Working 9 to 5 - What a way to make a living! (Being independent) (2025)

My reason for being a freelancer is that I have almost unlimited opportunities to shift my working hours in such way that they do not interfere with really important things, like finding time for my family, windsurfing, and skiing.
I am willing to stay up until midnight or longer because of that. Looking for a reliable Internet connection on every trip seemed to me a small price to pay because I was able to spend 45 days on the slopes - and I do not live in the mountains - working in the evenings.
Moreover, this kind of reward (indulgence?) system keeps me very efficient and focused. As a result, making the legendary 80,000 pounds Williamson mentioned, or more, no longer requires 24/365 schedule.

In some countries, working 9-5 has the advantage that you get "credit-hours" i.e. you get paid to attend courses and participate in exams.

No it isn't. The title is:

"How to Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator"

Not quite the same.

To earn such a sum, you either work longer hours than 9-5 or you have a rate of about 0.20-0.25 eurocents p.w.
£90/1000.

£90/1000 is slightly over 13 eurocents p.w.

Marc

... for setting me straight about the book.
IMMO, it is not all that important how much you work per day, it is much important how many hours you work per year - provided you are happy with the control you have over when and how much you work (I am). I think my hours are an equivalent to something like 9-6, when averaged throughout the year, and that is less than typical office day plus commute.
You do not have to charge 20-25 eurocents to make $200,000+ a year. 15-17 US cents is sufficient with certain tricks of the trade. Maybe one day I'll write a book about them

... you're clearly not happy as a freelance translator and life's too short to be this miserable and negative.

With all due respect, a lot of your postings dwell on the same point - the downside to translating and how much greener the grass is in freelance IT, for example, as a field you often mention.

(Well that, and your notions that high-speed trains, the Internet and the Council of Europe's grading system somehow help turn non-natives into native-level translators, but that's another issue altogether)

You're entitled to your opinion but what's the point of continually bringing it up here, who are you trying to convince?

If:

a) you're unable to make a decent living as a translator,
b) it means spending too many hours in front of your PC,
c) you can't manage time effectively and juggle without dropping the balls,
d) you resent constant deadlines, and
e) have too many payment issues with agencies

after 21 years experience of the business and with all your language pairs (according to your profile), it's a sign you're in the wrong industry - if that's the case, go do something else.

I sincerely hope the grass is emerald green and lush when you do and that you find some form of professional satisfaction.

Just don't expect the work to always be finished at 5 p.m., especially if you're working in the private sector. You might not have a translation to finish after class, but there are relatively few professionals who don't bring some work home with them - targets have to be met. To think otherwise would be a rather blinkered, not to mention naive approach.

[Edited at 2007-06-15 08:09]

Williamson wrote:
The issue is that working 9-5 has its advantages if you intend to attend other courses, especially if you get paid by an employer to be present at those courses and take exams.
At 5 p.m., the work is finished and you don't have to worry about a translat... [click link to read on]

Why do these comments keep not appearing?

I haven't seen the rest of this, Williamson, so sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick! I wonder if you might just be feeling down at the moment as you're working yourself so hard? It really does sound as if you're fed up.

Would it be possible to take an intensive course in whatever it is you want to learn and tell your clients you're away for training for a couple of weeks?

Williamson wrote:
No, nativeness is not the issue. Never is, never was and never will be. However, you might google : Council of Europe language levels. You might learn that a native at level A2 is not as linguistically skilled as a non-native at level C2.

Apples and oranges again, a native at A2 isn't linguistically skilled at all and shouldn't be translating. But let's not get sidetracked again.

There is no "issue" - if someone has good time management skills they can combine all sorts of activities. Besides, professionals earning £ 80,000 a year bring home work and work-related stress with them too, to think otherwise is naive.

That's a generalised and vague statement to try and justify how

Yes, I could, in detail, but it's not going to change your mind, besides I have one of those "damned deadlines" to meet and since writing an essay here doesn't pay ...
Suffice it to say, no job is "paradise" but for the record I haven't given up law for translating. I retain shares in my law firm and work on a consultancy basis - I've simply chosen to combine the best of both worlds.

You've mentioned IT a number of times - go back through your past postings and refresh your memory.
At any rate, have fun "evolving" ...

