Pros
-Work from home -No commute -No expenses in transportation, food or clothes -You can work from your bed if you feel like it. -You feel like you can help people that have a barrier communicating. -Easy to request temporary change of schedule (meaning if you want your schedule change for just one day) -At least you have a job!
Kontras
-PAY: Terrible pay, guaranteed minimum wage or 0.25 per minute. So the highest possible earning is $15 per hour which it never happens. The average for Spanish Interpreter is 11 to 12 per hour. There are no increments on salary ever, no sick days, no paid vacations. You only get 80 hours a year for your vacation or time off, but they do not pay any vacation time. Also now if you are interpreter for Spanish working full time, you can't work overtime. -Occurrences: Every little time you need to take off for yourself, either because your are sick of having an emergency, counts as an occurrence, either if it is a whole day or just half an hour. If you have a certain amount of occurrences in one year, they send you a letter. The third letter is for dismissal. -Very difficult permanent change of schedule. Almost impossible. They will not grant it to the point that if you can't meet the schedule, then you'll be fired. -If your need is not in compliance with the company needs, then bad luck! So for example if you need to change your schedule to start working earlier because you need to do something later, and the company doesn't need you at that time, they will not grant you the change of schedule. -If you request vacation time and one of the days is not available but is in the middle of your vacation, and you explain that you'll be out of the country that day, they still will NOT grant you that day, and it will count as an occurrence. So, not only they don't pay you, but they punish you for not being one day back to work in the middle of your vacation. -No communication with other interpreters other than their controlled forums. -Any training or any kind of requirement for advancement is on your time, not company time. You will not get any better pay anyway. -Payroll is a mystery. Impossible to know how are the minutes calculated, specially the overtime minutes, and that is a mystery that nobody will tell you how is calculated. -If you request to speak with someone in Human Resources, you can't. All communication have to be through email. -Management... the best way to explain their attitude is with an image: They are the jews that worked for the Nazis in the concentration camps pushing the other jews to work harder for their piece of rotten bread. The management, when they respond to inquiries, which is NEVER on the same day, most likely will not side with you whatsoever. They don't care for the employee, they care for the clients and they will protect the clients over the employees anytime and always. -NO BENEFITS: you get an extremely limited insurance that will not cover you for anything. On the other hand with the pay you get, you pretty much qualify for financial assistance from any hospital if you can't pay the bill that the insurance doesn't pay. No 401k or any kind of retirement plan and of course NO PROFIT sharing whatsoever! -No incentives for better qualified people. No commendations, no recognition. No bonuses of any kind, and for December holidays, one postcard If you are lucky!
