Pros
You learn how malicious management can spread a negative culture, and try to avoid it in the future. The only positive is that you appreciate other agencies when you finally leave TPT.
Cons
a) We used to constantly lie to the linguists and sometimes to each other. Most "client reviews" are just proofreader's opinions. We used to tell linguists "the client has an issue", while the project was still in production. It's psychological terrorism through lies. Similar practices sometimes among employees. The management from America has established this malicious culture, it affected us all. b) At Transperfect all linguists involved in a project may be paid less than half of a project's budget. I felt ashamed asking people for highly specialized work at such rates. I had to use good linguists to secure a client (samples, glossaries etc), and promised them "a big project coming up", and then we would send the bulk of the work to the cheaper ones. To those that worked to get us the client, we would lie that "the client cancelled it". Our promises worth nothing in this company, I felt I was not a trustworthy person. Project managers are trained in methods to lower the linguists' rates, as if the linguist are fat cats (!). The "production metrics" for linguists are based on no scientific or empirical evidence whatsoever and are unrealistic. Cheaper linguists accept them and then we consider them responsible for the entire project. Sales charges clients with "formatting", which is actually done for free by the linguists (!!!). Shameful, and not standard in the industry at all. In one case the linguist asked me for formatting fee, which we charged the client at 3x what the linguist asked me, and I had to refuse it. c) There is no work-life balance whatsoever, you must stay until you' re done, and you will end up hanging out with your other colleagues. The financial crisis has made many people willing to accept such conditions. The company is extremely profitable and has no reason to resort to exploitation of pretty much everyone, that's really low ethics.
