| Страниц в теме: < [1 2 3 4] | Is transparency a requirement for agency rate policies? Автор темы: Catherine Pawlick
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| If end-clients knew about this behavior... | Mar 2, 2020 |
Fiona Grace Peterson wrote:
I see nothing sinister in this entire affair. This is how the translation industry operates nowadays. Luckily we have choices. Just as this agency is no longer willing to pay your rates, I am sure there are many others who are.
I read that many good translators with good business skills have been in such situations recently.
I'm not talking about the begging part, because that was a very very wrong choice: but when agencies sending a lot of work and then suddenly nothing, they were very satisfied with your work and after a 1-2 months you realize what was going on behind...
You are there in the database or pools, the agency/platform may be using your name, CV, etc. to attract end clients, and they assign the jobs to translators who are much cheaper than you.
This situation is not only about poor small translators vs. nasty agency business behaviour ("So it goes".), but it is about the agency lying to his own client: basically he is fooling (scamming) the end-client. Because the end-client will probably pay the same price and will probably don't know anything about that the shown best translators (or skills) are not those translators who will really translate his/her documents.
So I do not think we should just say: this is how translation industry is working nowadays...
or this is the nasty world of business.. This shouldn't be normal. This is not acceptable.
That's why high-end clients should know about this, and think twice. . If end-clients could peek into the "behind scenes" work of such "cheating" agencies, they would never choose such agencies.
End-clients may think twice, whether it is worth for them to hire an agency, or whether they do this task by themselves: they hire 2 professional translators (translator + proofreader) chosen by themselves.
I'm not talking about end-clients who would choose freelancers for cutting price (I have seen a couple of them in the job board), but those who need high-end quality.
| | | | | Empower - I thought I would never write this word :) | Mar 2, 2020 |
And this is the 2nd time I'm using it recently. First I used it a couple of days ago in a Kudoz answer.
Anyway, if translation industry is changing in that (wrong) way, maybe it is time to empower translators with being visible online: make their own sites, own websites, proz profiles or LinkedIn profiles, their individual Kudoz answers to be visible for end-clients by high-ranking (as highest rank) in search engines ... See more And this is the 2nd time I'm using it recently. First I used it a couple of days ago in a Kudoz answer.
Anyway, if translation industry is changing in that (wrong) way, maybe it is time to empower translators with being visible online: make their own sites, own websites, proz profiles or LinkedIn profiles, their individual Kudoz answers to be visible for end-clients by high-ranking (as highest rank) in search engines such as Google... We were at a disadvantage in this for too long....
*edited for typo
[Edited at 2020-03-02 09:08 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Do end-clients care? | Mar 18 |
This is an old thread, I know, but I came here from another similar topic.
I think, end-clients not only do not care at all about how the agency runs its business, but also they do NOT hire an agency because of one single freelancer that might be named on the webpage.
If the end-client wanted to hire a one single freelancer that appear in an agency website, they would google the freelancer's name and contact him/her/they directly.
To my knowle... See more This is an old thread, I know, but I came here from another similar topic.
I think, end-clients not only do not care at all about how the agency runs its business, but also they do NOT hire an agency because of one single freelancer that might be named on the webpage.
If the end-client wanted to hire a one single freelancer that appear in an agency website, they would google the freelancer's name and contact him/her/they directly.
To my knowledge, when the end-client hires an agency to perform a certain job, they have no intention to know how is the agency's workflow, because they *do NOT pay* for that, they know it isn't their business.
It's like when you go to shop clothes, the store might not know who does which sewing and how much is paid when doing a shirt, or where's the sewing workshop, do you ask that? Do you care? Does that stop you from buying clothes? Of course not, that doesn't matter to you as end-client, what matter to you is clothes' quality and price.
The same goes with translation agencies.
If end-clients wanted to know who does what in the translation process, then they a) hire the translators as employees (not as a freelancer) so they have much more control of what the translator does (and when/where) or b) they set up an internal translation department, so they include translation process into their own workflow without hiring any external business provider/outsourcer.
As I see it, when end-clients hire an agency, the whole purpose is just to know about the result nor about the path to that result.
Empowerment can be a very broad concept, IMO.
I can empower myself as a freelance translator by simply realizing about the value of my skills and improving them; by knowing that I'm unique and different to any other individual freelancer, so I'm free to do the work in whatever way I want, when I want, with whom I want and where I want.
So, rather than getting upset when I'm ghosting by an agency, I thank them for giving me the freedom to choose another opportunity/offer.
Empowering might be huge when looking at things from another point of view, outside mainstream trend. ▲ Collapse
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