Resource and resilience

Lydia Marquardt asked freelance translators and interpreters about their strategies for building resilience. She reports on the results.

There is no doubt that being a translator or interpreter has become more challenging recently. Wherever we turn we hear and see a lot about the difficulties professionals in the language industry are facing; and these should not be downplayed or trivialised. At the same time, I believe that we need to think about how we approach these challenges – from  the way we talk about them to the way we either let them paralyse us or use them  as opportunities to be creative and brave.

I recently conducted a study with experienced freelance translators and interpreters who shared with me their perspectives on current difficulties – and also their thoughts on what is currently working well for them.

Three types of resource to consider

What are resources in this particular context? Very broadly, resources are the things that help us reduce the impact of stress or avoid certain stressors altogether. They help us to be well and to do well – particularly when things get difficult.

Organisational resources come from our workplace. For freelancers, these are rather different from those of employees, but they still exist. For instance, they could well include autonomy over organising your own workload; the flexibility of deciding where to work; and/or the relationships you have with your clients. For both employees and freelancers, the nature of the work itself can be a resource, because it is enjoyable and/or offers a sense of meaning and purpose. If your work enables you to shape your life in a way that aligns with your values, this is a really powerful resource.

Social resources include client relationships as well as your professional and personal networks. Examples might be ITI colleagues and networks, your friends and your family. They are very important: some of the most prominent researchers on the topic of wellbeing believe that positive relationships are the key to a happy life.

Personal resources include things like our skills and experience, but also our psychological resources: courage, creativity, interest in others and so on. The paradox of many emotional resources is that we often do not recognise the ones we have – even though they are highly effective and useful.

Drawing on resources at times of crisis

So, for instance, someone who has experienced a drop in work (and that applies to many of us at the moment) could consciously marshal the following to tackle the issue:

Organisational resources. They consider what other sources of work they could find or what other types of work they could do.

Social resources. They use the time left by the drop in work for attending a local translation and interpreting network event and connecting with new people. They realise that others are having similar experiences, and talking to colleagues in the field helps them feel less alone. They agree on a regular group meet-up to work on strategies for finding new clients.

Personal resources. They use their passion for learning new things to engage with interesting CPD offers, and their creativity to think about how they could combine their personal interest in, for example, long-distance hiking with a new specialisation. They also remember that work always comes and goes and use their experience to remain calm and optimistic.

In practice, most people already do most or all of these things without thinking of them in terms or resources. But by bringing awareness to what we are doing we start recognising what works for us.

How those strategies work in practice

I conducted this study because much of the current research focuses on the challenges and problems translators and interpreters are facing. I wanted to understand more about how they are managing to stay motivated and satisfied – and what is actually working well at the moment.

My study participants were 15 UK-based freelance translators with more than five years of experience. I conducted one-hour interviews with them and asked them questions about their motivation to become translators; their current lives as freelance translators; the challenges they are encountering; and, most importantly, what is helping them stay engaged with and positive about their work. I analysed the data using a method that allowed me to see patterns in what the respondents said – things that were mentioned frequently or connections between certain experiences. The most important finding from this study for me was the realisation that, despite a lot of uncertainty about the future and more significant fluctuations in workload, there was a general sense of not being willing to give up.

I was astonished by how effectively my respondents were using their resources to help them counteract the impact of stress and shape their professional futures in our new industry landscape. What I found was definitely not all doom and gloom: instead, I found resilience and even a fighting spirit ready to take a stand.

Autonomy, peers and personal resources

Three things, in particular, were very clear.

One: autonomy beats everything. Time and time again respondents said the key reasons they preferred being freelance over most (even all) other options were being their own boss; making the decisions about the work they do (and don’t do!); being able to take time off when they want; working from different locations; and being in charge of their business decisions. This is in line with many of the findings from wellbeing research. Autonomy is really important to human beings. A job that gives us control and autonomy is a big resource for our wellbeing and motivates us to put in the effort required to overcome challenges.

Two: our peers are our secret weapon. While the findings on autonomy show that many people do like working on their own much of the time, the many ways that relationships with other translators and interpreters shaped respondents’ experiences were truly astonishing. From providing emotional support and practical advice to sharing jobs, giving feedback, and recommending each other to clients, these peer networks turned out to be a most versatile and dynamic resource, particularly when they involved in-person meetings and personal relationships. Several made the point that we need to view other translators and interpreters as our colleagues, not our competitors.

Our peer communities and networks help us avoid loneliness and provide a wealth of resources to tap into in challenging times. Interestingly, the research on peer communities as a resource for the self-employed is quite scarce. In that sense, our translation and interpreting communities may indeed be a ‘secret weapon’.

Three: personal resources are key. Respondents talked about choosing to stay optimistic and overcoming their fears of reaching out to new clients or engaging in direct marketing by drawing on resources like courage and social skills. Some mentioned the importance of effective coping strategies – like turning to physical exercise for stress reduction or seeing the bigger picture when compromising between the work they would love to do and the work that is available when necessary. This is very much in line with the research showing that the ability to engage psychological resources like optimism or hope is crucial for coping with challenges and avoiding getting stuck in negative, paralysing thinking.

A key component for that is self-belief – confidence in our resources to address the difficulties we are facing. Self-belief in this context is really a subjective assessment of our situation, rather than certified skills or years of experience. It actually comes back to being aware of our resources – and believing that we have what we need to make it work.

Focus on the possible and create an upward spiral

At times like the ones we’re facing, it can be easy to get drawn into negative thinking and to feel there is no point in trying. But how we respond to the situation really matters. I hope that this very brief overview gives a little sense of what resources might look like and how they can help. In a sense, resource awareness and resource use create an upward spiral: by becoming aware of our resources, we foster our self-belief, which makes us more likely to use those resources, and this in turn makes us aware that more resources are available too.

By focusing on what we can do rather than what we can’t, and on what works rather than what does not, we create the conditions for resilience, for personal growth, and for ultimately forging a path towards a positive future.

This article first appeared in the January-February 2025 edition of ITI Bulletin.
 

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