TransPerfect Reviews

Pros

You won’t be the only one feeling unappreciated in your work life all your co-workers will too so you’ll have a conversation starter

Cons

Don’t believe any of the good reviews, they ask current employees they need to write reviews to bounce up their look. I have never seen micromanagement like in this place. You won’t be treated with any respect and you have imbeciles as managers who get a kick out of being called “a manager”. They promote out of favouritism and give you peanuts for your work

Advice to Management

Start again, the place is ruined

Pros

Made great friends Office is nice and modern Good location - Next to the tube station

Cons

Where to begin? Initially when I applied for this job I ignored the reviews as there were some good ones, however I wish I took the bad reviews on board as there is truth behind nearly every single one of them. I have been working her just over a year and it has by far been the worst experience/year I’ve had so far. The management is so controlling and manipulating, they need to know everything that is being said... and done and will go as far as pulling you in to a meeting room (intimidatingly to find out what’s going on). The manager will stare at your computer screen to see what is going on and sometimes walking by attempting to reach your Skype. You are expected to sign your life away to this company (absolutely no work life balance). Most of the time I find myself doing atleast 11 hrs a day (with no over time pay of recognition for your hard work). If you go on your phone to check a family emergency or simply just want to stop staring at the computer for so many hours, again, you get pulled into a meeting room to be told off (absolutely no freedom). Some teams allow flexible working hours, however this isn’t the case for most - you are expected to be glued to your desk like a robot and no one in the team talks to eachother otherwise you will be given the death stare by your manager. You will constantly work over time and be treated like an enemy if you even think of asking for a promotion or a raise, whilst the higher management are making ridiculous amounts of money from YOUR hard work. They can’t seem to comprehend that we are not machines and are actual human beings trying to pay rent and get by in London, but they seem to want to take everything from you. Despite not being from the industry, absolutely no training was given to me - instead I got shouted out, put down and pressured into getting it right. If I ever asked for help from my manager I would receive heavy sighs and aggressive huffs and puffs to the point where I don’t ask for any help at all. I have never ever come across such a horrible company, absolutely no care is given for employee well being. People have been coming in sick (throwing up in the toilets) and management have just responded with “has xxx been completed on your to do list”. If you get a slight thing wrong you will be put down and intimated without the acknowledgement that the workload can be unbearable and small simple mistakes will be made. When people leave, the management lie to their colleagues and clients stating that “they were not fit for the job and had to be let go”. Which is absolutely mind blowing when the person left down to the horrible culture. Please actually acknowledge that you are the sole reason and no one else is to blame. This has to be the worst team/company I have ever worked for and leaving was probably the best thing I ever did. Friends and family have noticed I am much happier and nicer person to be around since escaping.

Advice to Management

Stop being so controlling, YOU DO NOT OWN YOUR EMPLOYEES and stop pushing your insecurities on us. If you actually invested and gave interest in your employees you wouldn’t have such a high turnover and people would actually enjoy coming in. Even the current people in the team discuss on a daily basis how they will leave. Actually acknowledge that people are leaving because of you and not because they are bad... employees as it was stated.

Pros

Amazing training, constantly learning, high work ethic

Cons

If you not liked you don’t get rewards (even if you put in the work), no freedom, like being back at school, promotion goals are difficult and they keep moving the promotion posts

Advice to Management

More bonuses and better commission structures

Pros

No pros, working at this company was an awful experience and a source of a lot of stress and unhappiness. PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Cons

