| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Computer stolen, put in hospital before delivery Thread poster: Peter Smedskjaer-Stenland
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svidyaj
India
Local time: 16:50
Japanese to English
+ ...
| Protect your files with a password and upload in your mail everyday | Jul 19, 2013 |
Hi,
It is really sad to know what happened with you.
Hope you are recovering now.
It is always good to have a backup on the internet as well.
Many translators make a point to take a online backup everyday.
In such emergency situations you or someone on your behalf could at least send the files as it is to the agency for further translation/proofreading, explain them your situation and get paid for the work you have done.
If you thi... See more Hi,
It is really sad to know what happened with you.
Hope you are recovering now.
It is always good to have a backup on the internet as well.
Many translators make a point to take a online backup everyday.
In such emergency situations you or someone on your behalf could at least send the files as it is to the agency for further translation/proofreading, explain them your situation and get paid for the work you have done.
If you think you have lost this client then don't bother yourself too much, there are many clients you can work with in the future, just believe in your capabilities.
Good luck! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No word back from agency; not that worried | Jul 19, 2013 |
Discharged for the second time. I am on pain medication for a few more days, so I wont be taking on any jobs; I don't want a repeat of my bad judgement.
I doubt this will be the last time I can't deliver personally. The majority of advice is to form a network of colleagues who can help me out by taking over when can't, either because I am stuck on a ship or other circumstances.
I told the agency my computer was stolen and had to explain why I didn't have a cellphone too; I didn't say... See more Discharged for the second time. I am on pain medication for a few more days, so I wont be taking on any jobs; I don't want a repeat of my bad judgement.
I doubt this will be the last time I can't deliver personally. The majority of advice is to form a network of colleagues who can help me out by taking over when can't, either because I am stuck on a ship or other circumstances.
I told the agency my computer was stolen and had to explain why I didn't have a cellphone too; I didn't say anything about the injuries i sustained and was expecting the agency to say it wasn't their problem why I couldn't deliver.
I will take the advice into use and find colleagues on the Faroe Islands I can trust. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 12:20
French to English
| why on the Faroe islands? | Jul 19, 2013 |
Would you not be able to find some trustworthy colleagues elsewhere? If you don't know anyone, you could try going to a powwow or a conference to meet people. Since the population is so small, the chances of finding a translator in your combination and specialisms might be slim.
I don't understand why you didn't tell the agency about your injuries. I would have done, to benefit from whatever sympathy I might be able to elicit. You DESERVE sympathy! You might want to follow up with ... See more Would you not be able to find some trustworthy colleagues elsewhere? If you don't know anyone, you could try going to a powwow or a conference to meet people. Since the population is so small, the chances of finding a translator in your combination and specialisms might be slim.
I don't understand why you didn't tell the agency about your injuries. I would have done, to benefit from whatever sympathy I might be able to elicit. You DESERVE sympathy! You might want to follow up with another message now to explain fully (mentioning that you were in too much of a funk to be able to explain at the time), just in case the "no word from the agency" could be interpreted as "in too much of a huff with this unreliable translator to bother answering him".
You're still on painkillers, if you like you could post an answer here for us to assess whether it's OK to send it. (or you can send me a private message if you'd rather not have twenty well-meaning people disagreeing over details ) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Cathy Flick
United States
Local time: 05:20
Member (2003)
Russian to English
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| E-mail files in progress to yourself | Aug 3, 2013 |
Just wanted to mention that you can e-mail files periodically to yourself, so in case of disaster you can access them via the web from anywhere and also give a project manager access if needed. Then another translator could finish or proofread or whatever you can't do in time. I just mail files to my yahoo account, which I can also access from my phone. I also do this to easily transfer files between computers.
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Diana Obermeyer
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:20
Member (2013)
German to English
+ ...
| swallow hard and move on | Aug 3, 2013 |
I had a disaster situation once.
We had a major storm on the island and I was left without electricity, phone and internet for 3 days. In this storm, several roofs were blown off etc, so it really was quite bad. I expected the power cut to be solved within hours, and continued to expect it to come back on "any minute now". So instead of looking out the PO by candle light, in order to contact the client, I actually continued to work on the project, by charging my laptop from a car ba... See more I had a disaster situation once.
We had a major storm on the island and I was left without electricity, phone and internet for 3 days. In this storm, several roofs were blown off etc, so it really was quite bad. I expected the power cut to be solved within hours, and continued to expect it to come back on "any minute now". So instead of looking out the PO by candle light, in order to contact the client, I actually continued to work on the project, by charging my laptop from a car battery with the help of a transformer. My glossary etc was in place and I was already half way through the job.
By the time I ran out of car battery, the project was largely finished.
I had left a few segments unconfirmed, where I still wanted to double-check on terminology, plus I needed a slightly more favourable environment to do the final review.
By this time, my house was hit by the storm in an even more extreme manner and the wall moved slightly, putting my window out of joint and it snowed into my living room.
So I decided to come off the island on the next boat that operates (they don't go above a force 8) and move in with a friend for a while until things were fixed.
On my laptop I had a 95% finished project with 2 days to go to the deadline.
Only, travelling when freaking out was maybe not the wisest idea and I ended up in an accident en-route, which left me unable to communicate with the client until after the deadline. I was unconscious to begin with and then on too strong painkillers to understand what was going on.
Once I was able to think straight again, I first tried to use the hospital system, but anyone who has been in a Scottish hospital will know that these silly little screens of ultra-low performance are plain useless. There is not even a word application. You can't upload or download. Most websites don't even load. I wasn't allowed my laptop, apart from it having to be recovered elsewhere.
I phoned a friend, who agreed to take a day off work to travel 40 miles to get my laptop and explained to her, where to find the documents, the contact details etc.
Then I wrote an e-mail to the client to explain the situation and apologise, which in my state took me several hours to do. As it was now after the deadline and I could then see that the client had been trying to contact me, I asked whether they had in the meantime given the project elsewhere or whether I should get my friend to deliver this on my behalf. I didn't think that I should make my friend miss a day at work, if other arrangements had already been made.
I didn't receive a reply and have never heard from that client again. I guess, they probably didn't believe me.
It's not a nice situation for either party. The project was done.
I think in Britain, I can reasonably expect a power and phone line cut to be resolved within a reasonable time-frame. Therefore it seemed reasonable to me to keep working on it, as I only really require the connection for the delivery.
I was still on schedule when I travelled south.
I could not have foreseen an accident.
I worked a week for nothing.
The client will have had to face their own consequences.
They will likely never work with me again.
There is quite simply nothing I can do about that.
It's a matter of swallow hard and move on. ▲ Collapse
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