Musings from an overworked translator

Prolonged sitting leads to glucose and insulin spikes April 25, 2012

One of my colleagues (and friends) shared an article from Runner’s World that talks about the dangers associated with prolonged sitting on the ATA Business Practices listserv. In the last few years evidence has emerged suggesting that prolonged sitting, which is what we translators do for hours on end, is very bad for your health. We all know it can’t be good for you, but this presents very clear evidence of a correlation between prolonged sitting and glucose and insulin spikes. As the article explains, “No matter how much or how hard you exercise, if you spend the rest of the day motionless at a desk or on the couch, metabolic changes take place in your muscles that increase your risk of nasty outcomes like heart disease and death.” At the very least we should all get up every twenty minutes and take a quick 2-3 minute walk around the house or outside.

One of our best business practices, for overall good health as well as weight control and alertness, may be getting up off of our comfortable desk chair – or, as Corinne suggests, using a treadmill desk. I have been diagnosed with insulin resistance, so it seems I’d best seriously start looking into a treadmill desk. The heck with the cat – she can find somewhere else to sleep!

Spring cleaning the office April 10, 2012

When was the last time you cleaned in your office – I mean *really* cleaned it? If you’re like me it was probably when you moved in, but I bet it was at least several years ago. Why not set aside a day in the next week or so and do a thorough cleaning of the office? Since it’s now officially spring and the windows will soon be thrown open, now is the perfect opportunity to spring clean your work area, which can make you more efficient and productive, and even healthier.

The first step is to dedicate a day and time for your spring cleaning. The most common reason cleaning is put off is our daily interruptions. We have every intention of going through those files, and then the phone rings with a rush job or an email arrives in your inbox that needs to be answered immediately. If you can dedicate a specific day or time for cleaning, you’re more likely to actually do it. Pick a day that is typically quieter (in my case Fridays are usually good times) or set aside a weekend by not accepting any weekend work. Push yourself to get everything done and then, on your designated day, put on some good music, roll up your sleeves, and get to it.

Be sure to break up your tasks so you don’t get overwhelmed and quit. You’ve got to cut the mountain of tasks down to size to make it surmountable. Make a list of what your spring cleaning will entail: organizing and weeding out your paper files, combing through your email inbox, sifting through the papers and invoices on your desk, cleaning the insides and outsides of your computer and peripherals, etc. Decide what needs to be done, then pick one or two projects to tackle each day or each time you need a break from your regular work. By breaking things up, you might not feel so overwhelmed, and you’ll have a sense of completion each time you conquer one item on your list.

In my case, my first step was to go through the piles of papers and magazines that accumulated and file them away or recycle them. You might be surprised by what you find during your clean up. When I cleaned my office last week I found the two replacement tickets for the musicals Million Dollar Quartet and La Cage aux Folles when I couldn’t go on my assigned days for my Broadway subscription. I had torn my office apart looking for them at the time and ended up not going because I couldn’t find the tickets. Other people may find uncashed checks from clients or unused gift certificates. Challenge yourself to go through your piles and find some lost treasure.

Once the surfaces are cleared, grab that surface cleanser and give your desk, bookcases, shelves, etc. a good scrub. Clean your monitor using the appropriate cleaning agent. Spraying Windex on a paper towel can clean up your CRT, but lint-free wipes are usually a better choice. If you have an LCD screen, steer clear of ammonia-based cleaners. Instead, use a soft cloth dampened with plain water. Just make sure the cloth isn’t too wet. Next wipe down the keyboard, microphones, lamps, phone headsets, etc. with a sanitizing disinfectant. You might want to keep a tub of wipes on the desk next to you so you can wipe these things down more often in the future. This will cut down on the germs you are exposed to on a daily basis. If you have a window in your office, spray some Windex on the windows and let the sun shine in.

Now let’s turn our attention to our computers. Computers have moving parts such as fans on their CPUs, power supplies, video cards and, in some cases, on the case itself. Each fan is important for the smooth operation of the computer because they keep the system cool. If the parts overheat it could damage your computer. If you have a desktop computer you need to occasionally make sure the fans are running unimpeded – especially if you have pets or smoke in your office. Unplug the computer from the power supply so you don’t electrocute yourself or short out the motherboard, open up the case and blow out the dust bunnies. Don’t use a vacuum cleaner. Vacuums can generate static electricity, which can kill your computer. You need to use compressed air, which you can buy at any office supply store. If you are using compressed air or a compressor, give it a test spray of air first because sometimes they can collect moisture and spray water onto your computer, which is something we definitely don’t want. Place a pen or pencil in between the fan blades to prevent it from spinning and blast the dust away from the fan blades. Next, you will need to get the dust out from the computers CPU heat sink just below the CPU fan. A good blast from a low angle facing towards the back of the case should get most of the dust out from in between the aluminum grills. Be sure to run the vacuum cleaner in the office after you’ve done this – or take the computer outside or to your garage to avoid dust being blown around.

