LanguageLine Solutions (also known as OnLine Interpreters, Pacific Interpreters, and probably other names I don’t know about) is a company that TAKES EXTREME ADVANTAGE OF ITS WORKERS. It is abuse, honestly. Let me provide you with some figures.
I have seen some sources say that LanguageLine charges clients 2.20 to 2.60 a minute, not including staffing charges. On the company’s website however, they claim to charge clients a total of $3.95 per minute. That means, for one 15-minute call, the company makes $59.25. For a 45- minute call, it rakes in $177.75.
Now, how much does an interpreter make? Well, from my experience, I worked at 12 dollars an hour. When you do the calculations, you see that I made 3 dollars for a 15-minute call, and $9 for 45 minutes. That means I was paid a whopping 5 percent of what the company receives—20 cents per minute. Based on other reviews and the occasional venting in the employee forum, they pay other interpreters in a similar fashion—interpreters who have to deal with complex terminology and difficult clients. Interpreters who are expected to do their work seamlessly and professionally, even when calls are back to back. Interpreters who are not even given paid vacation days or a sustainable insurance plan.
That is horrible for an interpreter. That is abysmal for a medical, emergency, or legal interpreter (I was hired as a medical interpreter, yet did the other two from time to time). They probably pay the Customer Agents even worse.
Here are some other reasons why this company sucks:
1. Hiring non-certified interpreters and generally vouching them as “certified,” which means clients are expecting certified-level work. Keep in mind that a portion of these employees are appointed as medical, legal, and emergency interpreters. Yes, there are web training sessions, but scrolling through slides and video clips is not the same as receiving professional training and examinations.
2. Relentlessly tracking adherence, to the point of spamming voicemails and work emails. (One time, about two weeks passed without me checking my voicemail, and I ended up deleting more than 40 voicemails from the automatic system, telling me to log on because I was scheduled for work.) The system will do that whenever you do not adhere to your schedule, and your adherence percentage will go down accordingly; if you start your shift late, if you exceed your break time (even if it is by a couple of minutes), if you take an extra break (what if you need a sip of water or a snack, or if nature calls!?), but not when you go overtime with a lengthy call!! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you are not able to take a scheduled break due to a lengthy call, it makes your adherence percentage go down anyway! Keep in mind that “A below 90% could trigger an adherence review!”
3. Slooooow response whenever you are asking for support. Not when you declare your resignation, of course. They respond fairly quickly to that.
4. Monitors/sycophants in the employee forum. I initially thought that this would be a safe place to vent/find solace. BUT whenever someone expresses their distaste in or disappointment with company procedures, several people usually provide useless information, oblivious encouragement to continue struggling with whatever problem was mentioned, or mild threats that posts are “being monitored.”
5. No information whatsoever about unions. Should someone mention starting one in the forum, the post either disappears, or does not get a response from the oh-so-helpful moderators.
6. Continuous calls, depending on language (e.g.: Spanish), or availability. Sip of water? Time to wee? Forget it! Of course, you can input an additional break in the system, but keep in mind your adherence will go down.
7. No paid vacation, only 10 days (80 hours) Unpaid Time Off, and 40 hours of unpaid Sick Time.
8. Little to no reimbursement for personal internet bills (You are using your internet to operate their system, yet they give nothing to support you.)
9. Operating an obscure program designed to help employees who are in a disposition to resign due to extenuating circumstances, but not giving much information about even the existence of the program until an employee actually sends a resignation notice. (The two documents that vaguely describe the onset of this program are from 2016. No new information can be found about the program since then.)
10. No raises! (If you do just a bit of research, you would see the scandal LanguageLine was in when it decreased wages.) During one of my interviews, I was told that my pay would always remain the same.
11. Rigid schedule. I was told that we were allowed one permanent schedule change per year. Turns out it was one permanent schedule change request per year. So, if you’re denied a change, welp, that was your only big chance. Your next best bet would be asking for a temporary schedule change (for 3 weeks max) every 30 days, and hope that they approve.
12. Events. Events what? Convention who? The only thing that allows you to connect with other interpreters is…the forum. (Please refer to #4 above.)