This company asks current employees to leave good reviews to improve their image, but it's widely known in the translation services industry that TransPerfect is a sweatshop, where employees are paid badly, burnt out, pushed out and replaced, the turnover at this company is extremely high for a reason. It’s appalling how the Production teams treat linguists, with the only importance being on very low rates and... asking linguists to deliver ridiculous amounts of work within inadequate time frames. The industry standard is 2000/2500 words a day, but this isn't considered for ‘Rush’ jobs. As a Project Manager, you’re told to get linguists’ rates down as much as possible (to criminal amounts) and will be reprimanded if you pay a standard rate that the linguist has asked for. The PMs proofread the work themselves and flag ‘linguistic’ issues to the linguists, even if they don’t speak the source language, which doesn't really make sense, as surely a qualified linguist should be doing this, even in English? One pair of PM eyes will be checking up to tens of thousands of words alone, as well as juggling all their other tasks. This isn't an accurate or reliable method, especially for medical files. We were also using linguists that were not completely qualified/certified for medical subject matter (Chinese into English medical documents). The linguists are then harassed to make amends and are not paid for the additional time spent. The linguists are expected to drop everything and provide this free service, even after being paid peanuts to rush through the job in the first place. PMs will even ask linguists who didn't translate/proofread originally to make these changes for free. Translators and proofreaders please avoid this disgusting factory; you will not be treated with any respect or paid fairly. Spiteful managers on a 'power trip' with no people skills, will obsessively micromanage and note down your every move. You'll be reminded of the hierarchy when you flag that the intense managing process is anxiety-inducing. The respect and kindness you receive here is entirely dependent on whether you suck up and get through an impossible amount of work each day. The expectations aren't feasible and you feel like you're working in a sweatshop, with the same repetitive actions every single day. There's a total lack of focus on your strengths as an individual. Every minute of the day must be accounted for here. ‘End Of Day’ summaries and constant check-ins during the day are something I've never observed in a workplace before, this obsessive watching and constant need to know your daily output is put in place for you to be tracked intensely and later scrutinized. Sucking up and trying to be friends with management are the only ways to progress here and have a chance at a decent working life. The way 'Team Leads' treat and interact with senior members of staff is obviously different to how they'll interact with standard workers. There’s a total lack of equality in the workplace here and unlike anything I've ever experienced before, the hierarchy is uncomfortably defined. They promote out of favouritism and you have no voice if you're the bottom of the 'food chain'. If you have no seniority at all, expect to be treated badly and like a ‘nobody’, because that's literally what you are in this company. When you flag misconduct to HR, they will not help you or offer you any constructive advice. Despite being such a huge international company, there aren't any trade union representatives. Preference is always given to management and once you've complained, goalposts will be moved to unrealistic expectations as part of an action plan to push you out, which is disgraceful. There's no job security and the level of ‘bitchiness’ and ‘clique’ hierarchy within the all-female London teams is reminiscent of a horrible high school, instead of a professional place of work. Employees that have moved internally to join other teams are openly referred to as 'traitors' by management, which highlights just how judgmental and cruel this environment is. There's no job progression here, only for the people who have been in the managers' pockets since day one. Employees are put on an extremely slow path to any sort of progression, with words such as 'Senior' and 'Executive' being added to 'Project Manager' to give the illusion that you're actually moving forward in life, but essentially your job stays the same and wage only increases slightly, but not enough to actually reflect the amount of time and energy you're expected to pour into this company. Work-life balance here is terrible. You're expected to work through your hour of unpaid lunch to get through the sheer amount of work set, as well as stay late every evening. You’ll be judged for not staying late. There's a complete lack of culture and team spirit here. Free fruit twice a week and free pizza once in a while, that you eat at your desk whilst continuing to work, does not build real company culture. Treating people like human beings and not robotic work machines is probably a good starting point. Strong individual friendships in teams make it seem like there's positive team morale, but this isn't the case. These friendships are made from bonding over how difficult and stressful the job is, how you never feel good enough and how intense and negative management are. There's no Exit Interview when you leave (most likely because the turnover is so high), which reiterates how this company has no interest in hearing employee feedback. They're not willing to change at all, so there's no hope for improvement, avoid at all costs.

Advice to Management

Learn to be decent human beings and treat people with respect (both your linguists and employees). It's worth reminding yourselves that a professional, respectful work culture encourages productivity and growth, as people feel valued and less stressed. Offer departing employees an Exit Interview, so that you can use their feedback to improve.

Pros

The people. The culture. The energy.

Cons

Benefits. Compensation could be better.

Pros

Strong work ethic towards diversifying continually within a rapid changing market along with a deepened understanding towards culture.

Cons

Inconsistency in processes between family of companies

Advice to Management

Continue to invest time in ensuring there is a streamlined approach towards mapping out processes across the FOCs to ensure universal continuity.

Pros

There are none at all..

Cons

The London office is an absolutely awful place to work. Higher management don't know what they're doing, every team is full of drama and people hating each other and you can only move forward if you pretend to be friends with higher management and do whatever they say no matter if they are wrong (and most of the time they're wrong..). Stay away unless you want to be treated unfairly.

Advice to Management

Needs changing..

Pros

The people your work with are positive, friendly and encouraging. The company will invest in you if you work hard and you can progress your career very quickly! The culture is great and you get to sell a wide variety of serves to all types of clients

Cons

The starting salary is slightly low but if you work hard you can get promoted quickly and start earning commission!