Reality Check -- Rush Job over Thanksgiving Holiday

[warren...@comcast.net]

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll:

 

This morning I received an offer for a rush job, in my field, from a major client for 156,000 words, due on Saturday at noon (obviously to be split between translators).

 

I wrote back explaining that I was away from home, on vacation with my family for the Thanksgiving weekend (so was lacking many of my normal translation resources), but inquired about compensation. I was surprised at the response I received under the circumstances: 13 cents per word.

 

As a reality check, what do people on this line think?

 

Thanks.

 

Warren

------------

Dear Ms. YYYY;

 

No thank you...

 

Nearly all of my clients are at 0.15 to 0.20 per word now. (I only work for XXX Co. at 0.14 because you are "grandfathered in" at a market rate from several years ago, and you are a very important client to me.)

 

If your sales people only budgeted 0.13 for a major, technology-intensive, graphics-intensive, partially handwritten, somewhat illegible rush job over a major holiday weekend, then I think you need to have a talk with your sales people. From the perspective of someone who has on-going relationships with many translation firms playing in your sector (patents and patent litigation in electronics and flat panel displays), I can tell you that your offer is WAY out of line with the market (even during this time of recession).

 

I don't want to sound like a prima dona in front of one of my most cherished and loyal clients, but my wife and I were discussing whether it would be worth it to us to work on this for even a 100% holiday premium (that is, a total of 0.28/word) and decided that the answer is probably "No" -- except for trying to keep goodwill with XXX Co. But when I am considering trashing an important holiday time with my family, doing so out of loyalty to XXX Co., receiving such a surprisingly low offer under such circumstances (from a firm that really should know better) seems, well.. "disrespectful."

 

I am sorry to sound so arrogant and self-congratulatory, but if this is all that your budget can support, I would urge you to pass it up the chain of command to have them engage your sales staff in some serious reality checking. On the other hand, if you actually have a realistic budget but only offered this much to me, then I am saddened that you would feel quite so cavalier about taking advantage of my loyalty to you by trying to get me to drop my normal prices to accept this job under these circumstances.

 

I am sorry to sound so harsh about this (especially to someone who, apparently , has been roped into working on Thanksgiving herself -- my heart goes out to you!). Note also that, today, on Thanksgiving Day, I am very thankful for my long-standing relationship with XXX Co. (which over the years, has amounted to nearly two million words), but I am truly surprised by the level of compensation offered under these circumstances, and must decline.

 

Yours,

 

Dr. Warren Smith

Japanese-English Technology Services

 

PS: Feel free to pass this email on to management, as I imagine you are having a pretty nasty Thanksgiving yourself.

[Terry Gallagher]

I think they'll never learn unless you teach 'em.

Terry

[Mark Spahn]

Warren,

Thank you for sharing your letter.  It is really a model of writing,

striking just the right tone, and even has a nice holiday-theme

tie-in at the end.  (You misspelled "prima donna",

but I'm sure nobody will notice; I didn't.)

-- Mark Spahn, working on Thanksgiving

 

P.S.  Some of us have enough scheduling flexibility to

work on holidays and holiday on workdays.

But that's a subject for another occasion and for someone else.

 

[Brian Watson]

To further pick Mark's nits...

Dr Warren would be a primo uomo. 

Brian Watson (also working on T'giving)
http://picasaweb.google.com/brian.watson, http://internationalia.blogspot.com
+1.604.395.4202 (home office), +1.425.246.7888 (cell), brian-momotaro (skype)

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 09:54, Mark Spahn <mark...@verizon.net> wrote:

 (You misspelled "prima donna",

[Karen Sandness]

That company has become very erratic in recent months, sometimes withdrawing offers and saying "We'll do them in-house" if I won't accept their low per-word rates, sometimes making a second, higher offer if I refuse. 

I spoke to one of their representatives at ATA, and all she told me was that there was downward pressure on rates, but really...

Anyway, I received the same offer last night, and having no one at home and no plans after today's dinner, I volunteered to take a few thousand words. However, no one has gotten back to me.

Experience verifyingly yours,

Karen Sandness

[AlanDavid]

Just out of interest, if one was to agree on a rate for this
particular job, how many translators working how many hours a day at
what work rate would be required, in the professional opinion of
people on here, to complete it on schedule?

ps. unrelated, but Mark you are one of my heroes!

[Hanae]

I see US clients sending jobs to be done over Japanese New Year
holidays, and Japanese clients fuming because Germans turn down work
over Christmas...you have a right to turn down work for private reasons
(that's why we freelance, right?), but your indignation valves might
pop if you feel wronged by not having your holiday marked in red ink on
somebody else's calendar!

Hope you had (have?) a nice Thanksgiving, anyway, though I confess I can
never remember when it is...

Regards
Helen H, who'd most certainly like to take Waitangi Day off, if she
could remember when THAT is.

[Warren Smith]

Actually, I think that this might be a different company. The one that had a huge job and scrambled on Wednesday, and then then withdrew at the last second, is a different firm. They wrote to me to tell me that the client did not see any value for a human translator over MT. My response was wondering at what point we would get a panicked call when they realized that MT cannot translate emails intelligibly, wanting the same material translated with an even shorter deadline....

 

 

W

---

From: hon...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hon...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Karen Sandness
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 2:15 PM
To: hon...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Reality Check -- Rush Job over Thanksgiving Holiday

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.9.11/1820 - Release Date: 11/29/2008 6:52 PM

[Karen Sandness]

Actually, they did finally get back to me, and I have several files for the weekend, all reports with tables and diagrams--but I negotiated a higher rate and later deadline than they proposed. [g]

Strategically yours,

Karen Sandness