Poll: Do you outsource some work to other translators? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you outsource some work to other translators?".
View the poll results »
| | | | | I only outsource SPECIFIC work | Feb 20 |
Whenever I get a translation request that I cannot serve - on account of either my unavailability or one of the five specialized subject matter areas I don't cover - I refer the client to one or two colleagues of mine that I know that can either provide the same level of service or specialize in that area. I wish them all good luck, and step out.
My outsourcing to colleagues usually involves video work. I can do the entire subtitling job in my pair, EN-PT. However I speak - but don't translate - IT-FR-ES.
Now and then I get video subtitling requests involving other or more than my own pair among these five languages. Typical examples are subtitling a video from EN into both PT/ES (two separate deliverables, of course!), or a video from PT into EN/ES/FR.
In such cases, I'll outsource the translation work outside my pair to carefully selected colleagues, and will later take it from there. I can definitely time-spot them, and burn the subtitles in any of the five languages.
I won't do it with languages I'm not reasonably familiar with, because I wouldn't notice if diacritics are coming out correctly onscreen, nor if my resulting non-Latin chars or ideograms aren't mirrored or upside down.
These are not translators, however I also outsource video dubbing work - after I've done the translation - to thoroughly reliable dubbing studios.
I offer my clients the option of hiring my partners/outsourcees directly, while I'll still coordinate/technically supervise their work. So far, NO client has ever chosen to do so; they prefer to hold me accountable for the entire job. I pay my partners COD the exact same rates I'd charge if it were in my language pair, and none has ever said it's too low. I don't add any markup on what I pay them, otherwise my clients' final price wouldn't be competitive.
As a result of this setup, I require these clients to pay in advance (at least) the amount I'll be paying to my outsourcees. If any party downstream (viz. the end-client) chooses to cancel the order "too late", I won't have to disburse fees on which I'm not making any profit to cover. All clients so far have agreed that this is thoroughly fair.
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My main clients don't allow it.
I tried it about 18 years ago and got in big trouble. My outsourcer knew I wasn't supposed to do it. I discovered that her work had omissions in almost every paragraph. For the extra work it caused me, I paid her a little less than I received. This made her angry and she went and told my client about it.
[Edited at 2018-02-20 10:13 GMT]
| | | | Teresa Borges
Portugal
Local time: 06:13
 Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
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| Yes (some languages) | Feb 20 |
BPT started life in 1985 in Brussels as a small cooperative of 4 freelance translators (3 Portuguese and 1 Belgian) who translated exclusively into their mother tongue. So, we did outsource when we had requests for languages we didn't cover. More than 30 years later, we are no longer a cooperative, some of my colleagues left to work for the EU Institutions and I decided to move back to Lisbon for family reasons. Now we are just two, I’m the “front of the house” and my associate deals with the “back of the house”. I never outsource work from English, French, Spanish and Italian into European Portuguese (my work languages), but I do outsource work when I have requests for languages I don't cover and I have been working with the same tested, approved and trusted translators for ages. I should add that we only work from and into European Portuguese...
[Edited at 2018-02-20 12:45 GMT]
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neilmac 
Spain
Local time: 07:13
Spanish to English
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| Only very occasionally | Feb 20 |
And I don't really do "outsourcing" in the sense of acting as a for-profit intermediary. If I get offered jobs that I'm unwilling or unable to do, I might recommend someone I think may be interested, or simply accept the job myself and pass it on to that person.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 07:13
Member (Apr 2018)
French to English
I do recommend colleagues though, and some recommend me back
| | | | DZiW
Ukraine
English to Russian
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However, it's fancy that so many language-information specialists confuse even referring and cooperating with outsourcing.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 02:13
 Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Rarely, and only with the client's full knowledge | Feb 21 |
It happens sometimes, as agreed upon with the client in advance and requested by the client. If a client has a 50.000 word project due in a week, this is the solution.
Now, accepting a job and "sharing" it or outsourcing to other people without the client's consent is a "translation crime" - unacceptable.
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