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automation, customer relations, dehumanisation, freelance translator, mailing lists, Portals, project managers, spam e-mails, Technology, Translation, Translation portal
I’ve written on a couple of previous occasions about parting company with clients: sometimes this happens over time, maybe because you’ve raised your rates, or said “No” too often and they’ve looked elsewhere. Or perhaps they’ve imposed unreasonable demands on you as a freelancer, or you just don’t want to work for them any more because the relationship has become untenable. It’s never nice losing a client, whether you’ve instigated it, or the decision comes from them, but sometimes you just have to take the plunge.
I had just such a case recently, with a long-standing client I’ve been working with, on excellent terms, for many years. Unfortunately, the original owner had retired and sold the company to an international translation concern, and although things initially continued along the same lines, the atmosphere slowly began to change. They introduced a translation portal (I’ve already written about how much I hate these!), through which jobs were issued and returned, invoices submitted and availability updated. At first, the project managers would contact you by ‘phone or by e-mail to see whether you could do a certain job, asking you to log onto the portal to accept or reject, but gradually that personal element slipped by the wayside. Now I just receive a barrage of automated e-mails from the portal, at all times of day or night, in fact especially in the evenings and at weekends, when no self-respecting professional should expect to be poised over the computer.
The portal itself was unwieldy to use and definitely not translator-friendly. I rarely looked at the job e-mails, since they arrived at inappropriate times and were sent to all and sundry. Whenever I did try to log in, my log-in details wouldn’t work and I had to contact the PMs to reset – a painful process in itself. Then again, when I tried to update my availability on the portal, notifying them of holiday dates so that I wouldn’t be swamped with e-mails while I was away, it made no difference to the avalanche of mail. I even contacted one of the local PMs last time I went away, asking them to update my availability manually as I had little success with the portal. All in vain – I still received the barrage of e-mails during my holiday.
At this point, I decided to pick up the ‘phone and call my local office to ask to be taken off their mailing list, as I was becoming increasingly frustrated at being treated like a nameless cog in a huge machine. Despite being cut off three times during the call (and this was landline to landline, so we can’t even blame dodgy reception!), I did eventually speak to a human being and was asked to e-mail my request. This I duly did, but again, it made no difference. Finally this week, after comparing notes with other frustrated colleagues who also worked or had worked with this agency, I e-mailed again, forwarding my original e-mail. This time I pointed out that the correspondence I was receiving from them could conceivably be construed as spam seeing as I had specifically asked them not to send it. Result! Finally the e-mails have stopped. Not the way I would have wanted to end a long-term relationship, but I felt they left me with no other choice.
As a professional translator, I don’t want to work for an outfit that regards me as an interchangeable cog in a large machine. By sending automated e-mails to everyone on their mailing list for a specific language pair, regardless of time zone, quality of work or specialism, and presumably accepting responses on a first come, first served basis, the emphasis has shifted from quality to logistics – and I for one don’t want to work on that basis. I’d rather work with people (not machines) who treat me as a valued contributor, who can add something special to the translation process. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but I take a lot of time and effort to do a good job, and it’s nice to think that’s appreciated. I certainly have plenty of clients, both direct and agencies, who do interact personally, albeit by e-mail in many cases, sometimes by ‘phone, proving that it’s still possible to maintain human relationships, even in today’s high-tech world.
A deluge of spam-like e-mails may be when the rot set in, but ignoring my (not unreasonable) request not to be contacted out of hours or during holidays was the final straw for me. Has anything similar pushed you beyond your limits? I’m sure I can’t be the only one to feel this way about the dehumanisation of some aspects of our profession… When all’s said and done, I’m a translator, not a machine – and I’d appreciate being treated accordingly.
ClaireCoxTranslations 
I can definitely relate to this problem, Claire. When translation brokers, public agencies, etc. begin to rely on process management portals like Plunet, XTRM, OTM, etc. things quickly go to Hell, particularly in revolving door operations with young, poorly trained staff. Many of the “efficiency tools” designed for the bulk market bog (like the memoQ Server’s slice-and-dice content division and First Accept feature bullshit) encourage the worst practices in the language service sector and very often lead to significant degradation of quality in processes as well as translations.
There are, of course, some firms who still manage to make an effort to treat their independent service providers as human beings, but I have also seen a trend where each of these does so less consistently with time, and selling the company to a larger, multinational operation is inevitably the starting shot for their race to the bottom.
If the translation consumers (individuals and companies) could see behind the facade for these appalling processes and the direct damage done to their interests, I think that many would flee to companies and individuals who are more limited in the scope of what they claim to provide: a few languages and a few specialties chosen and cultivated to be top-tier, and not everything for everyone.
