A Sobering Number: Earning Per Hour Spent

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Recently I discussed a silly and unrealistic view of interpreter's earning:

Today, let's go the other way the monetary pendulum swings: return per hour spent. I keep track of this for every assignment as well. This category includes time:

• traveling
• idling for the duration
• preparing/studying

There you have it: any time spent for the purpose of the assignment counts. The result is going to be way less glamorous, if not downright heartbreaking sweat-shop level of bad.

Say I have a gig that's charged at X per hour and it requires travel, the earning per hour spent clearly will be mathematically lower than X, depending on how much time is spent traveling. The more the hours billed (time present on site), the less impact travel time on the number, so a full-day's court work will come closer to X than a half-day.

Just last week, I completed a short, online Zoom simultaneous assignment. The webinar was heavily scripted for the better part of the event and ended with a Q&A session where the speakers responded spontaneously. The scripts were supplied beforehand. That means taking whatever time necessary to prepare for it, in order to catch up with guaranteed fast speed of speakers reading from scripts. On top of that, the agency kind of forced me to lower my hourly rate saying "this is a very cost-conscious client." True, I could have rejected the job, but I ended up taking it because I wanted more of this kind of experience. In other word, I took the offer (ㄅㄛ ㄒㄩㄝ ˋ) willingly. To add insult to injury, the job occurred at 5AM my time. My sleep schedule was disrupted for it.

This particular job turned out to have one of the lowest earnings per hour spent in my three-year history of being an interpreter. I knew this going in, so no complaint or regret there. But as I reflect on this now, I will swear off taking similar jobs in the future with this lowered rate per hour. It'll have to be at least 1.5X for me to begin to consider it. Despite my need for this experience, I have to prioritize my sense of self-worth and health over a fungible event.

A Chinese saying comes to mind: 不經一事，不長一智 (A fall in the pit, a gain in your wit.)