Yes, some might prefer to call that "obstacle" a saving grace - but "evolve" in a different direction then - just find

[Edited at 2007-06-15 10:12]

I need a mix too, which is why I haven't stopped practising law. I just stick to the detail-oriented parts that interest me and let my partners deal directly with the clients, which for practical reasons is necessary anyhow since they are based thousands of miles away on another continent. But it works, the fees roll in.

You have all those language pairs, isn't Irene's suggestion an option Williamson?

[Edited at 2007-06-15 12:49]

Williamson wrote:
The issue is that working 9-5 has its advantages if you intend to attend other courses, especially if you get paid by an employer to be present at those courses and take exams.
At 5 p.m., the work is finished and you don't have to worry about a translation waiting to be finished.

Hi, William! Since you know me, you do know that I work a the Commission in Luxembourg as translator. So what I'm saying, I'm not saying it from hearing or having impressions. Working from 9 to 5, in a European institution can be as stressful as in the private sector or as a freelancer. First of all, if you don't aply to flexitime, you must be at work at 8:30 and not leave before 17:30. Yes, you have a noon break from 12:30 to 14:30 but I bet people would rather leave sooner than have such a big break. Anyway. If you are on flexitime (if you're boss allows it) you are still very closely check and monitored that you do you're work. Even more, I'd say. And there are still the core hours which end at 16:30.

Besides hours, we are almost constantly stressed by deadlines because, for example, appart from the revision we do ourselves to our translations, everybody revises everybody so a given deadline by the end „client” [EU institution] is not the real deadline because you're work has to be finished earlier, given to the reviser (you give him time enough to do his revision), and than some time left to introduce his modifications and have one more look. Plus, our documents generally have to go out at 4 o'oclock if not specified otherwise.

I bring translations home very often. To catch up with my work not because I work slow but because there is too much work to do in certain periods or deadlines change or we get new versions of documents already translated and.. there you go again, just when you sought you're done with them. We had times when we were asked to come to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Luckily, this is compensated in free days, for 1 day you get 1,5 days. But still, I'd prefer not to come to work on WE or stay till late if possible.

We also have what is's called „permanence translator” and „stand-by translator”. The permanence translator, every day another person, has to be in his office until 6 o'clock. The stand-by is on duty for a week from Monday 9 o'clock until next Monday 9 o'clock. Being a public service we have to be able to deliver and say „yes, Sir, yes, document will be translated until tomorrow first thing in the morning” if required. It doesn't happen often, but it does. When you're on such a week, you MUST keep all you mobile phones open and ensure the battery is not empty, you MUST answer wherever you are and come to the office and start translating. Last year, a day before Christmas, President Barriso demanded the urgent translation of a document, 20 pages, over the night, for Spanish and another language. So.. the Spanish stand-by translator came to the office and did the translation as well as a colleague of him in order to cover the revision...

As freelancer, you can say NO whenever you want. As employee, you can't. Unless you put down you resignation as well.

Is is not always so stressful, but 75-80% of the time it is especially because we are entitled to many holidays in the EU system which makes that we are often too few to do the same work as when everybody is at the office.

And you don't negotiate what you translate or not. You must be able to translate all kind of fields, all kind of documents, even if you like them or not.

Concerning courses, seminars, training at workplace or elsewhere, paid by your employee.. that is really very useful and helpful AS LONG AS your request is accepted. There has to be a need within the department for you to go a particular course or training and the TIME to do it... if too difficult period, many documents, few people, you're request is turned down.

So, I can tell you that there are also negative aspects in working as an employee, not only positive as you seem to see...

What I can tell you is that when my contract ends, I'll gladly turn back to be a freelancer and won't bother learning for EPSO concours to become an official or get some other contracts for a fixed term.

the general public views translation as an activity you do, when you are not capable of doing something else or you have nothing better to do.

That I totally disagree. I've been very much appreciated, even envied, as well while being in Romania as now being in Belgium-Luxembourg. It absolutely never happened to me to be looked at with condescendence or anything symilar... Sorry if that happened to you!

This one is pretty scary:-) I strongly disagree. Anything? If that "anything" varies between most general subjects, sure. How about applied physics, medical, orbital mechanics, oil well cementing? No problem, just like that?

This "skin beauty" created by translators who would just put a pile of "smart words" together and ooze with pride that they were actually able to find them in the dictionary or using Google is the worst thing that can happen to our profession...

Ooops... I guess I took it out of the context. Sorry!

[Edited at 2007-06-16 14:04]