| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Global agency milking us while it still can? Thread poster: Christopher Schröder
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Yesterday one of the world's biggest agencies announced new payment rates for fuzzy matches.
They seem to be asking their translators to spend 50% less time on repetitions and 100% matches, 20% less time on 95-99% matches, and 30% less time on 75-94% matches.
Because they can't possibly be asking their translators to take a 20-50% cut in earnings in a year when the cost of living is up 10%.
I guess AI has everyone spooked.
(Message posted 09.21... See more Yesterday one of the world's biggest agencies announced new payment rates for fuzzy matches.
They seem to be asking their translators to spend 50% less time on repetitions and 100% matches, 20% less time on 95-99% matches, and 30% less time on 75-94% matches.
Because they can't possibly be asking their translators to take a 20-50% cut in earnings in a year when the cost of living is up 10%.
I guess AI has everyone spooked.
(Message posted 09.21 GMT on 6 July 2023) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | In a hand cart | Jul 17, 2023 |
And I was already expected to put in only 50% of the necessary effort for jobs where they offered half my minimum fee.
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Given that this is an agency that famously once asked translators for a profit contribution, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they ask us to pay them for the privilege of working for them.
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In the near term, though, I worry most about all those PMs they dragged in off the streets of Mumbai when they forced out all their European staff.
I’ve long wondered whether some of them were automatons anyway. Either way, the days of having an actual human send out generic emails to 50 translators and assign the job to the cheapest are surely over?
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How we will dance on their grave, remembering all the above “efficiencies” and more in their endless quest for quantity over quality, all the good agencies they gobbled up, the decent PMs they got rid of, the rates the end-client suddenly couldn’t afford, the days when a six-word job didn’t require you to enter six systems with six passwords and then have to wait for payment until they deign to issue a PO in the amount of their choosing because it makes life easier for the translator.... See more How we will dance on their grave, remembering all the above “efficiencies” and more in their endless quest for quantity over quality, all the good agencies they gobbled up, the decent PMs they got rid of, the rates the end-client suddenly couldn’t afford, the days when a six-word job didn’t require you to enter six systems with six passwords and then have to wait for payment until they deign to issue a PO in the amount of their choosing because it makes life easier for the translator.
When I think how much the big agencies have reduced both PMs and translators into machines over the past 20 years, the step to AI fully taking over seems so tiny, so inevitable.
The sole consolation is we will take them down with us. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I can just imagine | Jul 23, 2023 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Given that this is an agency that famously once asked translators for a profit contribution, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they ask us to pay them for the privilege of working for them.
'Dear valued partner,
As we are convinced you can appreciate, the recent inflation has led to an increase of the cost of our value-added and leveraged marketing of your services provided through our company, which is why we are reaching out to you to inform you that starting 1 August this year, a marketing service fee will be applied to your rates. This will empower you to let your services remain visible. As a special offer to you, our valued partner, we have reduced it from 20 to 10 per cent.'
| | | | | The current Hollywood method | Jul 27, 2023 |
Hollywood writers are on strike I hear...
Just saying.
| | | | Paul Lambert 
Sweden
Local time: 08:12
Member (2006)
Swedish to English
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| Which company are we talking about? | Jul 27, 2023 |
You all seem to be in on some kind of private joke. What is the name of the translation company that has had all of these loopy ideas?
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:12
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Doesn’t matter which one | Jul 27, 2023 |
I recognized a great deal od agencies in those descriptions.
Automated PMs? It’s been going on for 10+ years, especially with large agencies. Just shoot one big mass email from some automated system to 500 translators in one language pair, and whoever clicks Yes in the first milisecond is the winner. I had instances when I would reply within five minutes and got a reply how the job was already taken. Those automations are not a new thing. Now I simply ignore agencies that operate ... See more I recognized a great deal od agencies in those descriptions.
Automated PMs? It’s been going on for 10+ years, especially with large agencies. Just shoot one big mass email from some automated system to 500 translators in one language pair, and whoever clicks Yes in the first milisecond is the winner. I had instances when I would reply within five minutes and got a reply how the job was already taken. Those automations are not a new thing. Now I simply ignore agencies that operate in this manner.
