Agencies and their online “time saving” sites November 27, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.20 comments
It is 5 PM on a Sunday. I have a 500 word press release that is due tomorrow morning. I unfortunately won’t be delivering it, because I have been locked out of my agency’s website. I input an incorrect password three times and am now locked out for 24 hours. And since it is Sunday, it is a small client, and the client is in Germany, they don’t have tech support working today. I admit that I hold most of the blame in this, because I waited until Sunday night to translate the document. However, why do agencies believe that we will remember all the login information for their sites? I have about 30 clients. Those clients who have their own websites all have assigned me a unique user name and password. It’s enough to drive anyone truly batty. I have learned my lesson and have now started a master list on my hard drive of all the sites and the respective user names and passwords, but I really shouldn’t have to do this, should I? Oh, did I mention that the site only works with Internet Explorer, which is a browser I never use and therefore don’t have a password management tool like LastPass installed on it? It would have been much easier for this client to just attach the file to the e-mail last week… Maybe if I’m lucky they will be able to send me the file at 2 a.m. when they get into the office. After all, sleep is overrated and I guess I don’t need a good night’s sleep to function at the law firm tomorrow…
Update: the client sent me the files last night and I woke up at 6:30 to translate it. The file is now delivered, and I won’t be billing for it. I hate when I screw up like this, but luckily it doesn’t happen that often…
P.S.: I already use LastPass, but it is an add-on in Firefox. I will be looking into a standalone version.
Ten things for which I am thankful November 14, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.add a comment
1. I’m thankful for a roof over my head under which I can work when and how I want.
2. I’m thankful for money in the bank, because it affords me the ability to say no to outrageous job offers.
3. I’m thankful for the Internet. If it weren’t for the Internet I wouldn’t be able to work from home with clients all over the world (and so affordably).
4. I’m thankful for my smartphone, because it allows me to run errands and not miss important e-mails.
5. I’m thankful that I’ve gotten to travel so much. I think that visiting other countries has broadened my horizons and made me a much more interesting and understanding person.
6. I’m thankful for my health – although I need to really start exercising more so I don’t lose it…
7. I’m thankful for my pets who give me unconditional love and offer stress relief (Just the simple and relaxing act of petting your cat or dog can reduce stress, hypertension and lower your blood pressure).
8. I’m thankful for my family and friends, because they help keep my life balanced.
9. I’m thankful for the beauty of nature in all its wonderful seasons. I choose to live in a state that has seasons. I don’t think I could handle living somewhere like Arizona, Florida or Texas where it is constantly the same boring weather. I love all four seasons, but fall is perhaps my favorite. Walking through leaves that crunch underfoot (and jumping in leaf piles when I was younger), the smell of leaves and bonfires burning, apple cider, the beauty of the changing leaves. I love every minute of it. I love spring when the leaves start to bud and then spring forth. I love summer and lazy days spent reading on my front porch. I love winter and the beauty of a fresh snowfall – and twinkle lights illuminating the night at Christmas.
And last but not least…
10. I’m thankful for chocolate.
Theft at conferences November 10, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Business practices, Random musings.3 comments
This post deals with several recent experiences I learned about that occurred at the latest ATA conference, but it can apply to conferences in general. When people are at a conference they tend to act as if they are in a bubble and nothing bad can happen. This is not the case. One should behave at a conference in the same way as one would in a foreign country or even at home – with some caution.
One member of the Business Practices listserv was furious when her computer bag was stolen out of the room where the listserv was holding a happy hour. She had placed it on the floor next to the bartender station. After reporting the theft to hotel security, they found it 15 minutes later “on the 3rd floor, in an empty closed room, with all the zippers opened, conference materials left alone but [the] laptop was gone.” She was then upset with the way the hotel handled the situation because they would not give her the incident report because it was “confidential Marriott property,” claimed they did not have security cameras (although they initially told her they would check the cameras) and did not report the incident to the police. She felt the Marriott was covering the incident up and asked people to contact her if they saw any suspicious activity.
