Am I being oversensitive?

It seems people misunderstood the problem so I'll rephrase this:

"So I signed up for a translating job, took a very long test and passed. We only work online, they added me into a group chat with other people in the team so everybody knew what the others were doing. I sent my work to them in parts, several times, if anything was out of line they had plenty of time to tell me. But they didn't, until one day suddenly they told me in private message to stop working on that story, and asked me to tell them what my favorite genre was. I asked if anything was wrong and they just said my style was a bit clashing for that story and again asked what my favorite genre was so they could give me more suitable work.

We settled that. I didn't think about it. This isn't the problem.

Then next day I logged in to the public group to see a message for me there telling me to work on an old story (before that they usually assigned work via private message) that they were nolonger working on due to lack of people, and before I start translating that story I should read the chapters they already finished to understand how a decent writing should be. There were also some comments about how my writing style was weak and translating skill was bad, that I messed up with the meaning of the sentences. And from now on they'll only give me simple works and if after a period of 5 months I show no improvement then we would stop this altogether.

This's where the problem is. I don't mind all those criticisms, had they said exactly that when I asked what was wrong.

Imagine something like:

boss: hey, (you) this's not ok!
you: really? What's wrong?
boss: well, not really a big deal, just be more careful.
you: ok.

next day boss asks everyone gather for a meeting:

boss: I want to let everyone know (you) did a terrible job and their skills are below average, which has lead to an unforgettable mistake that harms our company. I'll but (you) in a trial period and if (you) don't improve then I'll let (you) go."


That's how I see it. Though from the comments here probably I was really oversensitive.

Maybe, as they have said, it simply just is a clash of styles. If you aren't knowledgeable about a certain genre, then it makes it harder to work in it. I might be digressing slightly here but I used to go to a writing group and one week a man read out a science fiction story he had written-he did not read SF (I did) and it was clear that he knew nothing about it nor its readership.
The group does sound as though they are being very negative towards you though and maybe finding other translating work with different people would be best.

It's business. It's not personal. For some reason, your style didn't mesh with theirs. However, if you are in the translating business, take note of what it is they thought you needed improvement on. Obviously, there was a lack of communication and clarity on their part towards what they actually expected from you. So, learn from that in a way that makes you more marketable.
As for being oversensitive, people often arent' very nice in the work world and developing a thick skin is helpful. So, you have a skill, move on to a better place.

I agree that it could be simply that you aren't familiar with the genre, but I don't feel they had to out you in public like that when you asked previously if there was a problem. They could have simply told you so that you knew. That, IMO, was a dick move on their part.

Well, I don't think anyone of us reading the post can determine whether it was just you doing a worse job than you think or if they really were holding some sort of grudge against you.

Best course of action is to note it down and continue. Too early to make a decision on whether you're being oversensitive or if they are the wrong kind of people to work with.

Also, why not just ask them to give you more in-depth critique?

I don't know why it's so hard to understand where the problem is when I already wrote down the boss example?

"Imagine something like:

boss: hey, (you) this's not ok!
you: really? What's wrong?
boss: well, not really a big deal, just be more careful.
you: ok.

next day boss asks everyone gather for a meeting:

boss: I want to let everyone know (you) did a terrible job and their skills are below average, which has lead to an unforgettable mistake that harms our company. I'll but (you) in a trial period and if (you) don't improve then I'll let (you) go."

It's not my skills I'm talking about. I understand you can't possibly know this. I also understand i'm not an expert and maybe really did a bad job.

But I don't think it's a normal behavior when in private you act like it's not a big deal, then flip out in public that it's the biggest deal ever. That discourage people from working with you, especially people in the creative fileds.

@Droopy: because I already asked and they decided not to answer?

miadora said:

I don't know why it's so hard to understand where the problem is when I already wrote down the boss example?

"Imagine something like:

boss: hey, (you) this's not ok!
you: really? What's wrong?
boss: well, not really a big deal, just be more careful.
you: ok.

next day boss asks everyone gather for a meeting:

boss: I want to let everyone know (you) did a terrible job and their skills are below average, which has lead to an unforgettable mistake that harms our company. I'll but (you) in a trial period and if (you) don't improve then I'll let (you) go."

It's not my skills I'm talking about. I understand you can't possibly know this. I also understand i'm not an expert and maybe really did a bad job.

But I don't think it's a normal behavior when in private you act like it's not a big deal, then flip out in public that it's the biggest deal ever. That discourage people from working with you, especially people in the creative fileds.

@Droopy: because I already asked and they decided not to answer?

Click to expand...

Sorry, it's just your original post didn't sound like that. If they really are like you said, then I'd just stop right away. It's better not to bother continuing with stuff like that. No bullshit approach is something I do. No drama.