| Páginas no assunto: [1 2] > | Poll: Would you take an offer for a project that requires full-time commitment for a few months? Autor da sequência: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Would you take an offer for a project that requires full-time commitment for a few months?".
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Over the years, I handled some projects that required full-time commitment over a few months. Two of these were ‘ready-to-print’ jobs for a direct client, paid at a very high rate. Nowadays, as things stand I do wish a similar translation project could suddenly emerge from somewhere ‘acceptable’…
| | | | | No, I would not! | Aug 7, 2025 |
I have some direct clients, so if I work on a full-time project for a client, my other projects with the rest of clients would be affected as a result. Therefore, I would not like also to put all eggs in one basket, except that I was not busy and just had that full-time project in my to-do list. In that case, it would be an interesting project to explore.
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I actually really like that way of working. I'm currently working on a book about civil engineering that is my only project for several weeks.
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26 years ago, I was working for an Italian agency that paid me the equivalent of €0.044 per word (21,500 lire per 1500 keystrokes, which was better than other agencies that paid 18,000 lire). I was then offered a sizeable job by a direct client in Denmark that paid the equivalent of €0.15. Although I was looking for direct clients, I was unable to accept it because I had too much on my plate already. I never forgot that episode and never made the same mistake again.
If I were tr... See more 26 years ago, I was working for an Italian agency that paid me the equivalent of €0.044 per word (21,500 lire per 1500 keystrokes, which was better than other agencies that paid 18,000 lire). I was then offered a sizeable job by a direct client in Denmark that paid the equivalent of €0.15. Although I was looking for direct clients, I was unable to accept it because I had too much on my plate already. I never forgot that episode and never made the same mistake again.
If I were translating novels, let's say, it would be another matter, and "full-time" can mean "full time" or it can mean 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, which leaves room for another 2 hours or more per day and 2 more days per week. So it does rather depend.
Simon ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Espanha
Local time: 04:01
Espanhol para Inglês
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Normally, I might consider such a commitment/project, depending on how I could fit it in with my regular work.
However, as I am currently awaiting two important surgical interventions, I do not know how fit I will be and if I will be able to continue working after September.
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neilmac wrote:
Normally, I might consider such a commitment/project, depending on how I could fit it in with my regular work.
However, as I am currently awaiting two important surgical interventions, I do not know how fit I will be and if I will be able to continue working after September.
I do hope everything goes well and you have a speedy recovery!
Teresa
| | | | Ana Vozone 
Local time: 03:01
Membro (2010)
Inglês para Português
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| No, absolutely not... | Aug 7, 2025 |
What would I tell my other clients who send me regular work? "Go find somebody else, please, I won't be available for the coming x months, sorry!"
I love my client list/mix... and really enjoy variety.
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IrinaN (X)
Estados Unidos da América
Local time: 21:01
Inglês para Russo
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| Another outlandishly unprofessional question | Aug 8, 2025 |
There are so many variables.
Even with 3 in-house projects, one of which required almost an hour for one-way commute, I have never lost touch with all my other important clients.
I am still committed to one project for 27 years; I had commitments to 3-5-year long projects and never lost a single client. Never cared for 40-hour weeks or official weekends, always worked 50-60 hours a week but always took at least 4 getaways and vacations totaling up to 8 weeks a year, co... See more There are so many variables.
Even with 3 in-house projects, one of which required almost an hour for one-way commute, I have never lost touch with all my other important clients.
I am still committed to one project for 27 years; I had commitments to 3-5-year long projects and never lost a single client. Never cared for 40-hour weeks or official weekends, always worked 50-60 hours a week but always took at least 4 getaways and vacations totaling up to 8 weeks a year, complemented by days off when convenient, and beauty sleep and house chore weeks at home. Maybe my generation is just used to working harder?
For a freelancer working from home, there isn’t and hardly can be a so-called full-time project that would leave absolutely no windows for other jobs and some rest over several months. Squeezing in extra 3000 – 5000 words a week now and then is a piece of cake. As far as I understand, if you (plural😊 ) find time for all your other clients all the time, that will mean that they give you only a few pages each per week, and not even every week. Otherwise, you’d be working in this mode already – Yes to one fairly large project and small jobs when you can/want to do it, negotiating extensions or apologizing till next time. Essentially, that would make no difference for the rejected clients – they need you today, but you are busy all week up to here. Whether it’s a part of your long-term deal or just one week makes no difference. Have you ever declined your best client’s offer because your second-best client beat them by 8 hours and now you really can’t take anything before Monday without killing yourself? Have you lost that best client right away? I can understand that translating two books at once would be strange, to put it mildly, but a few unrelated pages for a break and extra buck… nothing wrong with that, and nothing undoable.
