La crise a bon dos
juil. 02
Voici la copie d'un mail que j'ai reçu aujourd'hui :
I am writing to you about your rate for translation work. As you may be aware, the rates we charge our clients vary depending on various factors including the client’s budget and the nature of the project. This means that we are not always able to afford the rate you gave on your registration form. While this is not too much of a problem at the moment as we are able to negotiate with you directly on pricing on a project by project basis, projects will increasingly be assigned and managed by external language experts who will not be authorised to negotiate rates with individual suppliers. The result of this is that in instances where your standard rate is too high for the project in question, you will not be contacted about the project. In order to maximise your chances of being offered work we would like to give you the opportunity to stipulate a minimum rate in addition to your standard rate.
We will be banding projects from A to E according to how much we are charging the client, and for each band there will be a maximum rate that we would be able to pay the translator. The rate you gave on your registration form is £75 per 1000 words. Under our new price banding system we would not be able to afford this rate for any projects, and we would only exceptionally bypass our new project management system in order to negotiate with suppliers charging a higher rate. If you would like to increase your chances of being offered translation work I would encourage you to specify a minimum rate. Below is a table indicating the maximum rates we would be able to pay for projects falling into any of the five bands.
Band
Maximum rate for translator (£ per 1000 source words)
A
35
B
40
C
50
D
55
E
60
Je me trompe, ou la traduction et l'interprétation sont les seuls métiers où le client fixe le prix (plafond, qui plus est) qu'il souhaite payer ? Pour nous en convaincre, voici une petite vidéo fiction qui devrait en inspirer plus d'un :
