When you’re working as an interpreter or a translator, it is inevitable that you have to work with other people especially clients. Regardless of whether you are a freelancer or working in-house, you will have to interact with your clients to find out the scope of work, their expectations, and to negotiate with them to ensure that both your needs are met. Usually, these talks go very smoothly, but there are times where your client will not be so kind or maybe even the people you work with won’t be so kind or easy to work with. The question is, what is the best way to deal with the situation so that you can avoid making the environment worse and spiral into an unsalvageable situation. Here are some tips to make sure that you are able to deal with these kinds of difficult people.
First, try to focus on yourself and calm down. This might be one of the more difficult tips in this post, but it is one of the most important ones. If you can stay calm, you can control the situation. For example, if a client begins requesting unreasonable things from you such as shorter turnaround times, a reduced cost, or are constantly arguing with you about how to translate certain things despite not being an authority on the language or subject, it is easy for you to become heated. You might feel as if your professionalism and your skills are being attacked, that they don’t respect you, or even that they are trying to cheat you. The best thing to do in this situation is to step back, take a deep breath, and calm down. If you can calm down, you will be able to not give into emotion, give calm answers, and stay in a position where you are able to effectively negotiate with the difficult person and come out on top.
Next, when you are talking with the difficult person, it is important that you try to understand things from their perspective. Really try to understand why they might be acting the way that they are. Of course, some people might just be difficult for the sake of being difficult, but the majority of the time, there is always some kind of underlying reason. Try and ask questions that are not too aggressive, and instead ask questions that won’t allow them to answer in an aggressive way and instead lead them to a more friendly answer that only has the necessary facts in it.
In addition, when you do try to talk to them, try only stating the facts instead of talking about your feelings or opinions. If they have the facts laid out in front of them, it will be difficult for them to try and dispute whatever you talk about. It will also help you to stay calm and not make them feel as if you are attacking them. It will also make for an easier conversation where you do not have to think about how to phrase your questions. By sticking to the facts, you make for a quicker, more structure conversation that will be hard to derail without the other person looking like they are intentionally being difficult. For example, if there is a dispute about a specific translation, and your reviewer says that your translation is wrong despite there being a style guide where it says how the client wants a specific phrase translated, then be sure to cite that when talking to them.
There are many more things you can do to make sure that you are able to effectively communicate with a difficult person and to diffuse the situation, but one of the most important things is to just remain calm and stick to the facts. This could be considered the most basic of the tips for dealing with difficult people, and is a great way to start. Remember, you cannot control how other people act, but you can always control how you act.