| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | How much notice to give when ending a long-term collaboration? Thread poster: Zagarella Maryrose
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I've been working with an agency since January and the collaboration has gone very well. They've been giving me more and more work and now I need to tell them that I need to sharply reduce the volume that I handle for them. Is one week's notice acceptable? I want to remain in good standing and I don't have enough experience to know how much notice an independent contractor should give in a case like this.
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It depends on the reason you need to sharply reduce the volume you handle for them. This only happened to me once or twice in over 40 years. It was for temporary health reasons and I told my long-standing customers exactly what was going on. In my book, being true is the best explanation. But as I said it depends on your reasons…
| | | | Joakim Braun 
Sweden
Local time: 19:06
German to Swedish
+ ...
| Yes, sort of | Jul 24, 2023 |
Zagarella Maryrose wrote:
Is one week's notice acceptable?
Yes and no, but mostly yes.
You haven't worked for them all that long, and you're an independent contractor and that's the risk of hiring one. If you provide a businesslike explanation (family reasons, better customer balance, better rates elsewhere...) leaving shouldn't be held against you.
On the other hand, if you're a brilliant, indispensable contributor with rare and business critical talents I'd say three or four weeks is a lot more courteous - finding a replacement in a week could be difficult. Even so, seven months doesn't obligate you to very much.
| | | | finnword1
United States
Local time: 13:06
English to Finnish
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| no notice needed | Jul 24, 2023 |
I had a customer to whom I supplied 193 translations. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped, without giving me an advance notice or a reason.
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| It's not for health reasons. | Jul 25, 2023 |
Hi Maria,
Thanks for your reply.
I just have too much work. I need to cut back and I would like to give as little notice as possible, but I don't know what that is.
So that's why I was wondering if a week would be okay. What do you think? I just have no idea how long it should be. Two weeks?
| | | | | Thank you Joakim. And I see Finnword's point. | Jul 25, 2023 |
Thanks Joakim, that's helpful. Maybe I'll give ten days, or two weeks, to be a bit nicer to them. They've been nice to me.
I think that you are also correct, Finnword. As independent contractors, we don't get any guarantee of work or any information about how much work we can expect, so why should we have to provide such luxuries? But my objective is to remain in good standing with them and keep them as a client.
| | | | | What is the reason? | Jul 25, 2023 |
It depends on the reason that you give and whether this is going to be a permanent thing or not.
You say that they having been giving you more and more work, so this sounds as if they are satisfied with you. It also sounds as if you had not been expecting to get so much to do from them.
You do not even tell us (your colleagues) what the real reason is, so it is difficult to advise you. If there is, say, a death in the family or an upcoming medical intervention (i.e. te... See more It depends on the reason that you give and whether this is going to be a permanent thing or not.
You say that they having been giving you more and more work, so this sounds as if they are satisfied with you. It also sounds as if you had not been expecting to get so much to do from them.
You do not even tell us (your colleagues) what the real reason is, so it is difficult to advise you. If there is, say, a death in the family or an upcoming medical intervention (i.e. temporary health reasons) the notice could be shorter (one week instead of four).
Would it be possible for you to write to them and say that you need to go back to the initial volume of work (i.e. to about what they gave you in the first month as opposed to what they are giving you now) because of other longstanding commitments? This might be disadvantagous for you, though, as you give the impression that you do not value them much as a customer. So here again you must give them a reason they will accept , i.e. I have childcaring duties for my one-year-old son. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 19:06
French to English
Yeah, it depends on why and whether it'll be temporary or permanent. Most people will be understanding if you say you're about to give birth, or you have health issues. No need to give too much detail, but if you're about to have a course of chemo for example people will be sympathetic but will also need reassuring that you're up for work again when you say you are.
At the agency where I used to work, one translator, my go-to guy for legal stuff, once said "oh by the way did I tell... See more Yeah, it depends on why and whether it'll be temporary or permanent. Most people will be understanding if you say you're about to give birth, or you have health issues. No need to give too much detail, but if you're about to have a course of chemo for example people will be sympathetic but will also need reassuring that you're up for work again when you say you are.
At the agency where I used to work, one translator, my go-to guy for legal stuff, once said "oh by the way did I tell you I'm off to St Petersburg for six months, tomorrow? I'm going to learn pottery there" which left me rather in the lurch. I managed to find someone else who was just as competent. When the first guy came back (sooner rather than later, muttering something about the mafia as his reason!), I carried on working with his replacement, who proved far more dependable.
One of our best technical translators simply changed his answering machine message and OOO email to say "I'm off to the US to see my father and won't be available until further notice". His voice had a horrible croak in the recorded message so I emailed to say I was sorry if it was bad news, and to let me know when he was up for work again. He got back to me to explain that yes, his father was dying, but that he could take on some small non-urgent projects. I usually sent him the big thorny ones, but sent what I could that wouldn't require too much research while he was at his father's bedside.
I think a week is fine, and if you can recommend someone to help out, why not.
[Edited at 2023-07-25 12:41 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 19:06
French to English
finnword1 wrote:
I had a customer to whom I supplied 193 translations. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped, without giving me an advance notice or a reason.
yeah, it can happen.
