UK Interpreters Boycotting Applied Language Solutions Agency: pisspoor rates, mishandling of personal data, and unqualified interpreters | No Peanuts! for Translators
I’m so behind this. Not only do people willing to work for peanuts (in any profession) show a deep lack of self-respect, they ruin the market for the rest of us. I understand being competitive, but when you’re settling for half the going rate just to get that little bit of extra business, it’s no longer even profitable for you.
In places like Poland, where the “entrepreneurial spirit”, if you will, is not so deep-seated as in other Western countries, my theory is that this willingness to undervalue yourself comes from a fear of failure. Generally, if you’re a freelancer (working contract to contract) or you start your own firm, you’re going to earn 20-30% more than someone working at an agency doing the same work (at least in the translation business). But, you’re going to have to hunt down your own clients, run your own website, and if the going gets tough, make your own “Will translate 4 food” signs. At an agency, you’ll earn less (dramatically less in some cases, as the linked article testifies to), but at least you have that warm fuzzy feeling that you probably won’t starve to death.
And some people like that (yeah, I don’t understand it either).
What we need in this country, though, is a sense that a healthy amount of risk is not only good, but necessary to succeed as an individual and as a society. And that means that instead of doing work for laughable rates, you tell your employer to shove it and become my competition. Because hey, chances are, I’m earning a lot more than you (without even trying, ha!). So come and take it, if you can.