On the other hand, even human PMs are not that much better and have sterotipical canned responses. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Paul Lambert
Sweden
Local time: 08:12
Member (2006)
Swedish to English
+ ...
| "Doesn't matter which one"??! | Aug 1, 2023 |
Does "doesn't matter which one" mean that you know or that you do not know which one we are talking about?
The companies who have tolerable policies toward freelancers vs those who do not matters very, very much!
| | | | Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 09:12
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
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| Global doesn't always mean reliable | Aug 1, 2023 |
A few years ago, I was contacted by a global weekly magazine for a one-day job, that entailed 2 hours of travel for an on-site interview that would take an hour or so. We agreed on the fee and transportation (to be arranged by them and at their expense). On the morning of the interview day, the correspondent called me and asked for a 40% discount and also asked me to assume the cost for the transport. I didn't haggle, and I told him that the fee had been agreed upon. He was telling me how high I... See more A few years ago, I was contacted by a global weekly magazine for a one-day job, that entailed 2 hours of travel for an on-site interview that would take an hour or so. We agreed on the fee and transportation (to be arranged by them and at their expense). On the morning of the interview day, the correspondent called me and asked for a 40% discount and also asked me to assume the cost for the transport. I didn't haggle, and I told him that the fee had been agreed upon. He was telling me how high I was charging compared to the interpreters in Istanbul, and I reminded him that my fee might be lower than what is usual in the city of X (their city), to which he responded that we were not in X. I didn't feel the need to tell him that we were not in Istanbul either. I only told him I was to take another job for the day.
[Edited at 2023-08-01 22:17 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Paul Lambert wrote:
Does "doesn't matter which one" mean that you know or that you do not know which one we are talking about?
The companies who have tolerable policies toward freelancers vs those who do not matters very, very much!
As a professional, I am not at liberty to disclose which agency it is, and no doubt these efficiencies are being made partly to fund the hit squads they have patrolling ProZ ready to neutralise NDA transgressors, but as you don’t know who it is you obviously don’t work for them, so relax…
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| 'Global' sometimes means 'incompetent and tyrannical', unfortunately | Aug 2, 2023 |
Probably the world's biggest online retailer was looking for translators some months ago, so I decided to have a look to see if it was of any interest. Their information clearly said they accepted both freelancers and translators working through their own limited companies, as I do.
The sent me a contract offer – between me personally and the retailer. I told them this was not correct. I'm an employee of my company and cannot enter into direct contracts with clients personally. So... See more Probably the world's biggest online retailer was looking for translators some months ago, so I decided to have a look to see if it was of any interest. Their information clearly said they accepted both freelancers and translators working through their own limited companies, as I do.
The sent me a contract offer – between me personally and the retailer. I told them this was not correct. I'm an employee of my company and cannot enter into direct contracts with clients personally. So they sent it back to their legal department, which, after approximately one month, came back and said the following:
'The legal team informed me [my contact] that for such cases, we can add the freelancer name in the Signatory name of the contract and the Agency name in the counterparty name. However, we should keep in mind that we are collaborating with you as an individual freelancer and so the PO will be created using your name. When I replied back saying that you’d like to sign the contract on behalf of your company; they said the freelancer can have own a company and work under that company, but the agreement has to be signed with the freelancer and not with the company. Our agreements are signed with physical person, thus with freelancers.'
This is complete nonsense probably written by some junior jurist with no experience or common sense.
I told them this was not the way to do things and never heard from them again. It may have been a narrow escape, as I can just imagine that with that sort of legal department, any issue could end up as a Kafkaesque, nightmarish saga.
[Edited at 2023-08-02 15:02 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Looks like the global corporation is trying to avoid employer taxes ... | Aug 2, 2023 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
When I replied back saying that you’d like to sign the contract on behalf of your company; they said the freelancer can have own a company and work under that company, but the agreement has to be signed with the freelancer and not with the company. Our agreements are signed with physical person, thus with freelancers.
If the contract is with a person rather than with your company, then I would argue that the retailer in question is an employer. As an employer, they should be paying employer taxes plus insurance, pension contributions etc.
Thank you for the warning.
| | | | | Other way around | Aug 2, 2023 |
Magnus Rubensson wrote:
If the contract is with a person rather than with your company, then I would argue that the retailer in question is an employer. As an employer, they should be paying employer taxes plus insurance, pension contributions etc.
Thank you for the warning.
I think you’ve got confused there. In that case they’d want you to trade through a company…
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