This month's issue of my German translation association's journal MDÜ (3/13) has just arrived in the post. This time it focuses on "human issues", namely coping with stress: the difficult or unsettling situations we experience at work, how we react to them and what we can do to cope with them better. Three of the four articles on these subjects are actually about interpreting – in court, for example, and in a medical environment:
- "Mitfühlen, nicht mitleiden – Dolmetschen im medizinischen Bereich"
- "Machen Sie dem Stress Beine – persönliche Bewältigungsstrategien entwickeln" (with a checklist on personal stress factors)
- "Wenn Helfer Hilfe brauchen – zur psychischen Belastung beim juristischen Dolmetschen"
- "Wenn es einfach zu viel wird – sekundäre Traumatisierung" (interpreting in extreme situations).
It's good to see these topics being addressed in our own trade journal, particularly as it currently has a relatively wide reach with the largest circulation of its kind in the German-speaking world (over 8,000 issues a month, apparently). Mental strain ("psychische Belastung") is something we all have to deal with at some point, and we should think about it and discuss it with colleagues and friends to find ways of handling it effectively. If we don't, it can lame us.
The second article in the above list – on stress at work – is something we will all be able to relate to personally (and the two checklists at the end of it are likely to be helpful aids we can use to reduce stress). Click here to access part of the article as a PDF file (go to the bottom of the page that appears and then click on "Titelthema").
There are three things I've noticed over the years that can be a cause of stress or anxiety at my own workplace from time to time:
- assignments don't come in regularly, but in fits and starts
- it's hard to predict when work is going to be coming in, which makes it difficult to plan your time in terms of what you'll be doing over the next few weeks or months
- as the amount of work varies, so does your income and liquidity.
What can we do about these negative aspects of our work? Well, first of all, I'd say that what we do largely depends on what kind of person we are: introverted, extroverted, ready to pick up the phone and get the ball rolling by contacting customers and asking them about work we are likely to get from them in the near future, or asking them when they will be able to settle an outstanding bill, for example. There's no "right" way of tackling problems that will work for everyone; we all need to choose an approach that suits us personally.
Birgit Golms has emphasised this point in her excellent little book on marketing for translators and interpreters, which I reviewed here in June.
By making marketing an integral part of the working week (or month), we can
- increase our general workload in the short and long term
- balance out the lulls in our work, creating a more even spread of the workload
- increase our monthly and annual income as well as improving our liquidity, thereby reducing the strain on our minds caused by an unsatisfactory business situation.
That's it for this post. To get some more insights and tips, why not take a look at some of the guides on marketing for small businesses available in your own language or talk to a few of your colleagues and pick their brains? Just seeing that other people are in the same position as you are can calm you down by putting things into perspective.
Regards
Carl
image: courtesy of BDÜ Weiterbildungs- und Fachverlags GmbH
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