Convo Communications   reviews

Underhanded. Sneaky. No respect to CPC. Profit oriented not people oriented regardless of their marketing statements. Stretch workers to the point of burn out and break down. Gaslighting. Intruders/forced work from home regardless of workers ability to accommodate. Zero incentives for shift differentials. Zero stipend for use of personal utilities and space for their product in a private home.

They already pay below market rate but the Deaf owned/operated is the appeal. However, the platform is terrible-no virtual teaming, glitchy, and minimal features that support interpreters to do their best work. The active promotion of college classes over zoom being a great option to use VRS. This is an injustice to the Deaf community and an abuse of interpreters. Deaf people have had to fight to get the right interpreters or any interpreters in their college classes and to then suggest and endorse VRS for all varieties of college classes instead of pushing the local interpreters to go to VRI for the students, shows how reckless Convo was to make more money and not actually care about the quality of language access. VRS is not meant for VRI of college classes. FCC says keep calls for 10 min, so many switch after 10 leaving a 2 hour class with up to 10 interpreters for one class. And we switch because fatigue and topics not being conducive to interpreters with no prep! Ultimately there is no effective communication happening, sub par learning takes place, and the frustration of the caller rises. It's an injustice to support such language access strategies but because Convo is Deaf owned, they get away with it. Every time an interpreter commits more hours to Convo, they cut pay. First a .75 cut then over $2 all to offset the 'benefits' they offer. The six month in advance scheduling with not a big enough pool of interpreters to take shifts makes having a life outside of Convo impossible. Their PTO/VTO process is cumbersome and confusing. The suggestion to use Google translate to listen to interpreters while interpreting without telling interpreters how to handle Deaf caller questions on how or why they should do it and what happens when a translation doesn't match an interpretation (even though message meaning is preserved). While they may be expanding into other markets (most recently AU), they are not invested in their home base. Much of the leadership are not certified interpreters. Therefore they don't value certified interpreters which is why not being market competitive isn't an issue. By not being certified interpreters in leadership, they don't have to stay up to date with RID CEU requirements or even pay attention to what is happening in the industry hence the reason they treat experienced interpreters so poorly. The turnover of the executive interpreting team is appalling. Many of them and other positions were not allowed to announce their departure until hours before their final day. Many were not allowed to announce it at all. Senior people with years of experience have left abruptly. This speaks to the executive leadership. The call volume is much lower than our competitors will likely imagine. Therefore when an interpreter needs to switch a call to another interpreter, there is a good chance you will get that caller back later, and if you switched because you weren't best suited for that call, you now have to find a new excuse on why you're transferring again immediately or at 10 min. Overall, they may know the needs of the Deaf community but they don't know how to fully meet them. You need interpreters but the perspective isn't "we work together, Deaf+Interpreter" it is, "Interpreters work for us and if you have Deaf-Heart, you'll keep your mouth shut and do the job". I chose Convo because they were Deaf led and for the first 9 months, it was great. The last 18 have been embarrassing. Instead of investing in proper platform, they are pitching to international markets. They aren't focused on equitable language access (re: college classes on VRS) but any language access that makes them money. Several years ago, when Z was burning bridges with interpreters, there was a mass exodus. Sorenson got wind and started "Operation Come Home" and they flew the doors wide open and hired and rehired dozens and dozens of Z interpreters. Sorenson learned hard lessons in the early 2010s and have corrected course and perceptions. They may have high volume but their compensation, benefits, perks, and platform balance it out! It is similar to Purple/Z now; hard lessons learned and interpreter rapport is being rebuilt. Convo claims to have watched the industry and learned from their competitors but they are falling into the same sad state and now interpreters are more empowered to demand language justice, proper working conditions, and respect. Many interpreters are planning an exit ahead of the waiver being rolled back by the FCC. Sorenson already has current employees applying and waiting for the final onboarding to be complete before leaving Convo.