| Страниц в теме: [1 2] > | Poll: Have you ever missed a deadline in your professional career? Автор темы: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever missed a deadline in your professional career?".
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| | | | Interlangue (X)
Ангола
Local time: 01:47
английский => французский
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Actually mixed up the deadline of 2 jobs (of a series of 6) for the same client.
| | | | neilmac
Испания
Local time: 01:47
испанский => английский
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Not that I recall, so in any case it can't have been earth-shattering. I'm sure I must have been slightly late with something at some time though... and I vaguely remember having to reschedule the odd thing but it's not a common occurence. Not an issue.
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but occasionally I had to negotiate a new deadline well in advance...
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Odile Breuvart 
Великобритания
Local time: 00:47
Член ProZ.com
английский => французский
+ ...
There is a distinction between 'missing a deadline' and informing your client that you cannot realistically meet a specific deadline for an unexpected reason that is out of your control at that moment, working with your client to agree to some extended time...
| | | | Ty Kendall
Великобритания
Local time: 00:47
иврит => английский
| Is it such a sin? | Jan 14, 2012 |
I've (so-far) only ever *missed* two deadlines. Once when I got violently ill in the middle of a project (I rescheduled/renegotiated the deadline) and the other when the deadline was unrealistic/impossible (they wanted over 8000 words in under 24 hours, I declined, they asked me to do a "smaller" job of 6000 words for the same deadline, I declined - as now, after all the wrangling it was past midday, giving me just over 12 hours - they then begged, so I accepted - but told them that meeting the ... See more I've (so-far) only ever *missed* two deadlines. Once when I got violently ill in the middle of a project (I rescheduled/renegotiated the deadline) and the other when the deadline was unrealistic/impossible (they wanted over 8000 words in under 24 hours, I declined, they asked me to do a "smaller" job of 6000 words for the same deadline, I declined - as now, after all the wrangling it was past midday, giving me just over 12 hours - they then begged, so I accepted - but told them that meeting the deadline was wishful thinking), I ended up being a few hours over the deadline, but seeing as I was doing them a favour by taking on such a job, in such a rush, and I had forewarned them, I hardly felt guilty.
Whilst I fully understand the professional angle of not missing deadlines - it should only happen in exceptional circumstances, we are all human.
...In addition...
Whose deadlines are they?
There's something of the "employee" mentality in this type of thinking (bowing to the deadlines imposed on us). We are the service providers, people come to us with a project of "X" amount of words, surely we are the only ones qualified to say when the realistic deadline is (since we know our limits, our output capacity, prior commitments etc). Any agency imposed deadline is devoid of all these variables, and should be negotiated rather than blindly followed....
What I'm trying to say is, I'd feel worse about missing my own deadline than a (probably unrealistic) agency imposed one.
I'm not going to compare translation to other professions (much), but if I employ someone to fix my roof, mend my plumbing, landscape my garden, design my extension etc etc *insert most service providing professions here* ....then they are the ones who impose their timescale on me, not the other way around. Translation (as a service providing profession alone) should be no different.
[Edited at 2012-01-14 10:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Isabelle F. BRUCHER (X)
Бельгия
Local time: 01:47
английский => французский
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| Yes, twice: once as a junior and once I re-negotiated the deadline in the middle of a job. | Jan 14, 2012 |
Is re-negotiating a deadline missing a deadline? It all depends if you re-negotiate the deadline from the beginning of the assignment (this is not missing a deadline - and I have done it) or in the middle of the job (this is missing the deadline, but diminishing the damage suffered by the client by warning the client as soon as a problem arises - and I have done it too).
Some agencies even make it a contractual obligation for the translator to warn them as soon as it becomes obvious... See more Is re-negotiating a deadline missing a deadline? It all depends if you re-negotiate the deadline from the beginning of the assignment (this is not missing a deadline - and I have done it) or in the middle of the job (this is missing the deadline, but diminishing the damage suffered by the client by warning the client as soon as a problem arises - and I have done it too).
Some agencies even make it a contractual obligation for the translator to warn them as soon as it becomes obvious that the agreed-on deadline will be missed. They refuse to pay for late work and it's written in the agreed-on contract.
Lots of agencies try to impose unrealistic deadlines to translators because they dare not tell the end-customer that his/her imposed deadline is unrealistic, for fear that the end-customer might choose another intermediary who might find a translator who will work all night and/or with better TM files for example.
So the agency might lose money by re-negotiating the deadline with the end-customer.
The same problem might arise with the end-customer if he/she has a large database of translators, but the probability is not as high as with agencies, I think.
As to translators, some of them refuse to report delays as soon as they arise because they fear the customer will re-assign all or part of their job to someone else, so the translator might loose money...
That being said, I think that, in order to insure a long-term relationship between the translator and the client (agency or end-customer), it is far better that the translator reports any delay, even if the job has to be re-assigned entirely or partly to (an)other translator(s).
