This is a companion post to “What Translation Agencies Wish Freelancers Knew (But Never Say Out Loud).”
My previous post was misunderstood by some colleagues, who apparently thought I was a representative of an agency or that I was justifying malpractice by some LSPs. Well, I was definitely not. The goal of my previous post was to discuss what we can do in this environment, where we often can’t change much about how we are treated. In my opinion, we won’t achieve anything by fighting and complaining. What we can do is present ourselves as professionals and premium partners, so we are in a better position to negotiate better rates and be assigned more work.
So, let’s see the other side of the story. Here are a few things freelancers wish agencies understood, that would instantly improve cooperation on both ends. Said politely… but honestly.
1. Manufactured Urgency Is Not Professionalism
Everyone understands that urgent jobs happen — it’s part of the business.
But when every project becomes a “rush,” freelancers feel disposable and pressured to sacrifice quality.
If you promise end clients unrealistic turnaround times, expect the quality will suffer. Selling the idea of “instant” translations may help you win contracts, but clients won’t stay if the results are poor — and you can’t blame that on the translator. This isn’t translator inefficiency — this is poor project planning being externalized onto freelancers.
Reasonable timelines benefit everyone.
If a client genuinely needs something ASAP, explain to them that the rate has to reflect that urgency. And please consider volume. For most of us, a $0.63 “just-a-few-words” job will never be urgent, no matter how it’s labeled.
2. Communication Must Go Both Ways
As translators, we want to show ourselves as professionals and reply without delay, flag issues early and try to propose solutions when we report problems. Yet, often we don’t see the same level of professionalism from your PMs, who ignore urgent emails for days, send “Dear [blank space]” template messages, get annoyed when translators ask for basic context, and provide incomplete or contradictory briefs.
Freelancers want clarity, consistency, and basic courtesy — the same things agencies expect from us.
3. Faulty Tools and Systems Punish the Translator
Many of us are quite tech savvy, and will try to find a solution on our own before asking PMs or the tech support team. But it’s both frustrating and inefficient, when we waste hours on technical issues — using buggy proprietary CAT tools, trying to guess where basic functionalities are in a non-intuitive UI, performing unpaid terminology work, or managing tasks with no context.
Time wasted on broken tools is still time. And time is literally our income.
4. One Bad PM Can Damage Your Entire Reputation — But There Is Good News
For freelancers, the PM is the agency.
We don’t see your leadership, your values, or your workflows — we see the person emailing us. And one difficult PM can make even a solid agency look disorganized and disrespectful.
Some of the “bad PM” behaviors we notice:
- “Postman Syndrome”: Simply forwarding files and client emails without reading the instructions and clarifying ambiguities.
- Being the Bottleneck: Not responding to critical project queries on time, which stops the translator's progress and threatens the deadline.
- Delayed Payment/PO Issues: Sending a Purchase Order (PO) with an incorrect, lower amount than previously agreed, or delaying the delivery of the PO altogether.
- Lack of Transparency on Upcoming Project Status: Asking for availability for a project supposed to start tomorrow/next week, and then not communicating updates on the delays of the project start date or its cancellation.
- Blame Shifting: Blaming the translator for their own unorganized project management, internal scheduling errors, or a mistake in sending the wrong file.
- Manufactured urgency: Treating every project as a last-minute emergency.
- Failing to Protect the Translator: When clients send negative, vague feedback (e.g., "The translation is bad"), the PM simply forwards the complaint without asking the client for specific details/examples or defending the translator's work/choices.
- Lack of Language Knowledge: Being unable to read in the target language of the project (well, this one isn’t their fault, but still can cause problems.)
But here’s the good news: our opinion can change fast.
Give us a PM who communicates clearly, respects our time, and treats us like partners, and the relationship resets almost instantly. Most freelancers want long-term cooperation — one good PM is often all it takes to restore trust.
5. Loyalty Only Works When It’s Mutual
Translators can be incredibly loyal — some work with the same clients for 10–20+ years. Yet the moment a new financial manager joins, many of us receive requests to lower our rates. Some of these managers have little understanding of translation work and do not realize that this usually means losing your most reliable and skilled translators, which will harm your company greatly in the long run. They often care only about showing their executives that they cut costs by X% without understanding the hidden costs of sacrificing quality.
