| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Do you sign confidentiality agreements before seeing the potential project? Thread poster: Diana Coada (X)
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Diana Coada (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:15
Portuguese to English
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Some agencies contact you to check your availability for a project without even mentioning the word count, without sending you a sample or asking for your rates. They say they can only do that after you sign the NDA.
What's your opinion on this practice?
| | | | | Makes (partly) sense to me! | Feb 1, 2013 |
If the matter is to be kept confidential, you have to sign the NDA before being granted access to the files.
What does not make sense and is unprofessional and in a way rude is ANY bureaucracy (NDA, forms etc) before discussing and agreeing on the rates.
| | | | Alex Lago
Spain
Local time: 12:15
English to Spanish
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| Makes no sense | Feb 1, 2013 |
I have no objection to signing a NDA before seeing the actual file (after all if the document is confidential it would be illogical to show it to me before I signed a NDA) but before we get to this stage I need to know all the other details (word count, rate, deadline, subject) and only if those details are acceptable would I then go ahead and sign the NDA, so if they don't want to give me any details I see no point in signing the NDA.
| | | | | It's not unheard of... | Feb 1, 2013 |
Anna Spanoudaki-Thurm wrote:
If the matter is to be kept confidential, you have to sign the NDA before being granted access to the files.
What does not make sense and is unprofessional and in a way rude is ANY bureaucracy (NDA, forms etc) before discussing and agreeing on the rates.
... though it's annoying, time-consuming and sometimes a total waste of time. When sending back the signed agreement, I always say: Please find your NDA attached. My general rates are ....
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 12:15
Spanish to English
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Not if I can help it. In general, I find being asked to sign confidentiality agreements rather insulting anyway, and am always reluctant to sign or commit to anything sight unseen.
To me, a confidentiality agreement is like a pre-nup. It basically says "I don't trust you"...
[Edited at 2013-02-01 12:37 GMT]
| | | | Hipyan Nopri
Indonesia
Local time: 17:15
Member (2005)
English to Indonesian
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| Signing an NDA after Pre-negotiations | Feb 1, 2013 |
Diana Coada wrote:
Some agencies contact you to check your availability for a project without even mentioning the word count, without sending you a sample or asking for your rates. They say they can only do that after you sign the NDA.
A translation agency usually asks me to sign an NDA following our negotiations of all important things.
It certainly makes sense that they will send the documents after the NDA is signed by the agency and the translator.
| | | | Shai Navé
Israel
Local time: 13:15
English to Hebrew
+ ...
| In some cases it makes more sense than others | Feb 1, 2013 |
Personally, unless they are trying to sneak in some unreasonable and/or binding clauses to the NDA (which to me is the more concerning trend), I don't mind signing it. Afterall, I take all the business confidentiality and privacy aspects of our work very seriously, and quite frankly, don't need to sign a document in order to do my best to protect them. I'm sure that all professionals do the same.
However, as others have already mentioned, it doesn't make much sense to waste valuable... See more Personally, unless they are trying to sneak in some unreasonable and/or binding clauses to the NDA (which to me is the more concerning trend), I don't mind signing it. Afterall, I take all the business confidentiality and privacy aspects of our work very seriously, and quite frankly, don't need to sign a document in order to do my best to protect them. I'm sure that all professionals do the same.
However, as others have already mentioned, it doesn't make much sense to waste valuable time on signing NDAs and all the associated communication without at least having the basic details of the project and a tentative agreement about other project-related terms such as rates and time frame.
[Edited at 2013-02-02 02:09 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Never! (Never.)
PS: I have done it in the past, but over the last years I follow my rule of not signing agreements without a legitimate interest in my services, an actual job, and a PO.
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You always have to sign confidentiality agreements before being able to see the text.
| | | | Diana Coada (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:15
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER | My feelings exactly | Feb 1, 2013 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
I follow my rule of not signing agreements without a legitimate interest in my services, an actual job, and a PO.
and pretty much what I tell the agency.
| | | | Natalie
Poland
Local time: 12:15
Member (2002)
English to Russian
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MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER | Yes, of course | Feb 1, 2013 |
A non-disclosure agreement is NOT the same that your contractor agreement with the agency! These are two different things. If the text for the translation is confidential, you NEED to sign an NDA to have the access to the document, otherwise the agency would breach their NDA agreement with the client by providing their text to a 3rd party.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:15
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Natalie wrote:
A non-disclosure agreement is NOT the same that your contractor agreement with the agency! These are two different things. If the text for the translation is confidential, you NEED to sign an NDA to have the access to the document, otherwise the agency would breach their NDA agreement with the client by providing their text to a 3rd party.
ETA: I don't quote on ANY job unless I've seen the document. A sample is rarely sufficient.
[Edited at 2013-02-01 19:32 GMT]
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Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:15
French to English
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| Characteristic of time wasters | Feb 1, 2013 |
Diana Coada wrote:
Some agencies contact you to check your availability for a project without even mentioning the word count, without sending you a sample or asking for your rates. They say they can only do that after you sign the NDA.
It's understandable that before seeing a highly confidential document, you might need to sign an NDA.
However, if they can't even (a) give you a word count and rough description of the project, (b) agree an approximate in-principle budget, and (c) assign the project to you in principle, then in my experience alarm bells would be ringing that this is essentially going to be a waste of time.
If there's really an actual project that a busy client/agency is keen to assign to you, then the NDA should be a minor niggle in the more interesting and pressing procedure of sorting out the actual translation, not something that is overshadowing things.
| | | | Rolf Kern
Switzerland
Local time: 12:15
English to German
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In memoriam
I have given up this unnecessary red tape. If there is an acceptable job, I will immeditely sign such a confidentially agreement, althougt I do not see the point.
Rolf
| | | | | After negotiating rates and delivery timeframes | Feb 1, 2013 |
I usually sign NDA agreements for most of my clients, but I always negotiate rates first, then the delivery timeframe. Over the time all those NDAs will begin to stack up on your desk, and the less you have, the better
Regards,
Alfonso
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