Poll: Do you charge higher rates for weekend work?
R-i-c-h-a-r-d Brazil Local time: 19:28 Member (2006) Portuguese to English + ...
Pros and cons of being a transaltor
Jan 28
I was thinking about this very question the other day.
Is it fair that we have to work evenings and weekends when most other office workers leave the office at 5 p.m. on a Friday?
Should we not expect to get paid overtime when surpassing a standard forty hour week?
Should weekends not be subject to a surcharge when customers typically offer jobs midday on Friday, expecting delivery end-of-business on Monday, knowing full well that we have to work the entire weekend?
Well, it depends on the way you look at it. If you choose not to look at the pros of being a translator and simply compare yourself to a typical 9-5 salaried worker, then yes, it is rather unfair working evenings and weekend.
However, if you like your job and relish the benefits of working at home, not having to spend hours in commuter traffic every day, wearing formal clothes, buttering up the boss/senior workers, going to meetings, etc, etc... I think that working weekends/late at night is pretty acceptable.
It's one of the tough calls of being, or deciding to become, a freelance translator.
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I am sure the frequently invoked plumber is of the opposite opinion
Jan 28
R-I-C-H-A-R-D wrote:
However, if you like your job and relish the benefits of working at home, not having to spend hours in commuter traffic every day, wearing formal clothes, buttering up the boss/senior workers, going to meetings, etc, etc... I think that working weekends/late at night is pretty acceptable.
Ok, he does not work at home but can take 2 days off during the week, too. So try to call him saturday night or Easter sunday. He won't tell you that he will charge his usual fee as he loves so much his job and just didn't work for two days
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R-i-c-h-a-r-d Brazil Local time: 19:28 Member (2006) Portuguese to English + ...
In reply...
Jan 28
Ok, he does not work at home but can take 2 days off during the week, too. So try to call him saturday night or Easter sunday. He won't tell you that he will charge his usual fee as he loves so much his job and just didn't work for two days
A glass half-empty or a glass half-full perspective.
But of course, you're right. If we refuse a job because it is inconvenient working over the weekend then that work opportunity will be snapped up by another translator, our competition. We often don't have a lot of choice. I would love to get paid more for working weekends, but it's not usually possible to dictate such terms.
Fair wages, as always, is an issue, but I'm not going to get drawn into a topic of 'my job as a translator is rubbish'. I don't think it is, even though I AM working this weekend.
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David Wright Austria Local time: 00:28 Member (2007) German to English + ...
Plumber analogy
Jan 28
I'm not a plumber, nor do I think we should compare ourselves with plumbers. However, my clients know that I don't work weekends (my significant other has a monday to friday job so we reserve weekends for other things). If my clients need something urgent over the weekend, they know they will have to pay me a lot more for the privilege. However, when they need something over the weekend they really NEED it, and money is the least of the problems. My supersurcharge also means that I don't get asked to do jobs over the weekend that aren't really urgent but will sit around on someone's desk for a few days.
Last year I worked one weekend.
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Chun Un Macau Local time: 06:28 Member (2007) English to Chinese + ...
No, but why not?
Jan 28
Michael Harris wrote:
Just 2 days in the week that you take off. Can be any day as a translator.
My thoughts exactly... I have been taking weekdays off and working weekends quite often since I started freelancing. That said, if the client pays extra for weekend work that I would do anyway, I will happily accept it.
I sometimes work on a Sunday because I want to take Monday off and go somewhere with my family when it is not so crowded. It's really the beauty of working at home, isn't it?
[Edited at 2012-01-28 18:47 GMT]
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Yvonne Becker Venezuela Local time: 17:58 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
Yes, almost always
Jan 28
Christel Zipfel wrote:
Every end customer is prepared to pay more for a job that needs to be done over the weekend and will happily do so if it is really such urgent. And if he doesn't want to pay more, he may suddenly change his mind and say that yes, finally the job could wait some more days...
Exactly. If I have to sacrifice my weekend because of a rush job I will at least get paid for my sacrifice. As you say, sometimes they suddenly realize that the job is not that urgent and I have my weekend free to do whatever I want.
The only time that I will not charge for weekend work is when I am doing because I want to or because I have to, because I am behind schedule.
This weekend, for instance, I am not surcharging, as I am working because I accepted too much work.
[Edited at 2012-01-28 19:12 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-01-28 19:14 GMT]
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The only time that I will not charge for weekend work is when I am doing because I want to or because I have to, because I am behind schedule.
I work from time to time on weekends because it is my choice but it would never come to my mind to charge extra for this. However if I am requested to: three times yes to additional charge!
Bewildering that 60% vote "no" and nearly 30% only "sometimes".
And no, David, I don't want to be compared to a plumber neither. But sometimes I think it is necessary to open someone's eyes.
[Bearbeitet am 2012-01-28 20:36 GMT]
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Marlene Blanshay Canada Local time: 18:28 Member (2009) French to English + ...
no
Jan 29
but I wish I could. Of course, if they OFFER....just before xmas i had to work on a rush editing job over a weekend and the client offered me 50 percent over my hourly rate as an incenctive. How could I turn that down? It ended up being a nice big check!
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