I mean, apart from my usual duties I was asked to do a bit of translating. Well, not quite a bit. I mean, I am sitting over this damn text for over 2 weeks now, and I absolutely hate it. It’s not the text that drives me crazy, it’s the process itself. I have no trouble at all w/ foreign languages; the problem is that I have acquired headaches b/c of that, and there is no way in hell that I am ever going to repeat this… this… experience or whatever you call it. Translating per se would be fine; but translating AFTER my working hours when I am SO tired… Well, no. Paycheck isn’t worth the trouble. Yeah, well, if my boss says that I have to do it again, of course, I will say yes b/c who would say no, right? But to translate on a regular basis would be truly horrible. That’s my experience.
Is translating in your written job description?
I hear you. We do a fair amount of business with foreign companies. Most of them know that we only do business in English, but occasionally I get documents in German or Portugese or something. Google Translate helps, but there’s always something that just doesn’t translate well, and leaves us scratching our heads. A couple of times I just had to say fuck it, and send an e-mail telling the customer to have their documents translated for us. Dealing with foreign langues is a total PITA.
You could tell your boss how you feel. Or you could just do a really shitty job so they won’t give you any more translating to do.
The best time to look for a new job is while you have one.
Many people think if you know a foreign language, translating is a breeze and only takes a few minutes - wrong!
Let your boss know that it takes a lot of time and effort to translate documents - there are idioms that can have multiple meanings, there are words that don’t have an exact translation, sometimes the context is vague…there is a good reason people get paid to do translations, and some (technical) are paid very well because they are a pain in the ass to do.
Maybe even find a place that does translations and give him that link, or at least let him see what the going rate is for translating documents.
Perhaps your boss has no idea the difficulty of translating documents - but you might at least let him/her gently know this is far more work than might be assumed.
I used to do some translations from German to English while living in Berlin - so did a lot of friends of mine - and we would often get together and agonize over the exact translation of some vague phrase that could easily have multiple meanings. If you are translating how to run a nuclear reactor (true story), you obviously don’t want to make any mistakes!
It was a nice bit of extra income, but sometimes a 10 page technical manual could take several days and many re-writes, and even a meeting or two with the original author to make sure the translation was correct. I can remember some of those German authors re-reading their original German copy and saying, “Yeah, you are right - there are several ways this could have been interpreted - thanks for catching that!”
OK, so why are you doing that, then?
“Sorry, boss, but I didn’t have time to translate that during the working day. Tomorrow for sure.” is a perfectly valid thing to say.
And, if the boss objects, then you should probably point out that you’re not a professional translator.
Why do people think those are magic words to get you out of doing something you don’t like? Even there is such a thing, nearly all job descriptions include the phrase “… and other duties as assigned.”
Unless you have an extremely rare skillset, saying “Not in my job description” is not a good way to keep your job.
Taking a bitch of a translation job home every night to work on it for free probably isn’t in the description, either. There’s a gray area between refusing to do ANYTHING off the clock and doubling your working hours for the same pay, and this sounds like it’s towards the latter.
MMmmmmmm yeah, I’m going to need you to translate these TPS report cover sheets this weekend.
You didn’t say, “Mmmmmkay?” so I don’t have to.
OK, but I have an appointment with a hypnotherapist tonight, so we’ll see…
Unfortunately, this is all true. Somehow the OP needs to find a way to get her boss to understand that giving her a pain in the ass assignment that she has to do after hours is not cool, and not part of the work agreement (without using the term “It’s not my job”).
Asking your boss to prioritize your work day would be acceptable. “Boss, I’m not able to staple all these TPS cover sheets and do your translation task before 5:00. Which would you like me to put aside?”
StG
Are you getting paid for doing this?
I think the first time your boss “accidently” offers to rape a prospective client should be the end of your translation duties.
This.
Tell him what you told us: that you tried doing it after hours and what a burden it is, and if it keeps up much longer, you’ll have to find a new job. Ask if the two of you can find a way to fit it into your regular schedule, or some other solution.
Meanwhile, start looking for a new job. As mentioned above, it’s a lot easier finding one when you have one.
Does your boss know you’re translating after hours, and for over two weeks now? Maybe he thinks the jobs takes only a couple of hours?
I know that most people who speak only one language think that translating takes about as much time as reading and typing out the document.
Yeah, that’s really good. I wouldn’t bring excessive workload and looking for another job into it; I’d just ask for guidance on how to organize my workday, like StGermain has suggested. If the response is, “Just do it after work,” I guess the next step is to discuss overtime pay.
Do you want me to deprioritize my current reports until you advise me of a status upgrade?