Thanks, Kevin – I quite agree. It’s a particular shame in this case as this small agency had an excellent reputation before, offering day-long CPD events for its staff and freelancers and cultivating excellent relationships with translators. It’s so sad to see that go to the wall and as you say, I’m sure direct clients would be none too happy if they realised what was going on. I can’t think that quality doesn’t suffer too, but perhaps the clients themselves aren’t in a position to judge, which makes it even more tragic.
I think you’ll find that some of the clients *are* realising, Claire – certainly that is my impression – and particularly if they keep their finger on the pulse of the translation industry (I use the word advisedly). Others may not realise that their precious job is in effect being tossed in the air in front of a pack of snarling(?) dogs and whichever one jumps high enough/has the sharpest teeth to catch it “wins”. Never mind who is best qualified to take the job on – it’s just the fastest responder, and that is always likely to mean that those of us who are members of a professional association whose code of conduct requires us actually to look at the text and determine whether we feel we are competent to translate it before accepting it are going to lose out. Unless it’s so urgent/large/horrid that nobody else wants to take it on, of course.
Absolutely – I certainly have no intention of being one of the “pack”, hence my decision not to work with them any more. I know it’s hard for people starting out or even if you’re going through a quiet patch, but it does the profession no favours to bring everything down to the lowest bidder, as we’ve seen in recent discussions about low rates on the ITI French Network. If no-one accepted these ridiculous rates or conditions, the agencies would be forced to rethink their business model.
Is this about Lionbridge? Although it could be about many. They are pretty much all going this way, agencies I mean. I hate the dreaded portals too. My accountant also has one but that works quite well. And my online banking portal is useful too. So why do we hate the agency ones? Simply because they are designed solely for the benefit of the client. If they all used the same software, I might be less irritated…..
No, not Lionbridge, but another of that ilk. And yes, they seem to be designed solely for their benefit, although I can’t imagine how enjoyable it must be being a PM in these places…. You can’t help but wonder about the quality they get, though, if they issue jobs to people who happen to be sitting about twiddling their thumbs and waiting….
Quite. And yes, I wonder how much job satisfaction project managers can get out of working like that, too. Most PMs or former PMs I’ve encountered have seemed to want to get out of the job as soon as possible, and I’m starting to understand why.
Judging by the turnover of PMs in these places, Alison, I think you’re quite right. It can’t be enjoyable for them having no personal relationships with freelancers either… I enjoy my chats (e-mail or ‘phone) with clients, be they agencies or direct clients. It needn’t take long, but it makes for a much more pleasant working environment.
My worst experience was an email recently from an agency I had never worked for, informing me they had a job for XXXX, where XXXX was a code consisting of the first few letters of my name followed by a number. I replied that I was a person, not a number, and they replied in turn that because they were a huge agency, using numbers was more efficient for them. It is one thing to use numbers internally, but to actually use them in communicating with translators is simply unacceptable. Needless to say, I didn’t accept their job.
I do have several clients who use translation portals, but they don’t use them instead of PMs: I still receive personal emails about jobs. I don’t have a problem with using portals this way. It’s not so much the technology itself that is the problem, but how it is being used.
Gosh, I’d have been spitting feathers about that too, Percy! And yes, I agree, I have one Swiss client who uses a portal but they send out a personal e-mail first with a link to the portal to check the job and see if you want to accept. It’s actually very efficient and a pleasure to use, as is their billing system – and no, they don’t send out mass e-mails either!
Thanks for sharing your (sad) experience, Claire! I totally agree with you. Tools should benefit us and make our work easier.
Thank you! I can appreciate agencies wanting to streamline their processes, but surely not when it comes at the detriment of quality and working relationships…. As others have said, these systems can work if used sensibly and sensitively.
I was planning to write something similar (guess I’ll have to shelve or postpone my post now!) because I can’t stand these portals either.
In my experience, the more details agencies ask you to supply on their portals, the less likely they are to offer you work anyway. I’ve often not bothered once I realise how much effort the whole process involves (I generally have better things to do).
I’ve just discovered via a portal that my translation was reviewed and rated without anyone sending it back to me for feedback. Although I passed, most worrying was the low score for “omissions”. Given my habit of deliberately leaving parts out if I feel the verbose Spanish has just said the same thing twice, or paraphrasing (and leaving unnecessary bits out) if I think a more literal version sounds too ridiculous in English, I dread to think what was actually delivered to the client. And I still haven’t managed to complete the process to invoice this job.
This just isn’t the right way to go about translation and I expect some agencies will find this out the hard way when translators stop agreeing to work for them as a result.
Isn’t it annoying when that happens?! I’m sure you’d have a different take on it, Nikki, so will look forward to reading your words of wisdom soon 🙂
And yes, very irritating to be marked down for omissions when you’ve deliberately left things out to avoid tautology or rambling. I usually add a note to the effect that I’ve missed bits out as they weren’t necessary in English, especially if it’s for a new client, or someone who might not necessarily appreciate my “free-er” approach. We shouldn’t have to, but sometimes it can help pre-empt the queries…
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