| Număr de pagini: [1 2] > | Poll: How often do you turn down jobs? Inițiatorul discuției: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you turn down jobs?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Michael Harris 
Germania
Local time: 01:16
Membru (2006)
din germană în engleză
Every now and then if the deadline fits. Otherwise I tend to "communicate" with my customers and if an alternative deadline is possible, then okay, if not, rejection. All depends on the situation.
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not to turn down jobs, but sometimes just not possible.
Hard to make the clients understand, I get the feeling they think they are the only ones you can possibly work for. It is always along the lines, oh it is just a couple of pages and they are your end clients and so on. Strange how vague some clients are as the actual amount of words on those "couple" of pages
And sometimes (very rarely) I turn down jobs b... See more not to turn down jobs, but sometimes just not possible.
Hard to make the clients understand, I get the feeling they think they are the only ones you can possibly work for. It is always along the lines, oh it is just a couple of pages and they are your end clients and so on. Strange how vague some clients are as the actual amount of words on those "couple" of pages
And sometimes (very rarely) I turn down jobs because I don't want to do any work today thank you very much, but I never say that, I am just too busy to take another job on.
and even more rarely, if I am ill, but even that happens only once or twice a year
of course I will refuse jobs if I dont like/understand the subject matter.
Otherwise, just keep the work coming in please  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Diana Coada (X)
Regatul Unit
Local time: 00:16
din portugheză în engleză
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| Somewhat frequently | Aug 29, 2013 |
And the main reasons are the tiny budgets and impossible deadlines.
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Diana Coada, BA RPSI wrote:
And the main reasons are the tiny budgets and impossible deadlines.
For me, usually it's not the tiny budget, but the impossible deadline. I never even get as far as seeing what they're paying!
If it's lunchtime now, how can I do 3,000 words for 5pm today? And this is often scanned, ancient documents!!
Isn't it likely that a good quality, good value translator would already have work for that day? How come some agencies don't take that into consideration?
I suppose they don't have to - they find someone who meets their needs. Who are these people?
| | | | Helen Hagon
Local time: 00:16
Membru (2011)
din rusă în engleză
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| I hate to do it... | Aug 29, 2013 |
... but sometimes I do have to turn jobs down. Usually they are 'rush' jobs and I just can't realistically make the deadline because I'm already busy with something else. Sometimes, the rate is too low, or the text beyond my technical expertise, and I would be making a rod for my own back by accepting it.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 19:16
din engleză în spaniolă
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| Rush jobs are for squares! | Aug 29, 2013 |
Helen Hagon wrote:
... but sometimes I do have to turn jobs down. Usually they are 'rush' jobs and I just can't realistically make the deadline because I'm already busy with something else. Sometimes, the rate is too low, or the text beyond my technical expertise, and I would be making a rod for my own back by accepting it.
I used to do rush jobs when I was in New York almost two decades ago. Not anymore. I avoid them because I'm usually busy with other projects or with 'me' time.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 19:16
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
| Deadlines and turning down jobs | Aug 29, 2013 |
Lately I've had to decline very few jobs (serendipity?). I do worry a bit about turning down an assignment from a regular client.
Regarding deadlines, my customers are usually flexible. Or I do my best to retain this kind of flexible customer. I had to adjust a deadline for a 5-page translation/InDesign typesetting job for a regular client, but it's not biggie because I gave him a wide time berth (told him I could only start in 3 weeks' time).
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| Not too often | Aug 29, 2013 |
But when I do, reasons are:
1. Rates “offered” are lower than mine
2. Deadlines are too tight
3. Subject matter is out of my area of expertise
4. Translation is needed in Brazilian Portuguese
5. (Very) poor text quality
| | | | tilak raj
India
Local time: 04:46
Membru (2012)
din engleză în punjabi
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| Somewhat frequently | Aug 29, 2013 |
When I am already busy for 2-3 days in various deadlines and other reason when new project having low budget and short deadlines. third reason if client is known and unresponsive towards payment and responsive only towards project.
| | | | Marlene Blanshay
Canada
Local time: 19:16
Membru (2009)
din franceză în engleză
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| not too often | Aug 29, 2013 |
but when i do, it's usually a rush job with an impossible deadline, or because I'm already busy or overloaded.
| | | | | And how often do you turn down jobs because they're just awful? | Aug 29, 2013 |
... by which I mean terrible scans, partially handwritten text, lots of little files, incredibly tedious subject matter, jobs needing lots of reformatting and aligning, that sort of thing.
If it were for a regular client who was relying on me (and I had the time), I'd struggle through, but otherwise I'd be very tempted to pass.
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 19:16
din engleză în spaniolă
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| Terrible scans | Aug 29, 2013 |
Oliver Lawrence wrote:
... by which I mean terrible scans, partially handwritten text, lots of little files, incredibly tedious subject matter, jobs needing lots of reformatting and aligning, that sort of thing.
If it were for a regular client who was relying on me (and I had the time), I'd struggle through, but otherwise I'd be very tempted to pass.
Sometimes I have to decline a job from a regular client because she gets these barely visible, barely legible scans on PDF.
Regardless, I'll ignore blocks of text or whole pages if they're illegible and note them as such in my medical transcriptions & translations.
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Urgent job! So you should drop the job you are doing and leap to the call of duty and have it ready by 3 p.m. the same day. Erm.. no, that's not how it works!
A bit of realism on the part of agencies quoting deadlines would go a long way.
As has often been said in various forms: "Do you want it fast or do you want it right?"
Steve K.
| | | | Thayenga
Germania
Local time: 01:16
Membru (2009)
din engleză în germană
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I had voted "somewhat frequently". But to be a little more precise: every job offer that lands in my inbox coming from an agency and having been sent to undisclosed, multiple recipients is forwarded to File 13, thus being turned down without a reply.
At first I had tried to explain (in a professional manner, of course) that (the bottom line) "multiple, undiclosed recipients" is not one of my pseudonyms, and therefore doesn't concern me.
Fortunately, I seldom have to tur... See more I had voted "somewhat frequently". But to be a little more precise: every job offer that lands in my inbox coming from an agency and having been sent to undisclosed, multiple recipients is forwarded to File 13, thus being turned down without a reply.
At first I had tried to explain (in a professional manner, of course) that (the bottom line) "multiple, undiclosed recipients" is not one of my pseudonyms, and therefore doesn't concern me.
Fortunately, I seldom have to turn down (real) jobs. If so, then the main reason is that I cannot meet the delivery deadline (and deliver quality work) due to other commitments. The second reason is unacceptable low rates, e. g. USD 0.05 for a 5K, highly technical job with a 16 hours' delievery deadline. ▲ Collapse
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