Notice that in most civilized countries the minimum wage systematically goes up, not down, to keep pace with inflation (more or less). Therefore, the expected business behavior should be increasing rates, not the opposite.
Loyalty without reciprocity becomes exploitation. We don’t expect favors, just fairness. When agencies invest in long-term relationships, translators return with priority treatment, flexibility, and higher quality.
That’s how you build a real vendor team instead of just a database of names.
6. Quality Requires Time, Not Just Technology
Agencies often quote rock-bottom MTPE rates and underestimate the amount of human effort that is still required. We wish agencies knew that poor-quality MT can take longer to fix than translating from scratch. Cutting the rate by 50-70% for a job that still requires 80-90% human time is disrespectful and unsustainable.
A higher rate buys the time for research, terminology cross-referencing, self-editing, and polishing that can make a difference between a good translation and an excellent, publication-ready one.
7. Feedback Is Gold, But Only If It's Specific
We know everyone makes mistakes sometimes. We want to grow and learn from mistakes, but “The client didn’t like it” isn’t any helpful.
We’d love to receive actionable feedback:
- What exactly was wrong?
- How can it be improved next time?
- Is this a preference or a rule?
Specific feedback helps us adapt, which improves quality for the agency and the end client.
This is true also for potential candidates. Of course, you won’t babysit newcomers and teach them basic skills — it’s understandable and we don’t ask for it. But when one of us fail your test piece, they’d love to receive feedback. They will learn from it and after some time, if you give them another try, you might be surprised what a valuable asset they've become.
8. Silence is Not Unavailability
Many agencies expect freelancers to reply within minutes, even outside of agreed working hours. Of course, we try to act as professionals and reply as quick as possible, but have in mind several factors:
- We often juggle multiple clients.
- We live in different time zones.
- Some freelancers decide to have fixed work hours, while others prefer flexible schedules, mixing work with non-work activities — depending on the person, both approaches can support productivity.
- For deep-focus tasks, some of us turn off our notifications.
A freelancer who doesn’t answer instantly is usually busy meeting someone else’s deadline. Respect for boundaries leads to better long-term cooperation.
9. Late Payments Are Not a Small Inconvenience
Agencies must understand that slow payment is not just an annoyance; it is a direct threat to our business viability. As freelancers, we rely on predictable cash flow to pay our bills, cover our operating costs, and manage our personal finances. When an agency pays late (for example Net 60 or longer instead of Net 30), it basically is an interest-free loan taken for weeks or months. This delay can cause us to miss a mortgage payment, incur bank fees, and create unnecessary financial stress. Agencies known for being slow to pay are considered unreliable business partners. Translators will always choose to work with the agencies that respect their contracts and pay on time — therefore, if your agency fails to do this, it will eventually lose its best talents. Paying promptly is a contractual duty, not an optional courtesy.
10. Low Rates Are Not Sustainable — They Undermine Quality
We understand that agencies operate under budget pressures, but we wish you understood the true cost of accepting rock-bottom rates. When a rate is too low to cover our costs and the time required for proper research and proofreading, it becomes unsustainable.
A low rate forces the translator to adopt a “speed over quality” approach just to make the project financially viable. We must rush, cut corners on research, skip critical self-review steps, and take on more work than is safe. This results in:
- Lower Quality: Errors, inconsistencies, and awkward phrasing become inevitable.
- Burnout and Turnover: Good translators will quickly leave to find agencies that value their expertise.
- Reputational Risk for You: You end up with a high turnover of inexperienced translators, forcing your internal reviewers to work harder to fix the poor output, and costing your agency more in terms of time and reputation.
By paying a sustainable, fair rate, you aren't just paying for words — you are investing in concentration, expertise, reliability, and the long-term partnership that ensures consistent, high-quality translations for your end client.
So, what’s the bottom line?
Freelancers aren’t asking for special treatment — just fair, human, and clear collaboration. I hope this didn’t sound like complaining. I believe that mutual understanding of our experiences and expectations is the key to a good partnership. And when agencies and translators truly work as partners, the quality of the translations get better, and the business benefits overall.
