I'm kind of ticked...

Hillbilly Housewife wrote: so, I'm fluent in both English and French...and pretty decent in Spanich and German. Anyway - my boss has been getting me to fix up some stuff she writes, her English is horrible. "I can has cheezeburger" horrible.

Anyway.. a couple times she's asked me to translate a few bigger things... a paragraph or two.. and this morning, she asked me to translate a 2 page document.

I don't mind - I can do it, and I do it well... but.. I'm not supposed to. Technically nothing should be translated internally, everything should be outsourced... and it's usually between .20 and .30 cents a word.

This document had 444 words... at 22 cents a word, that would have cost them 97.64 to outsource it for translation... or I could have given them a cheaper price, say.. 15 cents a word? at 66.60, that's still good for me and for them.. but no, I have to waste half an hour of my time, AND not get paid more than my wage.

Mommy2Isabella replied: It can be frustrating when you are taken advantage of.

Thats awesome that you speak so many different languages. I only know English it's a shame that I don't know others ....

moped replied: Yeah I can see what you mean, but they are thinking "Hey, we have Rocky who can do this for us and save us $$"...........

Very impressive that you speak all those languages.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Yeah, but if the bigger bosses found out, they'd be in trouble.

moped replied: DO you work for the Fed Govt?

lisar replied: I am sorry, I hate it when they ask me to do something and its really not something I am supposed to do.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Sort of... Crown Corp.

I work for a VP in a Museum... and the Museum is "owned" by Heritage Canada. Technically I work for the government, yes.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:

Lisa, working in the public sector is quite different that the public sector.. in the public sector, if they tell you to get them coffee, sweep the garbage etc.. you do it.. in the public sector, there's someone for everything. You CANNOT ask your employee to get you coffee, it would be in violation of labor laws. I mean, you can ask - like - Oh, you're going to the caf.. would you mind picking me up a coffee while you're there? But the employee can say no and not have any repercussions.

Photocopies, document formatting, etc... everyone has a job, and it's so very bureaucratic in the sense that you do NOT ask just any assistant to do just any job. It's very very segmented... and probably the umber one reason why government processing is Sooooooo Slooooooowwww.

Calimama replied: Translate it wrong, they'll never ask you again. Just kidding. Yeah that's not very fair.

Danalana replied: Is there anything you can do, as far as going to someone higher up, or do you just have to do it until your boss is found out?

Hillbilly Housewife replied: For the time being I just emailed the document back to my boss but I put the communications officer (the one who usually send stuff out for translation and revision) in CC.

I wrote:

"Here's the document that you asked me to translate. Should it go to revision?"

At least, it covers my..

moped replied:
But in a way aren't you throwing your boss under a bus? I don't know.........

I would have a hard time wtih work like that because I will do anything and everything, the more the better. But I am not a government employee.

MoonMama replied:


I would be ticked!

maestra replied: I understand how you feel- in the last school district I worked for, it was automatically assumed that I would translate any document presented to me, and for no extra pay.

In this new district, I get a stipend for being bilingual, so that covers any translations they may ask me to do. However, when I do them, people are still really grateful and give me free stuff for doing so. It's nice to be appreciated, and for people to understand that it doesn't fall under my job of being a teacher.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: it owuldn't bother me so much if it wasn't for the fact that she's the one who tells others in our department that I am not allowed to do it.

i used to get a bilingual bonus, but not with this job.

MommyToAshley replied: I guess it's good that I never worked for the gov't. I've always worked for the private sector and I would always do whatever was needed on the job. If it adds to your hours and you are not getting your work done on time, then I think that is different and I can understand being upset. No offense, but I guess I never really understood the "it's not in my job description" philosophy. I have never been a believer in big gov't and this is probably why.