimum fee.
But because I was reading a book and did not really feel like working yesterday, I told them that on small jobs like that I require payment in advance through PayPal.
The guy said that it is their company’s policy not to pay in advance. I told him that it is my company’s policy not to waste a lot of time on small jobs for inflexible customers and went back to reading my book.