If you do that to an agency though, you can reasonably expect that they won't want to work for you if ever you're available again. The OP wants to reduce the amount, not stop entirely, and there's a good chance that her availability might increase again later in which case she will want to preserve the goodwill she has managed to foster up to now.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 19:06
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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It depends on your business strategy, I guess. I work consistently on a "first come, first served" basis, so in my case there's no need to give any explanation, apart from "I'm not available".
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Kay Denney wrote: finnword1 wrote:
I had a customer to whom I supplied 193 translations. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped, without giving me an advance notice or a reason. yeah, it can happen. If you do that to an agency though, you can reasonably expect that they won't want to work for you if ever you're available again. The OP wants to reduce the amount, not stop entirely, and there's a good chance that her availability might increase again later in which case she will want to preserve the goodwill she has managed to foster up to now.
Translation work is a hard (and occasionally weird) job as we never know when a one-off turns into a repeat client. The highest compliment I ever received from a client (a network whose task is to explain how education systems are organised in Europe) was about 35 years ago. So, it got me very excited, thinking naively I had found another repeat client, but, funnily enough, it never materialised though they are still active. Go figure!
[Edited at 2023-07-25 10:14 GMT]
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Dear PM,
I wanted to give you advance notice that I'll have less capacity to take on new jobs as of August XX, 2023. I anticipate being able to handle X,000 words / week regularly, although if you can give me a few weeks to plan, I would be happy to clear more space in my schedule to assist you with larger projects occasionally.
Sincerely,
OP
If the last bit about taking on bigger projects occasionally isn't true, then just delete it. However, ... See more Dear PM,
I wanted to give you advance notice that I'll have less capacity to take on new jobs as of August XX, 2023. I anticipate being able to handle X,000 words / week regularly, although if you can give me a few weeks to plan, I would be happy to clear more space in my schedule to assist you with larger projects occasionally.
Sincerely,
OP
If the last bit about taking on bigger projects occasionally isn't true, then just delete it. However, I think it leaves you a good way to take on more work from this client if you have a dry spell with your other clients. ▲ Collapse
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Zagarella Maryrose wrote:
...I just have too much work. I need to cut back...
Being busy is healthy for the wallet, realising you're too busy and doing something about it is even healthier for your health.
I wouldn't worry too much about how long the advance notice, but why you're too busy when so many complain they're losing business because of MT, AI, foreigners or the EU.
Send a notice two days in advance informing them that due to a schedule fully booked, you will not be able to take on any sizeable translations next week. See how it goes, what you can or can't handle from them, and send another notice for another week of unavailability. You do bits and bobs for them, stay in the loop and maintain the relationship.
We all have those week- or fortnight-long spikes, and sending notices to your other clients is only courteous.
If you're really on the verge of collapsing due to overwork (which can indirectly kill you), another option sometimes does wonders: raising rates. The agency will route the easier, boring stuff to a replacement or MTPEers, while keeping you for handling sensitive or more demanding/interesting content.
I did exactly that in 2005 or 2006, the agency refused and we parted. Although I lost like 60% of my income overnight, I had at last some free time to take on projects from other agencies in my roster, prospect and depressurize my blood stream. Overall, the move was priceless, but it has to be thoroughly thought through, and the environment has changed drastically compared to then.
Either way, don't let yourself being swallowed by a downward spiral of workaholism if you want to see the advent of long-lasting controlled nuclear fusion.
Philippe
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If it is just a case of too much work (by the way, congratulations!) I either wait for their next job and say then “I’m extremely sorry but I’m flooded with work now and I will not be available before August xx, 2023” (this has been my strategy) or I’ll follow Rita Translator suggestion and give them advance notice: one/two weeks is quite enough.
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 12:06
English to Russian
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| End or reduce? | Jul 25, 2023 |
To be honest, I'm thoroughly confused.
You are a freelancer, you have only 2 hands and you can handle only so much in terms of both quality and health. Why do you intend to give the reins to your client? Of course, we all try our best to accommodate certain requests and any emergencies of our best clients, and even adjust our personal schedules once in a while when it's worth it in the long run, but notices of that kind??? As you have mentioned yourself, you are not an employee.... See more To be honest, I'm thoroughly confused.
You are a freelancer, you have only 2 hands and you can handle only so much in terms of both quality and health. Why do you intend to give the reins to your client? Of course, we all try our best to accommodate certain requests and any emergencies of our best clients, and even adjust our personal schedules once in a while when it's worth it in the long run, but notices of that kind??? As you have mentioned yourself, you are not an employee.
With the exception of life situations when you have to stop working at all and turn all your attention to your personal matters, in which case you certainly should cordially inform your clients, all you need is to inform them of your reasonable availability for every project on a case-to-case basis, explaining that your productivity limits are fully justifiable, unless they want you to click on the MT button and send it back within a few minutes without any further ado.
I hope you charge a decent rate and a low one is not a prime reason for being so overwhelmed with work. If they value you for real, maybe it's time to start raising your rates and charging overtime. Still, not to the point of fainting at the desk by the end of each day. I also hope that they do not use volume as an excuse for low pay, which otherwise could be simply not enough to live on.
For as long as you are not afraid to lose them completely and find yourself on the opposite end of the rope, you should stand your ground.
Sadly, the agencies' practice to drop their good vendors and get lost without any notices, or openly declare that they found someone cheaper is very common and many of them do not give a fly about hurting your feelings or returning any favors. Again, exceptions have a right to exist but put yourself first otherwise. As a freelancer, you are alone in the jungle! ▲ Collapse
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