OK, first of all, shame on her for leaving her bag unattended. I always remind the first-time conference attendees to be aware of their valuables and to look back when they leave their seat, room, etc. to make sure they have not left anything behind. I never let my laptop or purse out of my sight – or in fact out of my hands or off my shoulder. I would never in a million years leave it unattended next to a bartender station or anywhere else. The fact is that hotels in general are public locations, and anyone can come in off the street and blend into the crowd. Hotels warn theirs guests to protect valuables from hotel thieves by using the room safe and hiding expensive clothes under casual clothes. Why wouldn’t one think that an open room in a hotel bar would be fair game to thieves? Secondly, the hotel has a right to be skeptical of claims of theft, no matter how indignant the guest is. According to an online article entitled Protecting Valuables From Hotel Thieves, “[i]tems reported stolen from hotel rooms frequently turn up in the guest’s possession. And there is the not-uncommon possibility that the guest’s claim may be fraudulent.” I’m sure this was not the case here, but it helps to put yourself in the hotel’s shoes.
And may I remind my fellow conference attendees once again not to wear their conference name badges outside the hotel?!?! I can’t tell you how many people I saw walking outside or in the adjacent shopping malls wearing their conference name badges. Luckily the neighborhood was safe (unlike the neighborhood in Atlanta in 2002). If you are wearing your conference badge outside the hotel you might as well be carrying a sign saying “Hey, I’m a tourist. Please feel free to rob me.”
Finally, I was very upset to hear that one of our members had all her resumes, business cards and the plastic stand deliberately stolen/removed from the German table in the Job Marketplace. She went to get a copy of her resume for a potential client on Friday late afternoon or early evening, and it was nowhere to be found. How could someone do such a thing to a colleague? No matter how you feel about a person, you don’t do something like this and mess with their ability to work. I find this behavior childish and unprofessional. Whoever did this, shame on you!
I would like to conclude by saying that the ATA staff does a great job organizing these conferences for us, but one should never expect them to police the attendees’ behavior. It is up to us to act professional and be mindful of our surroundings.
LSPs are not just agencies! November 9, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.10 comments
I don’t know when translation companies and translation agencies started referring to themselves as LSPs. I started noticing this in the last couple of years. For those of you who don’t know what LSP stands for, it stands for Language Service Provider. Technically, agencies are language service providers because they provide language services, but so are the “lowly freelancers”. We are all language service providers! I really wish they would realize this and that everyone would stop exclusively referring to agencies as “LSPs”. OK, enough ranting from me. Time to get back to work…
ATA Conference Overview October 31, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Random musings.12 comments
The attendees came from all over
I am back home after a very successful ATA conference – a little worn out but full of ideas. It was a little dicey for a while, since Boston was hit with a Nor’easter on Saturday night, and many flights were delayed and/or cancelled. Luckily my flight was Sunday evening, so apart from the plane being full my return home was uneventful. Some of my colleagues were not as lucky.
The American Translators Association met this year in Boston for its 52nd annual conference. This year they unveiled a new tagline – The Voice of Interpreters and Translators. Interpreters have been complaining for years that they didn’t have a voice in the ATA, which I don’t think was necessarily true but what do I know since I’m not an interpreter. I hope the addition of this tagline changes that, and this is the last we hear of it.
I found it to be a very fulfilling 
conference. Everyone was very pleased with the GLD’s Distinguished Speakers. Craig Morris (a regular reader of this blog and a blogger in his own right (Always Greener – Notes from the other side)) held two sessions on renewable energy, and Jan-Philipp Sendker offered sessions on editing and a bilingual reading and discussion of his work. The photo to the right is of Craig during his entertaining and interesting preconference seminar. I thought the best session was Corinne McKay, Judy Jenner and Chris Durban’s Smart Business Panel. They had a lot of good advice, and the ballroom was packed with attendees to hear that advice (no small feat for the last session on the last day of the conference, which is traditionally less attended since most people have already started heading home). The best advice I heard and one that I hope everyone can take to heart is to stop complaining about low rates/bad clients, etc. and just focus on improving your own bottom line by ignoring the bad and focusing on the good.
Corinne, Judy, Chris (with Jost Zetzsche keeping things lively as the moderator)
I spent more time than I usually do in the Exhibit Hall and really enjoyed myself – getting a free chair massage every day, visiting clients, checking out the various tools and reconnecting with the FBI. I may or may not decide to work with them again, but my old boss has done a good job of convincing me to think about it.