OK, now that that is done, you should clean up your files on the computer. Remove any unwanted programs or programs you no longer need by going to Start->Control Panel->Programs or Add/Remove Programs, then remove the unwanted programs. Delete old e-mails from your e-mail inbox. Archive jobs that have been delivered. You also don’t need a ton of links on your desktop, because it just slows the system down. Delete any unneeded links.

This ensures that your computer is running at tip-top shape. I like to occasionally run a program called CCleaner on my computer. It removes cookies and temporary Internet files as well as dead links and other detritus that can slow your computer down. If your computer is running particularly slow you may want to clean up the Registry as well, but don’t clean up the Registry if you don’t know what you are doing! One option is to visit a well-trusted computer magazine website (I recommend something like CNET or PC Magazine) and search for step-by-step instructions on how to do this. However, if you don’t have the slightest clue about the structure of your computer and its files you may want to hire someone to do this. And whatever you do, always back up your system before doing this.

If you don’t want to buy a special program like CCleaner you can run a complete disk cleanup using the system tools on your computer. After clicking on “Start,” move your cursor to “All Programs” then up to “Accessories” and then “System Tools.” Click on “Disk Cleanup” and then click the “More Options” tab at the top of the page, and select all three of the following: “Windows Components,” “Installed Programs,” and “System Restore”. Clean up all three by clicking on their respective tabs. You may want to delete all but your most recent system restore point, as you probably don’t need the others.

You will also want to remove adware, malware, and spyware. Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package that automatically renders advertisements. This may be in the form of a pop-up, but they may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process. Adware, by itself, is harmless; however, some adware may come with integrated spyware such as keylogger programs and other privacy-invasive software. These programs may be installed by websites, with programs from unknown developers or through a Trojan horse through your e-mail. I use a combination of Lavasoft AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy.

Once the unused files and programs are purged you will want to defragment your system. Defragmenting your computer moves all your files to where they are supposed to be. Again, you can find the Disk Defragmenter tool under Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools. You may want to download an independent defragmenter (such as Defraggler by Piriform). It is small, concise, and more powerful, than the one distributed with Windows. But I use the Windows Disk Defragmenter, and it’s perfectly sufficient.

Once your computer is ship-shape and exactly how you want it, then go to Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools, then System Restore. Create a restore point, and restore it back to that point whenever your computer is running poorly. Once you do all this, your system will be running faster and you will feel lightened by the burden of a messy office. Happy Spring!

Translators and the art of business April 3, 2012

There is a discussion on the WPPF listserv about a company that may or may not be having payment difficulties. Here are two comments from two different posters with the name of the company redacted:

Company X owes me $1,181.70 for a translation job completed on December 26, 2011.

They owe us $19,497.73 for 5 projects. The last invoice was issued on Dec 26, we completed the project during the holidays without any extra charge. So there are about 80 days from the last invoice and around 90 days since the other invoices were issued.

I can understand the first comment, but the second comment just shows some terrible business practices. First of all, they worked for the company over the holidays without a rush fee or surcharge. That is wrong on just so many levels. Secondly, I don’t know how some translators can let such a large debt accrue with just one single client. That’s just trouble waiting to happen! I wrote off my invoice to “Dear Client” as a business loss on this year’s taxes (since it had been a year since I had sent the invoice), but luckily it was only $60. I refused to work for the client again when they contacted me a month after the first job and hadn’t yet paid my invoice. I could understand the issue with the first poster, but the second one allowed a much larger debt to accrue. That kind of overdue debt is unacceptable from a business standpoint.

First of all, one should never limit oneself to just one client, because this kind of shortfall might easily occur. In that case, I highly recommend making sure you have a cushion in the bank to cover the lean times. A few weeks ago I had about $8,000 in overdue invoices, but that was distributed among three different clients. All but one invoice have since been paid and profuse apologies were issued. The responses these posters are receiving from the client, which claims the accountant is no longer working for the company and the other accountant was on vacation until March 19th, leads me to believe that these people may never see their money. This means they spent hours and hours translating and might never be compensated. I sincerely hope I’m wrong, and they do get paid. I know that if I were contacted by the company I would most certainly not agree to work with them.

