Digging our own graves

Just yesterday I had a coffee with an old friend and co-sufferer, and sometimes sub-contractor when I have more on my plate than I can swallow... which isn't that rare :)

We were mostly whining about how it's getting harder and harder to survive, and his situation seemed a bit worse than mine, since his regular clients all seem to be trying to swindle him all the time... using different word counts, Trados match percentages, etc.
At least with most of my regular clients I don't usually have such problems.

We ended up hating mostly everything about our jobs - for similar reasons, like increasing stress, impossible deadlines, clients/agencies trying to squeeze more and more profit from us using dubious (and sometimes quite obvious) schemes, etc.

I remarked that quite a long time ago (about 10 years ago, when Trados became a de facto standard, not only among agencies, but also when the end-clients realized the potential for savings) I said that we're actually digging our own graves with this kind of work.

"How's that?" you might ask...

Well, if you think Trados (or another TM tool) enables you to work/translate more efficiently, and that it makes your life so much easier, I will probably concur, but there's another side to the story (isn't there always?).

Namely, Trados and translation memories in general were not invented to make life easier for translators, but to enable translation/localization agencies (and their end clients) to make more money! (Well, actually to make them spend less on translation, with the same end result.)

It was obvious from the start that there will be unscrupulous agencies/clients who will insist only on getting the most out of it (Trados TMs), by using whoever is available (or the cheapest) at the moment, filling their TMs with whatever they could lay their hands on, and equating the quantity with quality. Well, not exactly equating, but simply taking it for granted that the more segments a TM has, the more money they could squeeze out of it. The practice soon became widespread, even among those who should do (and know) better.

Of course, when the main goal is to have one huge TM, you don't pay much attention to what actually gets into it. Thus we come to the main point - quality.

As freelancers, we try to get paid what we think is fair price for our work. If you work in a usual language pair (let's say German to English), your rates will probably be quite a bit lower that if you're translating into some obscure language, in which you don't have much competition...
Your best bet then, if you want to survive among fierce competition, is to be distinguished from thousands of other freelancers, who are often cheaper, by your quality. So, you either specialize in a very obscure field, or you gain recognition as the best in certain field/area of work.

So, say you've achieved a nice niche for yourself, and you're charging comfortable rates, you have clients who care about quality (and that's why they hire you, and pay you higher rates), and for a few years everything seems to be working out OK.

But, after a while, the agency you work for starts switching tools and procedures, introducing more and more (unpaid) work for you, suddenly you find yourself doing more and more (unpaid) PM work for them, there are more and more reports to write, and in the end you realize that the time you need to translate those 400 words seems to take longer and longer - and you're still being paid XX $/EUR per word.

You also realize that the source texts you are translating are getting worse and worse, and you start asking questions. It turns out that the end client (a large telecom company or whatever) is gradually switching some of their operations to the cheaper parts of the world. Well, looks like the globalization is beginning to affect you, too. Suddenly, the manuals you translate from English are not written by competent Western European technical writers with excellent command of English, but by underpaid (probably part-time) staff on the other side of the world. Suddenly, those 400 words of English become 400 words of Chinglish (or Engrish, whichever you prefer), and it takes you at least three times longer to penetrate the strange language being used - and you need to develop mind-reading skills, too... in order to realize what the writer wanted to say, but didn't know how to say in English. So, it now takes you three times longer to translate those 400 words. And you're still being paid the same per-word rate...

However, realizing that globalization has caught up with you, you keep your mouth shut and continue working for the same rates, knowing that there are hordes of cheaper translators at your feet, and knowing that, if that "Chingrish" manual is being delivered in English-speaking parts of the world as something "acceptable" (as long as it's cheap), it won't take long before the translation agency (or the end client) realizes that they could save on translation, too.

But, one day you realize that the TM you got for the next job has other people's translations in it - the stuff that was not translated by you! And those come up as 95-100% matches! You can't believe it - and the quality of translation is simply awful! Those segments don't even use the standard terminology, which has been used for that end-client for years!

So, you get in contact with the PM and explain the situation, and say that those "translations" are simply unacceptable, and have to be completely retranslated...

"Sorry, old boy, that's what we've got from the end client, and we're not being paid to recheck the 100% matches, either! Leave those as they are! If you want to change those, you do so without being paid!"

What?

You can't believe your ears! You're being forced either to accept those half-literate segments as your own (as 100% matches), or you'll have to retranslate them for free!

So, naturally, you try to tell them about quality, about language nuances, you point out the worst blunders, and generally try to tell them that such "translations" are rubbish, and will reflect very poorly on the end client and their product - but to no avail.

It's dog eat dog world out there, and the end client has to get the (localized) product on the market before the others do. That's of paramount importance, and "slightly lower" quality of translation is not as important as THAT.

BINGO! Now we're getting to the point...

So, I'm actually FORCED by the agency/end client to reduce the quality of my translation by playing along.

You can see for yourself where this is going - once you accept those rules, you lose your only selling point - your quality! After all, there are many cheaper translators who will do such a (poor) job at a fraction of your cost!

So, what to do about it?

With clients like those, I make it quite clear that I don't use other people's translations and/or TMs. The only translation segments and/or matches I can work with are my own. At least that way I have some control over the quality of the end product (translation).

I made it quite clear that, the next time I find anyone else's translation in the TMs I am forced to use, that will be the end of our (long-term) cooperation.

How do you deal with such issues?