I attended several Tools Tutorials this year too, and Eve Bodeux and I have made a pact to finally install Fluency (we both bought it last year and haven’t gotten around to using it). Every time I see it being used I am impressed. Let’s see how it fares in real life use…
The Fluency Tutorial
I also intend to help the Language Technology Division reach out to its less technically-savvy members by writing some blog posts about how to effectively use some tools and republishing them in the LTD newsletter or website (or even the ATA Chronicle). There are a lot of people who aren’t as technically curious as I am, so I hope to help them even if just a little bit. My first planned post is how to format effectively in Word.
And of course I enjoyed many lovely meals and get-togethers with my friends and colleagues. The Welcome Reception did not have enough seating options, so several of us sat on the floor in a corner of the ballroom to enjoy the lovely turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing that was served. I also wasn’t too pleased with the Division Reception format (but again, this was because the hotel lacked the facilities). It also seemed too rushed this year. An hour simply isn’t enough time, and the tables did not offer an intimate setting among colleagues. I preferred last year’s format of separate rooms much more. It was easier to talk and hear each other. Also, unfortunately for many of us, the Business Practices Happy Hour was held at the same time as the German Language Division Reception, so I had to choose one. Hey, it happens 🙂 . The GLD was invited to the Goethe Institute, and it was nice to enjoy a glass or two of (free) wine with colleagues. Over the course of the week I was able to enjoy many nice meals – including two lobster dinners and one lobster roll, and for that I am truly thankful.
Update on Dear Client: October 24, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.7 comments
Long time no hear! I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post. I have been so overwhelmed with work that I haven’t done anything but work. I haven’t even gone out very much since I’ve gotten back.
I hadn’t even left Germany yet and had a large project lined up for when I returned – 78 pages of legal documents. Then I was in the airport in Newark on my layover and had two additional job requests from my favorite client – one I accepted and one I turned down. And the next day I had one of my other clients start bombarding me with medical reports. I’ve translated 26,982 words in the last two weeks and have about 1600 to go before leaving for the ATA conference tomorrow. I haven’t even had my resumes printed out or gone over my first-time attendees presentation with Ted Wozniak yet. So you’ll hopefully understand why I haven’t written a blog post or decided not to organize a blogger’s lunch this time around.
One thing I have managed to do is keep track of my finances. The invoice to my Dear Client: is now 6 months overdue. It really is ridiculous that this company can’t manage to squeeze out a measly $60 in 6 months… Anyway, here is the response to the scathing e-mail I wrote the accounting department promising to mention them and the non-payment to everyone I spoke with at the ATA Conference. I thought you all might get a kick out of the response. There may be a global crisis around the world, but none of my other clients seem to be feeling the effects. And they are paying much larger invoices!
Dear Jill,
Please, accept our apologies for the delay.
As you know, there is a global crisis around the world, and we are not out of it.
Besides that, this company has been restructured, and I´m the new person in charge of the accounting department.I´m taking care of your issue, and I´m trying to get a payment authorization for Friday November 4th. Payments are going out on Fridays, and there are scheduled from one week to another. So, I´ll do my best to include yours by next payment series.
Our major customers are also delaying payments.
Nevertheless, we are working hard in order to distribute our resources among all our collaborators with maximum priority.
We understand this situation is difficult for you as well, but we are sharing what we have.
I hope you can understand the situation and we´ll try to resolve this soon and amicably.
Regards,
[Name edited upon request since she no longer works there]
Accounting Department
ECOLE BA S.R.L.
It’s been a frustrating morning so far… September 16, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.8 comments
The proofreading job I had been asked to reserve time for a week ago was just cancelled (“die Voranfrage zum Auftrag Nr. … vom 08.09.2011 ist nicht mehr aktuell. Wir hoffen, Ihnen damit keine Mühe bereitet zu haben und verbleiben…”) I haven’t worked for that agency in over a year and doubt I will be giving them priority in the future since this is not the first job they have “storniert“.
Then, I get a translation request that boils me, requiring the moon and the stars and promising me lots of work in the future – for $0.06 source word.
I wonder if you might be interested in working with us on a German-to-English translation project starting on Monday.
Here are the requirements :
– excellent command of German
– native English or perfectly bilingual
– knowledge of medical / pharamaceutical fields
– used to handling “economic/business” type reportsWe are offering $.06 per source word. Payment terms are net 45 days. The client has provided a sample of the material (see below). If you are comfortable with this type of material, please translate the sample and that back to me asap. There are lots of projects, by the way.
