“Too Many Cooks…”
This was the title of one of my Twits yesterday: “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.
The reason was this: I had just spent the previous hour making arrangements and getting authorizations for a short presentation I am interpreting for tomorrow, in the South of France.
I was approached on 24 January by a consulting firm working for an organization that is holding its Congress tomorrow. One of my clients has been invited to take part as a speaking guest, and had given my name as their preferred interpreter (nice!). The consulting firm duly sent me a confirmation e-mail, and when I mentioned that I would need to announce my fee and conditions, and get written confirmation, i.e. a purchase order for the engagement, they simply said they were forwarding the fact that I was available to the organization, and someone would get in touch with me.
Well, they never did. Or, they did, but it was about equipment, nothing official. And because I was busy on a big translation project, with the deadline looming large, I must admit I was a bit lazy there.
In fact, I’ve had so many organizations in the past few years, that just gulped, caught their breath and hastily told me that my fees are very high indeed, and they’d think about it, and I never heard from them again, that I’ve got used to being contacted, and to hope for the best. That’s something I must deal with differently, I know. Follow-up is essential, and I am not doing enough of it.
Anyway, last Monday I started wondering for good, but it was so close to the date that I really thought they had decided to do without me. Until yesterday, around midday, when my client’s assistant called me to say how happy she was to see me on Thursday, and she was sending me the presentations for me to prepare. Ouch! What was going on? Plus, the meeting started not at 10am as announced initially, but 9.30am, which can make a hell of a difference with flight times out of Paris.
So I spent the next hour trying to reach her contact (yet another person) on his cell phone, someone who, for reasons I discovered later, had no idea who I was, and had to call his assistant and call me back confirming that everything was fine, and he had no idea what had happened.
So then I had to book a seat on the morning flight out. This being not a very busy destination, I was lucky, because there is only one flight out that early in the morning, and I couldn’t leave before, because I have to make special arrangements here when I am away for more than 24 hours.
So I got the flight booking, and the organizer accepted my interpreting fee and the fare without batting an eyelid, and the confirmation was faxed back to me virtually within seconds.
Then the consulting firm (having probably been called by the organizers), called to ask about what happened and to offer apologies.
In the end, I was able to reassure my client that I would be there tomorrow, although this means I have to leave before crack of dawn to drive to the airport. Ain’t I lucky that I am flying out from the airport closer to me? I can drive there under 20 minutes and leave my car for the day.
What happened? I, being at the bottom end of the line, can’t tell for sure. But for one thing, too many people were involved in the (non) decision-making process. I know, without exaggerating too much, that we interpreters and translators do not rank high in the pecking order. Once it was confirmed that I was available, I could easily be forgotten, I was taken for granted.
But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that when you do not rank high, you’d better ask for contracts and purchase orders before making any plans. If they forget about you before the fact, will they remember to pay you after the fact?
I’m not taking any chances. Would you?
So that leaves me now a day to prepare a rather sensitive topic. Fortunately I can rely on the glossaries I have compiled for previous occasions, and I can browse the Internet to check on recent developments in the field. I have experience and I’m not worried. But young colleagues would find it stressful at best.
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