| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Did you lose any clients due to being on parental leave? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Did you lose any clients due to being on parental leave?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 15:47
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Of course not. In a good professional relationship the client values the translator's work. In that case it would be a stupid decision of any agency to dump a translator just because he has been unavailable for a few weeks.
What kind of agency or business would actually do that? In any case agencies you'd better avoid like the plague.
[Edited at 2022-07-12 08:27 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-07-12 08:27 GMT]
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 15:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
But then, I haven't been on parental leave yet.
I have lost potential jobs (some quite large) due to being on holiday, but I don't think I've ever lost existing clients due to being on holiday. I might have been dropped from being a client's "favourite" translator (i.e. some other translator who covered for me during the holiday ended up taking my spot as the new favourite).
I don't think my clients care what kind of a holiday I'm on (parental leave or otherwise), i.e.... See more But then, I haven't been on parental leave yet.
I have lost potential jobs (some quite large) due to being on holiday, but I don't think I've ever lost existing clients due to being on holiday. I might have been dropped from being a client's "favourite" translator (i.e. some other translator who covered for me during the holiday ended up taking my spot as the new favourite).
I don't think my clients care what kind of a holiday I'm on (parental leave or otherwise), i.e. I don't think any of them will discriminate against me for being on one kind of a holiday instead of a different type of holiday. ▲ Collapse
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I have 3 children but when I started freelancing my children were all grown-up and my baby days were truly over…
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Lieven Malaise wrote:
Of course not. In a good professional relationship the client values the translator's work. In that case it would be a stupid decision of any agency to dump a translator just because he has been unavailable for a few weeks.
What kind of agency or business would actually do that? In any case agencies you'd better avoid like the plague.
That said, I would advise doing the odd little job here and there rather than disappearing completely for months on end, as PMs come and go.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:47
French to English
No, but I didn't actually start translating until my youngest started school. I wanted to start just after I had my first, and a translator I knew advised me not to take on self-employed status until I'd finished having babies, because taking time off was disastrous when self-employed.
As a PM, I always reassured any translators going on maternity* leave that we would still contact them after they came back. For my go-to, I actually looked for somebody to replace her for certain en... See more No, but I didn't actually start translating until my youngest started school. I wanted to start just after I had my first, and a translator I knew advised me not to take on self-employed status until I'd finished having babies, because taking time off was disastrous when self-employed.
As a PM, I always reassured any translators going on maternity* leave that we would still contact them after they came back. For my go-to, I actually looked for somebody to replace her for certain end clients.
I remember her apologising when she had to give up on finishing a translation because of contractions, I just told her to get off the phone and concentrate on giving birth and let me worry about the translation.
* It looks like Proz is trying to be gender neutral here. However, in France we have a few weeks "maternity leave" for women giving birth or adopting, and even less "paternity leave" for men who are adopting or whose wife is giving birth (paternity might just be for salaried workers, not sure), and 2 and a half years "parental leave" for either parent, that you can take if you have worked as a salaried worker for a certain number of years previously. I never encountered any translator taking parental leave.
[Edited at 2022-07-12 13:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Well, what is it? | Jul 12, 2022 |
Kay Denney wrote:
It looks like Proz is trying to be gender neutral here.
Yes, I assumed the poll creator was thinking of that which used to be maternity leave but which in many countries now also cover the partner of the woman that gave birth. I assumed it refers to the type of leave that is taken as a single block of days or weeks immediately before and/or after the baby is born.
But similar types of leave really depend on the country.
In the Netherlands, a woman can get paid "pregnancy leave" (6 weeks before birth) and paid "birth leave" (10 weeks after birth). The partner/father of the woman gets 1 week of paid "partner leave" and 5 weeks of half-paid "supplemental partner leave" immediately after the birth. I'm not sure who pays for this if you're employed (employer or the government... it differs/depends), but freelancers do qualify for this as well (via government funds).
In addition, both partners qualify for 26 weeks of paid "parental leave" before the baby is 1 year old (or before an adopted child has been in the family for 1 year), which can be taken as individual hours (either in one go or spread across the year... useful for babysitting purposes). Again I'm not sure who pays for this. If you're unemployed, you don't qualify for this. If you're a freelancer, then how much money you get depends on how many hours you work per year. Freelancers are by definition flexible already, so I'm guessing freelancers might use this as a type of extra income...?
[Edited at 2022-07-12 15:12 GMT]
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 16:47
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
| Useless poll | Jul 12, 2022 |
No, because I have not been on parental leave.
That being said, I also understood it to mean months or even years (not just a few weeks) and in such case would not seriously expect clients just to sit and wait for a translator's return, whatever the reason of their absence. That's just the freelance life.
