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Poll: What do you have zero tolerance mostly for in your professional work as a translator or interpreter? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What do you have zero tolerance mostly for in your professional work as a translator or interpreter?".
View the poll results »
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Peter Simon 
Netherlands
Local time: 02:20
English to Hungarian
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| Disrespectful behaviour | Sep 5 |
I have zero tolerance for disrespectful and unacceptable behaviour, although I have to say that no client of mine has ever been disrespectful. I can ignore or deal with everything else, but I can't tolerate rudeness.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 02:20
French to English
I voted for disrespectful behaviour. AFAIC that includes late or non-payment from clients,
unrealistic deadlines and undervaluing my work.
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Ana Vozone
Local time: 01:20
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
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Accepting a small, urgent job and subsequently being sent loads of reference documents that I am required to use... Also, being asked by a potentially new client to offer my "most competitive rate" with the promise of being offered tons of work in the future.
[Edited at 2024-09-06 07:21 GMT]
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 01:20
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
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| I voted for 'disrespectful behavior' and 'undervaluing my work' | Sep 6 |
I voted for 'disrespectful behavior' and 'undervaluing my work'.
I don't tolerate rudeness. Fortunately, I've never come across a client or PM who's been rude, but I've often seen people here who claim themselves ‘colleagues’ and/or 'translators' being rude to others.
I also voted for 'overvaluing (our) work' for various reasons, mainly: low rates, that 'blind trust' in AI and the perception that everyone can be a translator, including my cat!
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:20
Serbian to English
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It's a bit hard to have "zero tolerance for late/non payment" when the work has already been delivered? Especially if the late/non payer is from the other side of the globe ...
I wouldn't use "zero tolerance" for anything - sounds too absolute. Same as you should never say never. What is beyond the threshold of tolerance depends on a case by case basis. All of the listed reasons can be a good reason to cut short any negotiation, but not necessarily.
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 02:20
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
... are unacceptable. However, I have zero tolerance for disrespect and late payments, and I do consider late payments - with very, very few exceptions - as yet another form of disrespect. We are professionals and should treat each other accordingly.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 02:20
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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I'm quite intolerant of most of them, but I don't zero tolerance for any of them.
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Richard Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 21:20
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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Repost, sorry!
[Edited at 2024-09-06 12:37 GMT]
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Richard Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 21:20
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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How can anyone have any tolerance at not getting paid for their work?
Saying that, I had a bad experience recently with a customer who only wanted to pay me 30% of my agreed fee. This was a long-term customer.
It was a struggle, to accept the cut and remain friendly with them, or cut off and enter into a dispute.
In the end I decided to negotiate the fee in order to remain friendly, but I haven't had any work from them since.
Sometimes, accepting that a customer is... See more How can anyone have any tolerance at not getting paid for their work?
Saying that, I had a bad experience recently with a customer who only wanted to pay me 30% of my agreed fee. This was a long-term customer.
It was a struggle, to accept the cut and remain friendly with them, or cut off and enter into a dispute.
In the end I decided to negotiate the fee in order to remain friendly, but I haven't had any work from them since.
Sometimes, accepting that a customer is flakey or failing on you is tough. ▲ Collapse
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 02:20
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Disorganized and poorly managed projects are my absolute pet peeve, even beyond late payment. Eg. not collecting enough reference material from the client, working with cheap and unqualified people, then coming back to me to fix the mess, etc. It can also involve the endless amount of revisions, as if I were their employee with benefits. Organized clients won’t need endless revisions, as they initially projected and prepared everything well in the first place.
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All of those plus being sent NDAs with multiple pages and clauses to sign (and not just e-signature at least) when a job is very urgent! I mean, come on, it doesn't make sense. I want enough time to go over my work even if it's urgent, so please don't reduce any time I have. I do not accept jobs with tight deadlines but these urgent jobs sometimes crop up.
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disrespectful behaviour plus impatient
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:20
Serbian to English
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| The point is that it is often pointless | Sep 14 |
Richard Jenkins wrote:
How can anyone have any tolerance at not getting paid for their work?
Saying that, I had a bad experience recently with a customer who only wanted to pay me 30% of my agreed fee. This was a long-term customer.
It was a struggle, to accept the cut and remain friendly with them, or cut off and enter into a dispute.
In the end I decided to negotiate the fee in order to remain friendly, but I haven't had any work from them since.
Sometimes, accepting that a customer is flakey or failing on you is tough.
Of course no one wants to not get paid for their work.
But having "zero tolerance for late/non payment" can often be pointless.
Ever heard of "closing the stable door AFTER the horse has bolted"?
If your potential client is "not right" for any reason - rude, incompetent, can't decide what they want exactly, of unsound creditworthiness ... - your can always cut short any contact and prevent any further waste of your time.
But once the work is done and delivered, "zero tolerance for late/non payment" won't do you much good. The least bad is to waste more time on getting paid than on doing the actual work. The really bad is if all you have is an email address, or the client can be contacted for real - but somewhere on the other side of the globe.
Decades ago, I had one client who got a taste of my "zero tolerance for late/non payment". At that time I would always deliver my (paper) translations in person. They tried first to pay me with unenforceable promises but got their 100-odd pages translation only after giving a solid proof of payment. Try that kind of "zero tolerance" when your work was already delivered over the Net, and sometimes you're not even sure to whom.
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