Full-time commitment, whatever poll originator meant by it, is all about entirely different issues to be factored in – it must be a major, real, confirmed project run by some very serious, preferably government or corporate client or a publishing house, directly or through a reputable agency. It must be covered by a very serious separate contract, if you work for that agency already, providing for the terms of paid idle time if the contract will clearly stipulate that you can’t say No at any given moment during business hours. Afterhours terms must be covered too. Emailed BS about million words in exchange for 24/7 availability fed to you by most agencies is not worth a 1-day commitment.
In other words, anyone is fully entitled to translate and keep personal work/rest balance at own discretion and at own pace but claims of overload causing loss of all other clients are... sorry, ridiculous in my book. Don’t mean to offend anyone.
Just think what are the largest projects your best clients have ever given to you, and are those worth of declining several months of stable income or avoiding working for a few hours a week on top of 40 prescribed for office plankton?
So, after weighing everything in, the remaining problem might as well be - where and how to get that nasty long-term full-time commitment: ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bósnia e Herzegovina
Local time: 04:01
Inglês para Francês
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| I would, I have | Aug 8, 2025 |
I would, depending on the offer. What does the full-time mean, 40 hrs/week? I'd rather it be part-time, then I can also work on my other projects. If the work is interesting, the pay is good, and the client's decent, then I'd consider it.
| | | | Siobhán Fulton
Estados Unidos da América
Local time: 22:01
Alemão para Inglês
| I did it, no regrets | Aug 8, 2025 |
It meant occasionally working insane hours for several months. Not only did I manage to hang on to my best clients, I also earned a lot of money from the engagement. In addition, I made the acquaintance of colleagues during this massive agency project who provided referrals to new clients who offered regular work over the years. It was a career changer.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Itália
Local time: 04:01
Inglês para Alemão
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| I refused such an offer | Aug 8, 2025 |
IrinaN wrote:
there isn’t and hardly can be a so-called full-time project that would leave absolutely no windows for other jobs
Such offers exist. About 10-12 years ago, I refused a very insistent head hunter's offer to work on a localisation project at a client's company in Karlsruhe, Germany, for at least three months, for a pay of over €320 per day plus expenses. This would have meant being unable to work on multiple projects for my other clients, who would therefore have had to look for a substitute. So, while I would have earned well in the short term, I would have lost clients and needed to convince them of my availability again, as well as making new acquisitions.
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Daryo
Local time: 03:01
Sérvio para Inglês
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| Did you coin it yourself | Aug 8, 2025 |
IrinaN wrote:
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Just think what are the largest projects your best clients have ever given to you, and are those worth of declining several months of stable income or avoiding working for a few hours a week on top of 40 prescribed for office plankton?
So, after weighing everything in, the remaining problem might as well be - where and how to get that nasty long-term full-time commitment:
Did you coin it yourself or you borrowed it?
One way or another 'office plankton' made my day!
Never mind I used to be one for years, I still like it.
As for 'a project that requires full-time commitment for a few months' that looks very much to me like 'full-time temporary employment', if we want to stick to correct terminology.
Nothing is for ever, it’s up to you to evaluate which ‘not-for-everness’ is less ‘for-ever' than the other one.
| | | | IrinaN (X)
Estados Unidos da América
Local time: 21:01
Inglês para Russo
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From Russian, it's been living there for decades now.
Daryo wrote:
Did you coin it yourself or you borrowed it?
| | | | IrinaN (X)
Estados Unidos da América
Local time: 21:01
Inglês para Russo
+ ...
Zea_Mays wrote:
Such offers exist. [/quote]
I assume you are talking about an in-house project in a different country, something equal in essence to a full-time employee's business trip with all hours under the employer's control.
That's different from working from home, as I've mentioned specifically, and with more experience and gained unconditional love and admiration from you established clients and their unique projects getting lost for months and coming back is still possible, verified.
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