Japanese to English translator here. Is anyone else having issues with the new shorter times we have to complete translations? I never had an issue with submitting a translation within the previous allotted times, and always submitted with plenty of time to spare. But after doing a couple of standard translations with the new shorter times allotted for translation, I find that if there is any kind of complexity to the translation, or if I need to look up specialized words or phrases to ensure I get it just right in English, I have very little breathing room.
18 comments
I agree that the deadlines seem to be unusually short, and I suspect that this may actually be a bug in whatever formula is used to calculate the time limits. Currently, there are a number of jobs of 6-700 characters on my dashboard, and the deadlines are just around two hours. A rate of 300 to 350 characters per hour is not unreasonable provided that the content is simple and straightforward, but as Kevin noted above, if the content requires research to ensure proper quality, there is a very high likelihood that many translators will run out of time. This encourages rushed work with a lack of proper research and verification, which will have a serious negative impact on overall quality,and discourages translators from picking up jobs that appear complex, increasing pick up times. It also severely hampers a translator's ability to communicate with the customer to ask questions and clarify context, since the clock will be ticking as we wait for the customer to respond. Whether this is a bug as I suspect, or an intentional change on the part of Gengo management, I strongly urge that you review this matter and revert to the previous method of calculation, or at least more generous limits that allow additional time for research and communication.
Hi Kevin and Ian!
Thank you for posting!
@Ian - The new deadlines are not a bug. They have been cut down intentionally as announced by our Community Manager Megan on an email yesterday. If you didn't receive it please check your Junk Mail Folder just in case. If it is not there I can copy & paste it here for you so let me know ;)
There is a discussion regarding this shorter deadlines for all language pairs in this thread in the Free for All Forum. Please feel free to write there as well!
Lara
I did receive the email, but the workbench is showing average completion times that are longer than the deadlines and similar to the old deadlines in length, which makes it seem that they have been inadvertently transposed. I was simply giving Gengo the benefit of the doubt that it was a simple technical error rather than an ill-advised managerial decision. I would suggest asking the technical staff to have a look at it just to be on the safe side.
Yes, Ian, I have read about those jobs showing completion times larger than the deadlines in the other thread.
If you come across any job showing that, could you please email support@gengo.com directly and include the job number, so we can have a look into that? ;)
Thanks!
Lara
Lara - thanks for your comment. I had a look at the other thread and just like myself and Ian, there are MANY people complaining about the shorter translation times. All for the reasons that Ian very kindly outlined above. I hope that Gengo management will very seriously consider all the complaints about shorter translation times and revise this change. While the previous translation times might have been too generous - I always finished with plenty of time to spare - these new translation times have swung to the other side of the spectrum. If there is any kind of complexity to a translation, or I need to look up specialized words, I have little time to do that, which makes it very difficult to ensure that the translation I submit is the best one possible. If Gengo management insists on sticking with these new times I, for one, will avoid picking anything up that will require any extra research because you are not giving me any breathing room to accomplish that. I am pretty certain that pick up times are going to get longer, which will not make customers any happier, and I would not be surprised if there is a spike in customer complaints about quality as people rush to get jobs done within the shorter times.
After the incorporation of shorter deadlines, I found one job that said, "You have 0 minutes to complete this translation." Because it was pretty short (only about two paragraphs) I decided to take on the job and see what happened. I figure it took me about 15-20 minutes to finish it, and it let me turn in my work without canceling me.
So, next I tried a longer job, a Pro job of about 4 pages which only gave 3 hours (although it said, "95% of jobs of this length are completed in 1 day and 8 hours"). Since the first job had a deadline of 0 minutes, I assumed that this deadline was a mistake as well, so I took a little extra time to finish the translation. But when I went to upload the file, I saw that the job had canceled on me - without warning me in email or anything. So, basically, I just did 4 hours of work for free.
I don't see how it's humanly possible to translate 2 paragraphs in 0 minutes, or 4 pages in 3 hours. If this system doesn't get fixed, I predict there will be a lot of crappy translations coming in and a lot of good translators leaving.
I am very grateful to have the opportunity to work for Gengo, so I do not mean to complain too much, but the translation times here are not reasonable. I am a very fast typer, and a fast translator, who has always received positive feedback from customers about the speed and quality of my translations. Even taking this into consideration, however, I would find it difficult to complete any translation within the current given time limits unless it was extremely straight-forward, and 90% of the jobs I take on Gengo are not. Lara -- you recommended contacting you about larger estimated completion times than deadlines. From what I saw so far, this was the case with every job.
Absolutely agree with all the said above regarding the shorter deadlines and the consequences in terms of quality, customer satisfaction and readiness to assume smaller jobs.
他の方々が述べておられるように、私も今回の見直しには、非常に不満です。
ここ数日でも、締め切りまでの時間が十数時間 (以前であれば、睡眠時間が加算されていたはず) ほどの案件が出ていましたが、
多少は休憩できるにしても、これでは寝ずに翻訳しろと言っていると解釈されても仕方ないのではないでしょうか? (これではまるでブラック企業)
実際この2日ほどでも、大きな案件では、受注されずに1日以上放置されているケースが見受けられますし、これなら、時間をある程度確保して受注を促した方が、
結果的にはより早くお客様の手に翻訳が届くと思うのですが、こういったことは見直しの際に考慮されなかったのですか?
それにしても、なぜこのような時間の見直しに至ったのか、Gengoには説明が不足していると思います (この点も含め、多数の疑問をメールで問い合わせているのに、無視するとは、一体どういうことなのか...)。
今回の一連の見直しでは、今までのGengoにあったような、一緒に素晴らしいサービスを提供していこう!、という気持ちが全く感じられず、非常に残念と言わざるを得ません。
Ditto: the same problem stated above by my fellow translatocolleagues.
今朝、166ワード、54分の案件の翻訳中に、初めてリマインダーメール (終了13分前) を受け取りました。
まもなく提出できる状態にはあったのですが、[[[ ]]] も多く、焦って見直しをしていました。そういうときに、「この案件に取り組めない場合は、なるべく早く他のトランスレーターに実行可能となるように今すぐキャンセルしてください」と言われると、あまりいい気はしないと思います。
こんにちは、お世話になります。
時間短縮といえば、カップラーメンが思い浮かびます。カップラーメンの売り上げを考えると、時間短縮という考えは間違っていないと思います。
しかし、3分でカップラーメンを食べられるようになったのは、個人努力と企業努力の賜物です。個人努力には限界がありますので、その点おひとつよろしくお願いします。
Check out the screenshot...
Something must be wrong here in Gengo...
screenshot.png
I recently submitted a ticket about the shorter translation times, and agree with what people are saying here in this thread.
The shorter times that have now been allotted to J to E jobs prevent me from picking up anything that requires a bit of thought, and I can imagine also encourages others to rush through their translations and produce sub-par translations.
Gengo should find a balance between quality and quantity, and I find that the old translation times were a good fit for most of us translators.
I agree with what everyone else has been saying -- I don't feel that I can complete the available jobs in such short time frames, so I've been avoiding them altogether. :(
I recently logged in after a 2 month absence and also noticed that the new times are dramatically shorter. Like my colleagues above, I used to finish jobs with plenty of time to spare, but now I am under pressure to complete them in time. I like to reread my translations and double check them many times to ensure quality, so I would appreciate it if you would reconsider the length of the deadlines. thank you.
Posted about this in the general forum as well-- the new time constraints are really harsh (maybe on our language pair in particular?) Would love it if they brought it back to how it was.