On February 23, a petition was launched by a small group of freelance translators, mainly based in Italy with the title “A Translators’ Petition Against Proz.com’s Job Policies“.
844 translators signed in support, with the exception of a few, who signed to say they thought the petition was a bad idea.
The main point of the petition was to ask Proz to stop allowing outsourcers to set rates in the job posting section of the website, in the belief that this facility (for outsourcers to state the rate offered along with the job) is a fundamental distortion of the client – buyer relationship, a distortion that has contributed, the instigators of the petition claimed, to the continuing downward drive in market rates for professional translation services, and the ensuing race to the bottom.
844 (give or take) translators agreed enough to sign the petition.
The petition was closed early, for reasons I won’t go into here, before hundreds of translators on the German (and other language) mailing lists had a chance to sign. But 844 was enough for Henry Dotterer, Proz.com’s founder and CEO, to sit up and take notice, because at 19.27 CET on 1 March 2010, ProZ.com requested that the following message be posted on the petition’s page:
“We are taking this matter seriously; I will be reviewing the issues raised with other members of ProZ.com’s staff. […] you may expect that we will respond some time before the end of March.”
After the petition was presented to Proz.com, a small working group formed to draft what have come to be known as the “PropoZals”, which can be read in full here. This document made clear suggestions as to the steps Proz.com could take towards restoring the balance and damage that had been done.
This working group was only a subset of the original 800+ petitioners, but the “PropoZals” were co-sponsored by an additional 51 people.
Sure enough, towards the end of March, Proz.com’s management opened a private forum on Proz.com, and invited the 51 co-sponsors of the PropoZals, as well as the working group that put them together, to discuss the ten main suggestions made.
However, the additional nine suggestions were incidental and only supportive of the main point, which was that Proz.com stop allowing outsourcers to “set” rates in the jobs posted.
Proz.com’s management, in the private forum, agreed to the nine incidental suggestions, but remained very resistant to the main point, that of preventing outsourcers from setting job rates.
Despite the 800+ signatures on the petition, and despite the confirmation from the working group that the first, most important issue of stopping outsourcers from setting rates was passed quickly and unanimously, Proz.com’s management still remains unconvinced that this would be in translators’ best interests.
Wouldn’t stopping outsourcers from setting rates mean a lot of wasted time for translators?
One of the main arguments against preventing clients from dictating rates for professional translation services is that translators would otherwise waste time responding to clients who have no intention of paying their rates.
My first response to that is that “clients who have no intention of paying” the normal rates that provide a living income for professional translators have no place on a site like Proz.com, which claims to cater for translation professionals and work in their interests. Why Proz.com is worried about losing this segment of the market, the very dregs of the barrel-scrapers, I have not yet managed to understand fully.
My second response is that it actually takes seconds to respond to a job posting. Well, okay then, minutes. An experienced translator can tell from just a short sample text, number of words and proposed deadline how much they need to charge (with the facility to modify the final quote once the full document has been examined, obviously), or at the very least, can give a ball-park figure from which to start serious negotiations.
But yes, it would mean more translators bidding on more jobs. A few extra minutes each day, if the translator is available and actively seeking work.
But the advantages, both short and long-term, would would be immeasurable. For translators, anyway.
How translators would benefit from a new Proz.com policy to stop outsourcers setting rates
At present, Proz.com’s model makes the outsourcer the active party, and the professional the passive party. The outsourcer says
“1000 words due in half an hour, rate offered €15″
There is no negotiation from that point, no matter what Proz.com’s management has managed to convince itself. The harsh, living, breathing reality is that, through Proz.com and other portals which have followed Proz.com lead, the outsourcer enjoys a position of power from which to dictate the rate they will pay for the job. The translator is left in a passive position from which to either accept or decline the job. Translators in a weaker position, such as those just starting out as freelancers, are led to believe that the rates the outsourcers set are the “going market rates”. They see the number of bids go up, and up, and start to feel edgy. “I should put my bid in, too”, they think. Even if they’ve been “educated”, the desire to gain some real experience, the bills landing on the doormat, the social proof provided by the real evidence of other translators bidding on these cut-rate jobs starts to mount and create a sense of pressure. The translator gives in, and joins the bidding, even though she knows she really needs to charge at least 3 cents more per word if she is to make a living. Social proof is a powerful thing.
