Adv. Shailendra Pathak is the founder of the leading law firm ‘Legalance’. He has been working in the fields of corporate law and IPR for last 14 years. [More about him here]
A Legal View
Since January 2020, the spread of COVID-19 has led to a pivotal change in the work environment. As more and more translators prefer to work from the safety of their homes, they face unique challenges that may require a relook at how we handle workflow issues.
Let’s deal with the challenges.
- Training: Work-from-home has become the new normal, and it’s time we adapt to this situation. Training is vital to make working from home hassle-free. It would help to educate our employees and freelancer workforce in handling sensitive data; its storage, transfer and delivery. The training may include IT handling, copyright issues, sourcing database, and avoiding oversight due to remote operations. Setting up Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) mitigate technical challenges of routine work and act as time savers.
- Remote operations: Translators are bound to face challenges accessing databases of existing translations and other resources. Remote operations make monitoring the work at close quarters difficult. The effect is a time-consuming review process at the end of the project. Setting up a periodic review system helps to stick to the deadlines.
- Data security: Data is precious. A data leak can not only dent your reputation but can also prove to be fatal to your business if it lands in a legal mess. While dealing with the content of a client, it is imperative to have a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement in place. A contract is necessary if you are out-sourcing translation jobs in whole or part. Other ways to protect your data include the use of secure servers to process data, secured internet connections and email accounts, and licensed software with antivirus or firewall.
- Finally, be the St. Jerome who rewrote the Bible, but make sure you give Moses the ‘radiating light’ rather than the ‘horns’!
Happy translating!