I think my favorite sentence was the last one – almost as if it were an afterthought. Yeah, I didn’t even respond to that one. I simply hit the delete button.
I am expecting a 4,000 word job that is supposed to arrive at noon for a little over double that price, so I’m not that upset. It’s just frustrating to be a freelancer sometimes. Watch, with my luck that one will be cancelled too. I’m leaving for Europe on Monday, so there will be no new posts for the next 20 or so days (unless I get a flash of brilliance that can’t be contained while I’m over there).
Making priorities and sticking to them September 8, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings.6 comments
There is an interesting discussion on the ATA Business Practices listserv right now about the balance of work and life. One translator was complaining that she had organized a “book club meeting with a bunch of translators for a Saturday morning.” She was looking forward to getting together to have some fun and talk about literature, but when the day came most of them backed out citing “a last minute gig.” As she complained, “Why are we so enslaved by the last minute gig that we can’t plan our lives?”
She is entirely right. I have noticed this as a past member of the Bonner Übersetzer- und DolmetscherForum and as the past president of the Northeast Ohio Translators Association. Translators seem to be ruled by rush translation jobs. Board meetings and once-a-year annual meetings are missed because there is a pressing job.
What is wrong with making certain things a priority and either saying no or arranging your schedule so that you can do both? I am the organizer of a happy hour group. I had a pressing job last night, so I attended the happy hour for 2 hours and left at 7 so I could translate the job (I only had one drink and then switched to non-alcoholic beverages). It’s about making social events or personal life stuff a priority and sticking to them. If I have made something a priority in my mind and there is a rush job I simply say “sorry, I’m not available.” In fact, when I said no yesterday, that pressing job last night was magically extended to 3 p.m. today. It’s amazing how many rush jobs truly aren’t that rush if you can’t drop everything to accept it. And sorry, but no last minute gig is so pressing on a SATURDAY MORNING. It sounds like an excuse to not go if you ask me…
All work and no play makes Jack (or in this case Jill) a dull boy…
Amusing myself reading my spam comments September 8, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.1 comment so far
Most readers who aren’t bloggers probably won’t get the humor in this, but for those of you who maintain a blog… I’m currently quickly scrolling through 70 spam comments and am struck by the absolute inanity of the comments. One thing I’ve noticed is that many of them are one sentence and contain one word completely misspelled such as:
I saerhced a bunch of sites and this was the best.
What a neat atirlce. I had no inkling.
I was seioursly at DefCon 5 until I saw this post.
Woot, I will ceartinly put this to good use!
I think the most important things is that other person must understand what you want to Conway actually, your post is really very funny, thanks for sharing…..
I have no idea what these people are trying to do other than get their links in their contact info published and irritate me (Conway? really?)… I instead choose to let it amuse me and hit the Empty Spam button.
Social media silence July 21, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.5 comments
Ever since I came back from my vacation in Florida to a dead computer (all I see is a wavy red checkerboard on the monitor and it won’t boot) I have been taking a break from social media. I’ve been working from my laptop, which although it has all the tools I need isn’t the most comfortable to work on. It also doesn’t have my Twitter add-on activated or a version of MS Money installed on it, which means I haven’t been entering my invoices into MS Money and balancing my finances. Luckily I had copied my latest quarterly spreadsheet and Taxes spreadsheet onto Dropbox before I left. Working from the laptop simply isn’t as convenient or as comfortable. I miss my ergonomic German keyboard and wide-screen monitor!
After trying to get a tech my friend recommended to come out (to no avail), my friend’s husband (who works for the Geek Squad) is coming to my place on Friday with a new computer (with Windows 7 and a parallel XP environment so I don’t have to upgrade all my dictionaries and tools). Luckily business has been somewhat slow, which I am relishing. I have had several small jobs a day and only two jobs of several thousand words each to occupy my time.
In return, my days have been filled with real life bothers like car repairs, taking the car to emissions testing so that I can renew my license plates, lining up repair service for my desk chair, gardening on my front porch, housework, taking the critters to the groomer, and manicures and massages (see – it’s not all bad news!). I promise to be back on Twitter once I have everything back up and running. I have to be honest though – I haven’t missed it all that much!
Musings from an overworked translator 