Luckily they reported the delinquent client to the WPPF listserv so that people have a heads up that there might be a problem. This is why payment practices groups and lists are so important. The link leads to a post listing all the available listservs out there. I hope you all are subscribers to at least two. I myself subscribe to four different groups. It allows me to be aware of who the bad apples in the industry are.

Stop check fees are a part of doing business March 2, 2012

I am currently in the process of deciding if I ever want to work for this client again, and it is all over a $31 stop payment fee. The long and short of the story is an agency that I worked for twice in 2010 owes me about $1400 for a job I did for them in early December. The payment was overdue by 30 days, so I sent them a reminder. They informed me that they had mailed the payment on December 31st. Turns out they mailed it to my old address since that is the address they had for me on file. I haven’t lived there since June 1, 2010. My former landlady had contacted me in early January to tell me that I had received some mail at the old address (including what looked like a check) and asked for my address to forward it to me. Needless to say she didn’t and when I called her again two weeks ago she told me she would, but still hasn’t.

I contacted the client for them to reissue the check. They told me they would have to stop payment on the check, and they would be charging me the stop payment fee. Even though the problem happened through absolutely no fault of my own. They claim it’s my fault because they say I didn’t notify them when I moved. My correct address was on the invoice, and oddly enough none of my other clients have had problems updating my address or sending payments and 1099-MISCs to the correct address.

Legally I am correct, but in order to get paid I am going to have to eat the stop payment fee. What is up with agencies feeling they can pass on fees like this onto the little guy? If I have to stop payment on a check it’s not like I can pass the fee on. I would never charge the Illuminating Company or even one of my subcontractors a fee to stop payment on a check I wrote them. It’s part of doing business and should be written off by the company. Am I wrong in feeling this way? Agency owners, what say you? The opinion on the Business Practices listserv was either that it was silly of the agency to charge me the fee or just write it off and not quibble about $31 in the grand scheme of things.

I can tell you this though… there are some major negative feelings on my end towards this client, and I will not be working with such a petty, nickle-and-dime agency in the future. Since I only translated this job at the end of 2011, two jobs for them in 2010 and several in 2008, this won’t be that big of a loss. There are plenty of other good agencies out there that value their translators. All over a stupid $31 fee that they could have easily written off as a business expense. I hope it was worth it to them.

Update: I received the replacement check (for the full amount) today and in response to my e-mail letting them know and thanking them I received this e-mail:

Accounting told me that your old check came back to us, I guess your landlady never sent it to you, but to us. So we have re-sent it to the new address. Therefore, don’t worry about extra charges 🙂

All’s well that ends well.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines February 23, 2012

The most frequent question I get asked when people find out I am a freelance translator is how I motivate myself to work instead of hanging out in front of the TV or doing any of the other numerous distractions we are faced with every day while working from home. I always tell them that my biggest motivator is my deadlines. It is what makes me wake up in the morning and gets me in front of my computer at a decent hour every day. My house is usually a wreck if I have a major deadline. That’s probably the main reason I am still single. 🙂 Oddly enough if I have a slow week I find I have less motivation to accomplish things.

Adhering to deadlines is the most important quality a professional translator can have, which is why a recent job nearly had me tearing my hair out. I had accepted a large legal job that turned out to be a) more dense than I expected and b) contained one attachment that was extremely technical and outside my ability. The client had asked that I deliver 15,000 words of a rental agreement over a 5 day period. She contacted me on a Thursday afternoon and asked that I deliver the next Tuesday. After slogging through the dense legalese over the weekend I let the client know on Monday that I was running late and also asked if I could subcontract the last file (2,500 words) to a colleague who specializes in this kind of technical text. The colleague said this text was similar to other texts she had translated in the past and promised delivery by the end of the day on Wednesday. I finished my portion on Wednesday, and my colleague kept changing the delivery time. She ended up delivering on Thursday morning. Since meeting my deadlines is so important to me I was a nervous wreck by that point and had literally broken out in hives. My colleague is a wonderful translator and the final translation was wonderful, however the fact remains that it was late. The client had also asked me to translate another 3,000 words after delivering the first file (before the actual delivery of the first job), but since it was in the same technical vein she agreed that the colleague could do it. The colleague once again really botched the delivery (delivering on Monday afternoon instead of Friday as promised), and the client informed me she would never work with her again. I have a feeling the same applied to me, even though she insisted that wasn’t the case.