So what? you think. I’m not a weak translator; I know how to set my rates and the barrel-scrapers on Proz.com don’t bother me.
Translators have, for too long, been their own worst enemy. As Wendell Ricketts wrote in this hilarious, cutting article, “if there’s anything worse than translators who complain all the time, it’s translators who complain about translators who complain all the time”. It’s time to band together and show some solidarity, even if you’re all right, Jack.
The goal of the PropoZals is to reverse the balance of power, which was distorted by the Proz model causing lasting damage in the industry, by ensuring that the service provider is the active party and the client is the passive party, just like every other profession in the world. The client needs a service, the professional tells the client how much it will cost. The client looks at the quotes he or she has received, assesses the value they anticipate receiving from each professional and weighs this value against the cost of the service. Then they make their choice. That’s the free market.
The only way for this free market to be allowed to take place is for the outsourcer to be permitted ONLY to describe the job in detail and proposed deadline, and invite bids.
This way, the average rate bid for a job by the TRANSLATOR becomes the market rate on Proz instead of the client-enforced one
It shouldn’t be underestimated just how important this point is and the huge role that Proz has played in it. And the ripple effect from it affects YOU and your business, regardless of whether or not you use the Proz.com site or are a member there.
Even if the rate set by the outsourcer is hidden from view, by allowing the outsourcers to still “state the rate they are willing to pay”, the dangerous assumption remains that “information on market rates” stems from the outsourcer. But it doesn’t. Or rather, it shouldn’t.
Market rates should form from the average rate set by translators, not from the rate clients state they are willing to pay. Because that rate, the rate the outsourcers are willing to pay, will only go downward. And, hence, the market rate will continue to go downward, and from there the race to the bottom.
And I don’t know about you, but that’s a race I don’t want to be a part of, let alone win.
So what would happen to the market if translation buyers were not allowed to set the price on portals like Proz.com?
A translation buyer would post a job. For example:
5182 words, translation from Italian to English, financial statements plus explanatory notes for a banking group. Delivery within 3 days, if possible. Please quote for delivery within 3 days and an alternative quote for a rush 24 hour job, if it were to become necessary.
The translation buyer would probably receive a lot of bids. They would have their work cut out for them; instead of quickly receiving bids all within the price they want to pay (which makes it very easy for bargain basement translation “agencies” to turn a quick buck), they would have to sift through all the bids received, which would range from low (unqualified and/or inexperienced translators) to high (the top-rate, experienced and highly specialised translators). The poster would see the true range of the market, every time they post a job.
Not only that, but every time they post a job offer, they are being educated about what professional translators charge for their services.
They might, just once or twice, look at the test translations, sample translations, brochures, websites and other materials provided by the higher paid translators, just out of curiosity. And they might start to realise that the value provided by a truly professional translator who is paid even just a decent rate for their expertise, is more than worth the extra cost. They might not, but they might.
The barge can’t turn on a dime, it’s true. But the steering will have been adjusted and, with time, the barge will be pointing in the right direction once more.
And with that, we come to the crux of the matter.
Proz.com’s management is still convinced that the majority of translators want outsourcers to be able to set their maximum rates in the job postings, despite the petition. Maybe the majority do, I honestly don’t know. Proz.com is running a survey as we speak, but platinum membership of the site is condition of participation. So whichever way your opinion lies, make it be known, by filling in this anonymous survey. It’s open to everyone, it will take you less than a minute to fill in, but it could make all the difference. There’s still time, and there’s still hope.
Over to you.
P.S. The anonymous survey open to all can be found here, and if you’re a Proz.com member, you can fill in their survey on the matter here.
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