As a very junior translator, I once thought that I should meet the proofreading deadline (which was very short) at all cost, even if I did not have the time to read the end of the translation, instead of re-negotiating the deadline (I did not dare and did not know this was common practice).
Then I discovered huge errors in the end of the text and reported them within the hour of delivering the work. The deadline had been very short from the beginning and had become even shorter because I had received the translation a bit later than agreed. Plus this was a source language I had studied in high school only, so I had to re-translate the whole thing and not just proofread it. I guess I should have re-negotiated the deadline or refused the work, but these are junior translators' mistakes.
Anyway, that small Belgian agency tried not to pay me for that work AND for the last two invoices, but I argued and finally convinced them that this was unfair (they knew my level of German, so why ask a junior translator to proofread a text translated from that language in the first place? And I reported the extra errors within minutes, so they could still tell the end-customer: "Sorry, we sent you the wrong text" - if they had already sent it at all, by the way... Every excuse seems good in order not to pay, it seems, with some agencies...).
This is the kind of case where the junior translator thinks: "Well, if the agency thinks I can do it, let's accept the job".
And the agency thinks: "It is up to the translator (even junior...) to refuse the job if he/she thinks he/she will not be able to make it"!
Some of these agencies cannot read a CV, it seems...
[Edited at 2012-01-14 11:44 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-01-14 11:45 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-01-14 12:28 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga
Германия
Local time: 01:47
Член ProZ.com c 2009
английский => немецкий
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The 10K words project contained massive sub-formatting problems which were not detectible when I read through the project. Upon detecting them, I immediately informened my client and asked for an extension, which was (half-heartedly) granted.
After working through the night, I did deliver the project at 8. a.m. which was 2 hours late. And in the end the client was happy.
[Edited at 2012-01-14 11:45 GMT]
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Julian Holmes
Япония
Local time: 08:47
Член ProZ.com c 2011
японский => английский
| The unexpected does happen... | Jan 14, 2012 |
...and when it does, it happens big time. 
Odile Stuart wrote:
There is a distinction between 'missing a deadline' and informing your client that you cannot realistically meet a specific deadline for an unexpected reason that is out of your control at that moment, working with your client to agree to some extended time...
I quite agree.
Quite frankly, the longer you have translated - in my case, 28 years - the less likely you will be answering "No" to this poll.
There are any number of extraneous ciircumstances that are entirely out of your control and as many reasons for misjudgment on your part as well. Should the whatsit hit the fan, quick judgment, a sincere apology, explanation, and prompt remedial action in either case will earn you points with the customer. Everyone's human - even the customer. They make mistakes, too.
Happy translating!
| | | | Michael Harris
Германия
Local time: 01:47
Член ProZ.com c 2006
немецкий => английский
mostly due to the source language / file format being in a terrible state to translate, or somthing just creeps up and disturbs the whole process - it can happen. The important thing is just to contact the customer as there is a solution to everything
| | | | | | Marlene Blanshay
Канада
Local time: 19:47
Член ProZ.com c 2009
французский => английский
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however, i have occasionally asked for extension of a few hours. This is usually in the case of Euro deadlines, where 9 am their time means the night before. But I was a journalist for years so I knew that no matter what, you get things in on deadline. I'm a stickler for deadlines and it's always been a point of pride with me. Of course, if something happens like a major computer crash, or accident or some such thing, then I would have to ask for some kind of leniency.....
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monica.m
Италия
Local time: 01:47
Член ProZ.com c 2011
немецкий => итальянский
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Honestly, after 25 years, it happens I can say no, never.
I tend to deliver rather earlier than established, because I tend to keep - proportionally - more time for reviews than for the translation itself. This has always helped me.
| | | | Oleg Osipov
Россия
Local time: 02:47
английский => русский
+ ...
dsd-sl wrote:
I tend to keep - proportionally - more time for reviews than for the translation itself. This has always helped me.
Missing a deadline may provoke an adverse chain reaction to final product consumer.
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... when I was pregnant and didn't know it yet... clearly the condition was asserting itself! I forgave myself for that one.... but whatever my numbers, it wouldn't be nearly as many times as my clients have missed their payment deadlines.
Unless you have a memory lapse (as I did), there's no excuse for not fending off a disaster. Call up the PM and let them know what's going on; that way they can alert everyone in the... See more ... when I was pregnant and didn't know it yet... clearly the condition was asserting itself! I forgave myself for that one.... but whatever my numbers, it wouldn't be nearly as many times as my clients have missed their payment deadlines.
Unless you have a memory lapse (as I did), there's no excuse for not fending off a disaster. Call up the PM and let them know what's going on; that way they can alert everyone in the chain. You may have a little egg on your face, but at least they won't be caught empty-handed by the end client, and they'll remember that. If it's a direct client, well, they tend to be more forgiving anyway, but they appreciate being kept informed just as much as agencies.
Stephanie
[Edited at 2012-01-14 19:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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