Delivering on-time is a must for a freelance translator. If you can’t it calls into question your ability to translate the text. As my client commented, “In my experience, if someone is very slow they are usually struggling with the translation. Are you sure that she is competent with the content?” I assured her that she was competent. She just has problems with deadlines. As she herself stated, she allowed too many distractions. It didn’t help that I am friends with her on Facebook and saw her posts, which were not work-related. Needless to say I was not amused. I had known she had a problem with deadlines, so it is my own fault for thinking it would be different this time. I won’t let this affect our friendship, but I certainly can’t recommend her in the future.

If you want to be a successful translator and have a thriving translation business you need to make sure you meet your deadlines. As Tips for Translators states, “…if you are serious about building your credibility with your clients and taking the next big step to advancing your career, then you need to figure out what measures you can implement so that you are able to complete your projects on time. It’s that simple.”

Here are my tips for handling deadlines:

1.) Care about the deadline. You have to be very serious about meeting them, and make them a priority.

2.) Estimate how long a job will take and plan accordingly

3.) Give your client a timeline of when you can complete the task and occasionally update the client on your progress – it keeps you accountable and lets them know you are indeed working on the job

4.) Make sure the deadline is realistic. There’s just 8 hours in a work day (give or take, depending your work environment) and you can only do so much. Don’t think of yourself as a robot. If you feel that your client thinks of you this way, talk to them about it, but in a professional manner.

5.) Maintain a job board – I use a dry erase board, but others use Post-It notes, calendars, or software programs to keep track of current jobs and the deadlines

6.) Avoid distractions. This means if you have work to do don’t start that book or plop down in front of the TV. If you need a break (and everyone does at some point), make sure the break is brief.

7.) One way to do this it to try the Pomodoro technique (I know it as the FlyLady technique) – set a timer and work intensely for a short amount of time (25 to 30 minutes) and then take a brief break (the key here is BRIEF) before starting the next timed interval.

8.) Don’t accept too much work – know what you can handle and then say no. You aren’t doing yourself or your client any favors by accepting too much work. Quality will inevitably suffer

9.) That said, once you have accepted a job, do everything you can to ensure you finish the job. This means pulling an all-nighter or working longer hours or on the weekend if you are running late.

10.) If you absolutely cannot make deadline (because you overcommitted, had a family emergency or your kid or dog got sick), you should contact your client and negotiate a second deadline. Don’t just drop off the face of the earth and stop answering e-mails and phone calls. Communication with the client is key. And whatever you do, make sure you meet the second deadline!

Pipe dreams January 30, 2012

I received the following request in my e-mail this morning:

Hallo liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen,

bitte prüfen Sie sehr kritisch, ob die angehängten Text (nur Beispieldateien zur Ansicht) in Ihrem Fachgebiet liegen und ob Sie die Übersetzung (oder Teile) bis zum genannten Termin übernehmen könnten.

Sprache: GB (UK)

Umfang: ca. 49.862 Wörter / ca. 294 Seiten (15 Dateien)

Status: Angebot (nicht mit der Übersetzung beginnen)

Termin: 13.02.12, bis 10.00 Uhr (Teillieferungen vorab)

Wie viel Volumen könnten Sie von dieser Übersetzung übernehmen, sofern Sie Zeit und Interesse haben?

Das Angebot wird für den Kunden bis Dienstag, 31.01.12, bis 15.00 Uhr befristet. Wenn wir den Auftrag vom Kunden erhalten, benötigen wir die Übersetzung zum oben genannten Termin. Bei Beauftragung erhalten Sie alle relevanten Daten für die Bearbeitung.

Bitte behandeln Sie die Daten vertraulich.

For those of you who don’t speak German the agency basically needs translators to work on a 50,000 word translation by tomorrow at 3 p.m. German time. Oh, and they need it in UK English but sent it to me anyway. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess. Desperate cattle calls like this only make me want to NOT work with agencies like this!

Yeah, good luck with that…

Update: Oh, that’s embarrassing. I am not usually up at 7:30 a.m., which is when I read this. I hadn’t had any coffee and actually went back to bed for an hour after posting this. Yes, the deadline is the 13th. I missed it in my sleep-deprived haze. Oops. Thanks to everyone for pointing it out. Guess I am human and make mistakes. 😦