What do we know about translators’ job satisfaction?

Abstract

This article is an exploratory overview of research on translators’ job satisfaction (JS). We analyze the data (51 articles) for indications of (1) translators’ overall JS; (2) associations of overall JS with individual, job-intrinsic, job-extrinsic, societal, and background factors; (3) translators’ satisfaction with job-intrinsic, job-extrinsic, and societal aspects of their work. Translators’ overall JS in the data is fairly high, and it is linked to emotional intelligence, the nature of translating, autonomy, interpersonal relationships, status perceptions, working mode, gender, and experience. The translators studied are mostly happy with the job-intrinsic aspects, but their views on extrinsic and societal aspects are more divided. Gaps in research include individual factors (e.g., self-efficacy, personality traits), background factors (e.g., cultural and socio-economic differences), and the interaction of the different types of factors.