We mentioned in our last post that gas prices have been soaring this year, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be dropping any time soon. Luckily with the general trend toward remote work, many have the option to work from home and save on travel and gas in the tank. However, this doesn’t mean that translators, and interpreters especially, should just exclusively hole up in their homes. For instance, the gas price increase will affect low-income households terribly, especially those that don’t speak English, or speak limited English.

Similarly, the American baby formula shortage has left parents struggling with increased costs for formula—at least, the formula that they can find. We’re not expecting the issue, or the ramifications, to be resolved overnight. Once again, low-income families could easily be hit the hardest, with non-English speaking families having another barrier to entry concerning information from news outlets, supermarkets, and doctor recommendations. We suggest keeping a close eye on news concerning this event. Even if formula were magically restocked and prices dropped to normal tomorrow, there would still be long-lasting effects, especially concerning the health of children.

It would be best for translators and interpreters to be prepared to travel for assignments concerning low-income households and LEP (Limited English Proficiency/non-English families). These low-income households might not have easy access to the technology needed for remote translation or interpretation. Even access to email and cell phones might be limited or impossible. Given the tendency for low-income families to have a lower quality of health compared to medium-income households, they could very likely be in need of in-person interpretation at a clinic or hospital. In-person interpretation activities may gradually rise again.

Sadly, the Russian war with Ukraine is unlikely to end any time soon. Many Ukrainians have fled, looking for refuge, and numerous translators and interpreters have stepped up to the plate. Yet still, the need for translations and interpretations into and out of Cyrillic-based languages will likely only rise. We suggest that any translator or interpreter able to help do so.

Lastly, while there has been some return to “normalcy,” Covid-19 is still a danger to many and will likely stay that way going into the end of 2022. We hope you use lots of precautionary measures, and stay safe and healthy.

The first one is to be sure to have a separate space for your work. This might not be possible for everyone depending on where you are living, but it is important to have a space that you can identify as your workspace for multiple reasons. The first reason is for productivity reasons. Your home is traditionally your place to relax. It is pretty much a “no work zone.” But now, you are bringing your work into that space. This means your workspace and your relaxation space will inevitably mix together, and you will not be as focused when working, and you will be more tense while relaxing. The next reason is that, it will be easier for you to concentrate if you have a separate space where you can be as alone as possible. This will help to replicate you being in an office setting and allow you to focus more since you will be able to physically block distractions.

The next step is to make sure you get up, stretch, and walk around. Staying too sedentary is something very common among translators, and for good reason. But staying in the same spot, doing the same repetitive motions is actually very detrimental for your health. Just getting up and doing a few stretches every hour or so will help to refresh your body as well as your mind. You will also be able to prevent any kind of damage to your body that comes from prolonged immobility.

Next, be sure to have a good internet connection. There are a great deal of ISPs that have data caps on their internet, and if you are living with a family, you might already be getting close to that cap every month. Add in to the fact that you are now working from home and having to download files to translate, you might exceed that cap easily. You should make sure that you can operate within the means of your internet plan, and if you can’t find a better one so that you have reliable internet.

For the last tip, be sure to save your files both offline and online, and save frequently. With modern technology, it is increasingly common for everyone to save their files to a cloud service so that it is easier to share and access by multiple parties, but if there is a problem accessing the internet, then you will not be able to continue work anymore. Likewise, if something happens to your computer or device you are working on, and you are not able to use it anymore, having access to the file online will make sure that you can access it from a different device and thus allow you to continue work.

Remote work is a new work environment for most of us, so it is important to keep in mind what needs to be done so that you can comfortably continue to work from home. Be sure to stay healthy both mentally and physically so that you can continue to sustain this new work life without any problems.