Skip to main content

Has it ever happened to YOU? I sure hope it never happens to me again :(

I just had to post this picture here, initially shared on Translators Do It Better page on Facebook

I still remember what happened that day in March and that overwhelming feeling of shame... Awful. Why did that happen? It was all my fault. I knew I couldn't give my 100% to work because I was sick, but I still agreed to do it because I really, really missed translating. Money wasn't the issue. I just wanted to work.
I thought I did a good job, sent the file to the project manager, and felt very good about myself because I was able to work in spite of the fever... 

The next day I got my file back from the editor. That pretty small text had 3 serious mistakes, plus a couple less serious ones... Imagine my shame....

The worst thing is I know all about saying "no". I've written some pretty wise and popular posts about it, like this one, or this one. Yet sometimes the desire to work is so tempting that I can't help it. And then I reap the consequences. :( Good thing it doesn't happen often. Hope it never happens again. Hope I finally learned my lesson. That's why I am posting it here. I want to remember it for the rest of my life.

So far, since the experience is still pretty fresh it's easy to remember about my limits and say "no" to projects or redirect them to other colleagues. In fact, I refused a project today because it's my daughter's birthday on Saturday and I've been busy with preparations for the party. Of course I felt tempted to do that file because it was very interesting. But I am actually feeling relieved now, because I can sleep at night and do the necessary preparations during the day and work on a couple other projects with more generous deadlines.

Have you ever broken your own rules if you got a really tempting project? Did you do a good job? If not, did you learn the lesson once and for all or do you sometimes repeat your mistakes?


Comments

  1. Hi Olga, yes something similar happened to me once. I was a working uni student and decided to take a pause from freelancing so to sit my exams. But then a call arrived. I accepted because it was a big agency then realised time was against me. I had to beg a colleague to take it. He was really busy, but accepted. Worst part? Talk to the agency. Horrible, unprofessional, I called it a 'suicide', now I think it was 'lack of professional knowledge'. But those feelings...fear, anxiety and discomfort...they are still alive. I think it's the price we pay for being our own bosses. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sara! Wow, it happened to you ONCE! You are truly a wise person. Saying "no" is my big problem, especially when a project is extremely interesting, or not very hard and well-paid, or, on the other hand, when it is challenging and I want to do it just to prove that I can... Working hard on that part of my character. Professionalism and gambling with your skills don't go together very well.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10 interesting facts about the Russian language

In my previous post  I promised to follow with the  interesting info about some other languages. So here are 10 facts about the Russian language which might be of interest to those who are studying it. If you would like to have this list in Russian, please contact me and I will send it to you by email. So, what do I find interesting about my native language? 1. Russian has about 500,000 words, but only 2,000-2,500 of them are used frequently. 100 most frequently used words make 20% of all written and oral speech. A high school graduate's vocabulary usually has 1,500 to 4,000 words. Those who have graduated from a higher educational institution normally have a richer vocabulary consisting of approximately  8,000 words. 2. It's compulsory for all astronauts in the international space station to learn Russian, so we can call it an international language of space :)

15 interesting facts about the English language

I prepared this list for one of my English classes. And then it dawned on me that I can share it with you, too! So here are 15 facts about the English language that I find very interesting. Hope you do, too ;) Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." No language has more synonyms than English.

Translation Forum Russia 2017: my report

A few days ago I came back from Translation Forum Russia which took place in Ufa, Bashkortostan . My daughter Delia went with me because she never visited Ufa before (neither have I) and because of the trip to the Southern Ural mountains we planned to take after the conference with a small group of colleagues. Ufa is not considered one of the primary tourist attractions of Russia, though I am convinced now that it definitely should be. Some pictures of the city (not all of the pictures are mine, some were made by the official photographer of the conference Elena Ekaterininskaya, our company CEO Fedor Kondratovich and some other colleagues): The bee is a symbol of the region as Bashkortostan produces the best honey in Russia. We saw installations shown below in different parts of the city. There were still covered because of the cold weather, but they will be full of blooming flowers as soon as the warm weather comes. The bee as we saw it That's what it