Poll: Have you ever suffered from occupational burnout as a result of your activity as a translator?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Jul 6, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever suffered from occupational burnout as a result of your activity as a translator?".

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Angus Stewart
Angus Stewart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:22
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
No Jul 6, 2018

No, but I did experience burnout as an undergraduate law student on account of the course being so intense and the insane amount of information I was expected to absorb. The great thing about being a freelance translator is that I can tailor the amount of work I take on to how I am feeling, as I have the freedom to turn down work. I did come close to burnout a couple of weeks ago when I received the single worst proofreading assignment of my professional life. I had to put in extra long hours an... See more
No, but I did experience burnout as an undergraduate law student on account of the course being so intense and the insane amount of information I was expected to absorb. The great thing about being a freelance translator is that I can tailor the amount of work I take on to how I am feeling, as I have the freedom to turn down work. I did come close to burnout a couple of weeks ago when I received the single worst proofreading assignment of my professional life. I had to put in extra long hours and had to do an all nighter right at the end of the project, because the client was unwilling to shift the deadline to reflect the additional work I was having to do on account of all the fires that the translator had left for me to fight.

[Edited at 2018-07-06 08:27 GMT]
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:22
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Could do with some more options Jul 6, 2018

How does everyone else define the term?

My daughter spent some time in intensive care instead of doing her first-year uni exams. Her kidneys simply shut down. Gave us all one hell of a scare and taught her a lot about life priorities. She learned the lesson well though, coming out second in her class, and in an engineering degree too!

I've certainly never had anything like that happen to me.


 
Angus Stewart
Angus Stewart  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:22
Member (2011)
French to English
+ ...
Term Definition Jul 6, 2018

Sheila Wilson wrote:

How does everyone else define the term?


I would define it as pushing things to the point where your body gives out as it can't take any more. In my case, I was fortunate in the sense that I managed to hold things together until the day after the last of my finals exams before my health completely imploded and I ended up in hospital. I had said to my parents how I was feeling, but I don't think they really took me seriously as their response was to encourage me to see things through to the end. I had to take a year out between my undergraduate and postgraduate law degrees, but that was by far preferable to what would have happened if I my health had given out before completing my finals. I really couldn't have faced the prospect of still having them to do after I got back on my feet. It happened to a friend of mine and she ended up having to repeat a year, but the stress ended up being too much for her and she never did graduate.

[Edited at 2018-07-06 09:17 GMT]


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:22
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No Jul 6, 2018

I must have been very close to it some 30 years ago when I worked two jobs, was under a lot of stress and didn’t have much sleep, but back then nobody knew what that was and life made me resilient…

 
ikeda45
ikeda45  Identity Verified
Local time: 22:22
Member (2007)
English to Japanese
Yeah Jul 6, 2018

I actually had a headache and threw up a few days ago. Maybe the cause was partially due to this ridiculous subtropical humidity and hotness here.

 
Angelika Friedrich
Angelika Friedrich
Germany
Local time: 14:22
German to English
No Jul 6, 2018

But I might be getting close

 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:22
Spanish to English
+ ...
I Have Jul 6, 2018

During 2015, I was a full-time graduate school student (creative writing and literary translation), at which time I was working on my thesis (a literary translation) and translating two other books, one from Italian and one from French, for two separate clients. One of those books was over 900 pages long. I experienced a lot of mental and physical fatigue during that time and came down with shingles because of all the stress.

But thank goodness, I managed to get everything done.
... See more
During 2015, I was a full-time graduate school student (creative writing and literary translation), at which time I was working on my thesis (a literary translation) and translating two other books, one from Italian and one from French, for two separate clients. One of those books was over 900 pages long. I experienced a lot of mental and physical fatigue during that time and came down with shingles because of all the stress.

But thank goodness, I managed to get everything done.

After I returned from Europe and the UK in June of 2017, I was offered at least three other literary projects but turned all of them down. While my refusal had to do with issues that the end clients put forward to me from their end, I was actually quite relieved that none of it materialized.

I am now waiting to receive and start on a 550,000-word Italian to English project.

I'm glad I took the year off, because I'm now rarin' to get on with this most recent one, for a highly esteemed repeat client!

[Edited at 2018-07-06 15:23 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-07-06 15:25 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-07-06 16:54 GMT]

[Edited at 2018-07-06 16:55 GMT]
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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:22
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
No Jul 7, 2018

But there are times when I've turned down work because I simply needed a break.

Once, about 20 years ago, I accepted a "proofreading" job following eye surgery. I couldn't see to work, plus I was exhausted, and finally returned the job unfinished.


 


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Poll: Have you ever suffered from occupational burnout as a result of your activity as a translator?






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