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Emily Gilby
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:47
Member (2018)
French to English
+ ...
I imagine it's very hard becoming a new parent and trying to keep your freelancer career going. My sister and sister-in-law are both on maternity leave at the moment from full-time employment in the UK and they'll have their jobs to go back to after without any worry about that, but I don't think this time would be as stress-free for freelancers (in the job security sense) as it is for those in full-time employment. I'd imagine you could get replaced as the "favourite" translator for agencies ov... See more I imagine it's very hard becoming a new parent and trying to keep your freelancer career going. My sister and sister-in-law are both on maternity leave at the moment from full-time employment in the UK and they'll have their jobs to go back to after without any worry about that, but I don't think this time would be as stress-free for freelancers (in the job security sense) as it is for those in full-time employment. I'd imagine you could get replaced as the "favourite" translator for agencies over the period of just under a year (as it is roughly in the UK) and find it hard to make it back to the top spot again. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | parental leave for freelancers? | Jul 12, 2022 |
That was a long time ago ... I do remember that I warned my few customers that I would be unavailable for a month or two, but they came back.
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I am single, I am not a parent. However, I hope no parent-translator loses any client due to being on parental leave, unless maybe temporarily during the leave only.
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 17:47
English to Arabic
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Emily Gilby wrote:
My sister and sister-in-law are both on maternity leave at the moment from full-time employment in the UK and they'll have their jobs to go back to after without any worry about that, but I don't think this time would be as stress-free for freelancers (in the job security sense) as it is for those in full-time employment.
That's not because their employers are voluntarily generous, it's because they're forced to by the law.
Freelancers, however, are not protected by law, yet. Which needs to change ASAP.
An employer, any employer, will be involuntarily generous as long as they see the "Stick".
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 16:47
Member
English to Turkish
| PMs are not your friends | Jul 13, 2022 |
I don't know about those fabled 'boutique agencies' located in rural France or Denmark, with which a good number of forum posters from Europe seem to working and which apparently wait for hours/days for you to reply to their emails, the PMs from the kind of agencies I have to work with tend to forget about you pretty easily if you turn them down once too often despite all the friendly greetings, smilies, and the commendation of your work. As others mentioned above, you run the risk of getting re... See more I don't know about those fabled 'boutique agencies' located in rural France or Denmark, with which a good number of forum posters from Europe seem to working and which apparently wait for hours/days for you to reply to their emails, the PMs from the kind of agencies I have to work with tend to forget about you pretty easily if you turn them down once too often despite all the friendly greetings, smilies, and the commendation of your work. As others mentioned above, you run the risk of getting replaced by new favorites.
Btw, speaking of 'boutique agencies', I remember getting contacted by one of them years ago for a largish project, where the agency owner said their regular translator was unavailable for some reason. They paid very well and I waited for months/years for them to contact me again, sending emails to remind them of my existence, but they never once replied back to me. Apparently they continued to work with their favorite translator after they'd recovered or got back from their holiday or whatever... So boutique agencies are loyal like that. I curse myself everyday for getting into this freelance game as late as I did. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 15:47
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Baran Keki wrote:
I don't know about those fabled 'boutique agencies' located in rural France or Denmark, with which a good number of forum posters from Europe seem to working and which apparently wait for hours/days for you to reply to their emails
That is of course not how it works. They don't wait for hours/days. They replace you instantly if you are not available. But you just belong to the pool of preferred translators, which means they keep on sending requests on a regular basis and take note of your unavailability, after which they contact you again (even after weeks of unavailability).
Baran Keki wrote:
As others mentioned above, you run the risk of getting replaced by new favorites.
That risk always exists, even if you have loyal clients. You never know why agencies like working with you. Apart from affordable rates, productivity, availability, punctuality, overall quality, etcetera you can also be, for whatever reason or for one or more of the aforementioned reasons, a favorite of a PM in particular, so if he or she leaves the company you might have a problem.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 16:47
Member
English to Turkish
| I was told otherwise | Jul 13, 2022 |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
They don't wait for hours/days. They replace you instantly if you are not available.
Okay, 'days' may be a bit of an exaggeration, but apparently they wait for hours for you to wake up and reply to their emails if you reside in places like Australia or USA (as I was told this, not in so many words, in a discussion about time zones on some other thread). I'm talking about the 'boutique agencies' here (you know the ones that pay well over 0.12 EUR per word and don't tend to work with CAT tools and MT), not the ordinary agencies that are part of larger groups, driven by profit, if that makes sense?
[Edited at 2022-07-13 08:32 GMT]
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