First, note that the title of this post is not “How to do a good job on a rush job,” because often the two concepts are mutually exclusive. Realistically, no translator does her/his best work under extreme time pressure, but the nature of the industry is such that deadlines are often tight. So, when a good client calls with a rush job, how do you ensure that your output is as good as it can be?
- Understand the difference between a rush deadline and an impossible deadline. Everyone has a different definition of this, but to me, 4,000 words in a day is rush while 1,500 words in an hour is impossible. 15,000 words in a week is rush, but 10,000 words in two days is impossible, and I categorically refuse impossible deadlines.
- Make sure the client understands that rush work is not going to be your best work. I think that using terms like “draft quality” or “for informational use” is a good idea; help the client understand that publication-ready work requires a reasonable deadline and several rounds of proofing.
- Turn off the distractions. The home phone, your personal e-mail and your feed reader will detract even more from the quality of your work. Disable them until after the rush job is done.
- Quickly review the document. There is nothing worse than churning out 1,500 words in two hours, only to find out that the last five pages of the document are a translation of the first five, or that there is an existing translation of what you just raced to translate.
- Do some sort of quality assurance. Proofreading on paper, extensive terminology research and other steps that are crucial to the quality of a non-rush translation often have to be severely compressed for a rush job. However, it’s important to do some rudimentary quality assurance. At a minimum, look over the translation for any spelling errors that the spell-checker has marked (so that you don’t return the client’s annaul report or arcitles of incorporation) and then make sure that all of the parts of the document are there. For example, at least make sure that your translation includes the correct number of bullet points in a list, or the correct number of subheadings under each heading.
There’s no question that rush work can be stressful and does not produce the kind of result that most translators like to return. However, following these steps (and feel free to submit your own in the Comments!) can help increase the chances that you will do acceptable rush work.
Having a rush job is one instance where it is good to have a partner or someone you trust that can help you out, even if it’s just to do a rough translation first that you can polish up in a shorter amount of time.
Clint, that’s a great idea, thanks! A partner or “intern” translator could be a real asset in a rush situation.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s all about making the best use of limited time for the most effective quality control, while at the same time managing client expectations. A lot of fiascoes could be avoided by following the rules you’ve listed above.
Great post as usual! One thing I find from my work in a smaller diffusion language is that because of the very limited number of available translators in any given time zone on any given day, about once a year I’m the ONLY person that can help someone get their 7,000 words done in the next 12 hours.
I always say no and explain that that is an unreasonable amount of work and the quality will suffer. Then they grovel. Then I negotiate like crazy to get the best possible price for the largest amount I can comfortably and confidently finish in the time limit. For me this varies drastically depending on the subject matter and how complicated *that text* will be for *me* to translate in those 12 hours.
And then I tell the client that if I finish early and they still haven’t placed everything, I’d be happy to take more as time allows. This system works well for everyone because they often haven’t found a single other person to take any of it by the time I get back to them 5 hours later with my first chunk completed. Then I often agree to take more.
The downside is that a day like that really fries my brain and the agency/client has to do the proofreading and ask me if they encounter anything they need to speak the source language to fix. The upside is that they get all or most of their document translated and I can make several weeks’ worth of income in a day and often the subject matter for jobs like that ends up being something I’m very comfortable with (otherwise I really would be adamant in saying no). Good thing that only happens once a year!
Hi Corinne,
very useful post. I had started to answer in a comment but my answer grew so much I thought it best to post it in About Translation (of course, with reference to your original post).
Dear Corinne, dear all,
your advises regarding how to produce a good job are all very interesting. As an addition, I would like to know how you feel in the following situation (which arose yesterday evening).
A client calls my agency at 19:00 and asks for the translation of a Spanish letter to French during the night for some good reasons. No one else being at the office, I find a ES-FR translator who is kind to accept the job. Then the customer asks me to do the same for the answer they are writing to this letter (without having received yet the French translation of the original letter). I find another translator who kindly accepts to receive their text directly from them between 20:00 and 21:00. I write precise instructions to the PM who will undertake the project the day after.
Then, after a good night, I come back to the office. The client did not send nothing during the night to the Spanish translator, did not notice her (who waited until 23:00), and answered to our queries: “Well, we will send it to you when we are finished, and we need it translated by 17:00 at the latest”. It is noon now and they did send nothing. Either we will receive something and have to work in a rush again, or we will receive nothing.
I sent an apologize e-mail to the Spanish translator, but if she refuses to work in a rush for us in the future, I will understand her.
That’s it. Just to give the agency point of view of a ***rush client.
Best regards,
Guillaume de Brébisson
Agence de traduction Anyword
Guillaume,
I think that in instances like you describe, one should ask for a retainer from the customer:
“Dear customer,
we have found a translator who was kind enough to agree to stay up late until you send in your letter, then translate it and send it back to you; if you wish to retain her services, please sign and return us the attached retainer agreement, which stipulates you’ll pay $ X (in addition to the rate for the actual translation of the letter).
Best regards, “