More cringe-inducing madness from the mass translation market

Today I was browsing online translation workplace Proz.com when I stumbled upon this question asked in the "Kudoz" terminology forum.

The question is an interesting one (how to translate "cascader" into English).

What is cringe-inducing, however, is the disturbing lack of concern for the confidentiality of customer documents. This is clearly an internal document and one I, personally, would consider potentially sensitive given the recent history of the company concerned (Société Générale).

For the second time this week I feel compelled to mention a (potentially grave) disservice to the translation client - one that also raises a number of questions as to what went wrong.

Is SGCIB aware that a substantial excerpt of an internal document has been published on a website that is both accessible to the general public and Google-able? Is there a middleman involved? If so, what instructions (if any) were given to the middleman? Is there a confidentiality agreement? What instructions, if any, did the middleman pass on to the outsourcer?

Words by the pound?

The past few months have been busy ones, at least in my corner of the translation industry (corporate communications, including financial). The crisis currently buffeting the financial markets has generated a lot of analysis and commentary - all of which needs to be translated!

This surge in demand has brought with it a bevy of requests from translation agencies. My inbox and voicemail have been bombarded with messages that all look more or less like this:

Madam,

We are a translation agency located in CITY. We have a NUMBER-word translation project to outsource for our client with a deadline of DATE. If you are interested, please reply with your best rate to EMAIL.

Regards,

PROJECT MANAGER

What I find interesting is that there is almost never any mention of the subject area (if the document is about a new medium-term corporate strategy or marketing plan, fine; if it is about brain surgery or rocket science, forget it!). Nor does there tend to be much concern with my past experience or areas of expertise.

Now, when I receive such messages, I can't help but think of the end client, who is probably totally unaware that their document is being outsourced anonymously to a translator that the agency doesn't know from Adam and who has not yet been given an opportunity to demonstrate competency (or not) with the end client's industry and type of document.

The translation is simply being outsourced by the pound. Pricing and deadline are the sole purchasing criteria for the middleman. Quality and service don't seem to enter into the equation.

With this business model, everybody loses. The translator often comes up against a relatively low ceiling when it comes to negotiating rates. The end client has no visibility or control over how their project is being handled and, if the target language is not one they master, has little leverage for complaint if the result is not up to standard.