As we all know, the world of translations can get a little hectic in certain situations. For example, when clients need a translation done
by “yesterday.” That’s when stress begins to attack each of the levels that make up the translation process chain.
However, the Project Manager (PM) is the one that has to take on the most responsibility as they must supervise the entire team and take responsibility for the performance of all subordinates. That’s why I personally think that the pressure put on PMs is much greater than that put on translators.
I can offer as an example, based on my experience as a PM, that it is totally stressful to receive translated or edited files past the delivery times agreed with the translator, as this interferes with the project planning which took so long to put together. Bearing in mind that the files pass through different people and stages (translation, editing, proofreading and design), if one of these stages is delayed, it delays the rest as well and creates a delay in the delivery. This can have a direct impact on the customer’s satisfaction.
Nonetheless, I recognize that translators also experience not so pleasant situations, such as last-minute changes in a glossary or technical problems with a computer or translation tool, corrupted files, etc. These factors lead translators to work under pressure sometimes, which is caused by that all-too-frequently “scarce resource”: time. Submitting on time in this market is as important as achieving a good translation. The translator must learn to produce good results under differing conditions, and a lot of them do just that. Working at Trusted Translations, I’ve had the opportunity to meet incredible translators who can manage the time/quality relationship in a truly praiseworthy fashion.
To sum up, I’d like to say that good communication between all levels of the translation process helps to reduce the stress factor. That’s why it’s so important that when a problem arises in one of the stages, it is immediately communicated to the PM so that they can see what the best solution is that doesn’t affect the quality and the delivery timeframe.
