| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: What annoys you the most? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | | A combination of the above | 08:50 |
Except for the "quick favors", which depend very much on who makes the request. I can't say no to some of my long-standing customers...
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 00:30
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
I'm sorry, but adding an option "a combination of the above" just kills a poll because people are not longer forced to select one of the other options, so everyone answers "a combination of the above", and unless people then discuss the poll, the poll's data is "lost".
| | | | Gregor Trebec
Slovenia
Local time: 00:30
English to Slovenian
+ ...
Complex onboarding proccess, registration on registration, online forms for this and that etc.
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 00:30
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Samuel Murray wrote:
I'm sorry, but adding an option "a combination of the above" just kills a poll because people are not longer forced to select one of the other options, so everyone answers "a combination of the above", and unless people then discuss the poll, the poll's data is "lost".
If my answer would be a combination of the above and I don't get that option, then I simply don't respond. I guess that's not good for the poll's data either.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 00:30
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| Chasing invoices and complex onboarding processes | 10:02 |
The terrible feeling of possibly not being paid by a customer is the worst imaginable (at least for invoices of a considerable amount), so chasing invoices would be my number 1.
Number 2 is complex onboarding processes. Several months ago I was expected to follow an onboarding and training process that would take me 2 business days. After I'd let them know that that was ridiculously long they were prepared to partly pay me for it. I declined anyway.
The only onboarding ... See more The terrible feeling of possibly not being paid by a customer is the worst imaginable (at least for invoices of a considerable amount), so chasing invoices would be my number 1.
Number 2 is complex onboarding processes. Several months ago I was expected to follow an onboarding and training process that would take me 2 business days. After I'd let them know that that was ridiculously long they were prepared to partly pay me for it. I declined anyway.
The only onboarding process that I accept is a translation test, putting my signature on some sort of contract and registration on some platform. Everything else: no thanks. ▲ Collapse
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You would be right if the Quick Polls had any statistical value. The sample size is far too small and has been shrinking by the day, due to members leaving Proz and people being on holiday. For me, they’re just a casual, unscientific, light-hearted way to start my working day and get to know some of my peers a bit better…
| | | | | Complex onboarding processes | 10:41 |
Last week I was contacted by an Italian agency. I was really pleased because translations from Italian into Portuguese have become scarce, so I logged into their system and filled everything in. It took me most of a morning. After that, they asked me for my CV and a copy of my ID card or passport. That’s when things started to go sour. Even more so when they sent me a 15-page (!) document setting out their general terms and conditions, which I was supposed to initial, scan and return…
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| Complex onboarding processes | 10:42 |
Argg!
I'm in the middle of this desperate attempt of seeking a path in the jungle!
And I am not optimistic
First, register on... , then register on... , but remember to use the original e-mail address, better if you use your Google account (but the Google e-mail address is different from the original address I indicated in my offer! Oh my God).
Grrrr
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 00:30
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
...because each single one is as annoying as the other(s). Except maybe for a client trying to dictate the rates. I am (still) living in a democracy. Therefore, any attempts to dictate anything are a genuine waste of time.
| | | | | "Pay when paid" policy is the worst | 12:11 |
It's just disrespectful, reckless, lousy.
| | | | Gregor Trebec
Slovenia
Local time: 00:30
English to Slovenian
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What is "pay when paid" technique?
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Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 00:30
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Gregor Trebec wrote:
What is "pay when paid" technique?
Only being paid by your agency customer after they have been paid by the end customer (I suppose). It's a practice that no translator should accept. If the agency is your customer, payment by the end customer isn't of your concern.
| | | | Daryo
Local time: 23:30
Serbian to English
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Lieven Malaise wrote:
Gregor Trebec wrote:
What is "pay when paid" technique?
Only being paid by your agency customer after they have been paid by the end customer (I suppose). It's a practice that no translator should accept. If the agency is your customer, payment by the end customer isn't of your concern.
All that is true, but ... agencies have been getting away so long with 'having your cake and eating it' that they’ve come to see as 'normal' what would never be 'normal' anywhere else.
Same as it should not be of any concern of yours if the agency's client has any objections to your translation, AFTER your client = the agency [that's the mantra, right?] said nothing about your text when you delivered it.
Are they not (the agency's staff) supposed to be 'language professionals' capable of evaluating your work?
Or treating freelancers AS IF they were employees, except of course when it comes to paying.
Not that it's anything recent - already noted in 2013:
https://www.proz.com/forum/poll_discussion/241096-poll_translators_and_interpreters_are_naive_when_it_comes_to_business_matters.html
Which, thinking of it, leads to another possible 'source of annoyance' to be added to the list: people who are all too quick to jump on any 'offer', without even the feeblest attempt at negotiating.
Makes it even more annoying that there is no solution in sight for that particular 'source of annoyance'.
| | | | Bradley Hodges
United States
Local time: 18:30
Member (Jul 2026)
French to English
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| Where the heck is "I've already translated this with "AI?" | 16:48 |
As if "AI" slopbots are any better than machine translation that's been around for 10 years. Actually, good old CAT tools are better in many ways. At least they don't come in a wrapper throws in BS, and is way too inconsistent, falsely reassuring, and overapologetic. Pass it on.
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