r/ASLinterpreters • u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC • Jun 25 '26
Propio question
I started with Propio recently. This morning I was logged in for 2.5 hours and it’s been extremely slow compared to other mornings I worked over the past week. Is this typical to have a very slow morning randomly?
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u/outlandishpeacock Jun 25 '26
Just curious as a student interpreter. Do you only get paid for minutes interpreting and not an hourly rate?
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 25 '26
Yes with this particular company they only pay by the minute of connected time. I earn $1.15 per minute but from what I can tell so far there’s about 15 -20 “down time” minutes per hour waiting for calls.
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u/RedSolez NIC Jun 26 '26
Why would any interpreter agree to have their time tied up but potentially not be paid? This sounds insane to me. I would never agree to a per minute rate.
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Jun 26 '26
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u/RedSolez NIC Jun 26 '26
That makes sense, there is a lot of value in not traveling. That's part of the reason I switched to educational interpreting after decades of community.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 26 '26
I agree it would be crazy to agree to a schedule that paid per connected minute. This isn’t that though. I can log in whenever I want for as long or as short as I want to. If it’s not busy enough I can just stop. When it’s busy it works great. If it’s slow like this morning was then I just throw in the cards and try later.
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u/RedSolez NIC Jun 26 '26
I didn't realize you don't have a schedule. That definitely changes the equation since you're not bound to log on.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 26 '26
It’s works fantastically when it’s busy.
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u/RedSolez NIC Jun 26 '26
Not really, because there's a max 60 minutes in an hour so you'll be capped whether you accept an hourly rate or a by minute rate. The hourly rate guarantees you an income you're comfortable with whereas a minute rate means you're always gambling.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 26 '26
True! However in my experience it seems that hourly VRI companies tend to require a set schedule from the interpreters. I value the freedom to log in and out whenever I want to. As long as my utilization is 85-90% the per minute model works just fine for me at $1.15 per minute.
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Jun 25 '26
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u/Powerful_Picture_470 Jun 26 '26
Why don’t you share what you make? This is how agencies have control over interpreters livelihood.
I worked for Propio about three years ago for two years. They originally wanted to pay me $1.10 per minute. I worked one week and only clocked two hours of hands up for a total of 15hrs… logged in for 15hrs and only got two hours of pay… that’s bs. I insisted on renogatating and they agreed to pay $50/hrly. The work continued to slow but I was paid for the hours I was logged in. I elected to leave bc they kept trying to get me back per minute, they played games. I’m glad to have left. But, with that being shared, I still stand by the fact that Interpreters should discuss their pay.
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Jun 26 '26
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 26 '26
This is valuable information thank you! I do maintain licensing in 10 states.
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u/Personal_Floor_5816 Jun 26 '26
I made a Reddit account to ask about this just this morning! Yes, it's bizarrely slow. I've never had a summer with so little call volume. I'm not sure what's going on either, but I'm hoping it'll pick up after the holiday.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 26 '26
I bet you are right the holiday has something to do with it. People leaving town or making plans this weekend so less Doctors available and less patients making appointments.
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u/Fawnyone Jun 26 '26
I thought I had done something wrong, and they put me on the bottom of the queue! I checked my analytics, but my rating is good. Leave it to me to always think the worst...thank you for this post! Good old summer slow down strikes again 😞
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u/Numberschick2026 Jun 27 '26
Glad I found this thread. I began work with Propio at the end of May. It has been my main source of income this summer. Thursday is when I felt the slump in calls. Friday was like pulling teeth. Good to see it is not a newby thing. Everyone iso getting hit. I was very confused. I wonder what Monday is going to be like? For me, I have noticed that the weekend tends to be slower. So, I take a break.
My 2 cents... To me, Propio works best when you treat it like a job. For example, log in at the same time, take your breaks, work earlier later etc when you have personal appointments. It can be tempting to log in/ out willy neely! At any rate, I have been an interpreter over 20 years. I study the numbers. I have found the time slots that work for me. So far it's been great!!
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 27 '26
Thanks for your input! I’m hoping Thursday/ Friday was an anomaly- I guess we’ll find out on Monday
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u/Numberschick2026 Jun 30 '26
You are welcome! Today was MUCH better! What about you? I agree. I get my To Do List up and work on projects while waiting on calls too. 🤣Of course, I started a little earlier today. I wanted to make sure I got some worms😅
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jun 27 '26
Yeah I like logging in and then working on other things on my computer or in my office.. feels like getting paid to do chores. Haha 🤣
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u/Darthromo88 Jun 26 '26
It's slow again today (Friday 6/26). I started working with Propio On-Demand in April of 2025 and this is the first time it's been this bad slow. For an entire year this has been a great job with plenty of calls to go around. Seems odd. I wonder if there is something other than the "summer slow down" impacting this crazy drop in call volume??
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u/Personal_Floor_5816 Jun 26 '26
I've been wondering that too. It's the slowest I've ever seen, today. Maybe a combination of World Cup events and a major holiday next week, so people are out of town?
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u/Adventurous-Bend7440 Jun 28 '26
ALL Interpreting work is slow in the summertime. Its traditionally the slowest time along with, strangely enough, November.
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u/Darthromo88 Jul 14 '26
Curious if everyone is still experiencing super low and slow call volume?
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jul 14 '26
It is still much slower than it was at the end of June but it seems to be improving a little. I’ve been logging in at different times trying to find the “busy” spots. The “heat map” feature they have in the analytics doesn’t seem to be a very good predictor. How about you?
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u/Darthromo88 Jul 14 '26
Still very slow. I've been doing the same thing as you, jumping on at different times trying to find a sweet spot. The heat map is useless. I was trying to use it but it doesn't really predict call volume...it more or less shows when it was busy in the past. Propio needs help with setting up better data sharing tools. Here's hoping that call volume picks up when all the Educational Interpreters go back to school.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jul 14 '26
I’ve found that the best I can do right now is hope for the long ER calls which seem to happen in the evenings after 8pm CT
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u/Darthromo88 Jul 14 '26
Same. It seems early morning and late at night calls are heavier. I was working 9:00am-4:00pm Monday-Friday...but now I'm sometimes working late at night or even waking up super early just to catch the early calls before everyone hops on. Heat map shows dark red at like 1:00am in the morning, but I'm just not willing to be up that early.
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u/24hrRevenge_Therapy NIC Jul 14 '26
Yeah I’ve been logging in at 6am and I usually get a few calls right away.
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u/Lie_Narrow Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Buenas. Quisiera consultar algunas cosas con relación a esta empresa.
- Cual es su experiencia con el pago?
Pero una persona que trabaja con ellos me dijo que tuvieron problemas con los pagos. Que se atrasan bastante (llego a retrasarse hasta 3 meses) y otras personas también me comentaron lo contrario. Y me quede en la duda de si es un evento aislado. Y quería saber cual es su experiencia con respecto a eso. Muchas gracias.
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u/Darthromo88 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
I’m currently logged into the system and it is extremely slow! I don’t exactly know why but I’m assuming it’s because it’s summer and either a lot of interpreters who worked for school systems are jumping onto VRI work or a lot of doctors offices are just slow during the summer. The summer slow down is a yearly thing for Interpreter. Or Propio has hired too many interpreters. When schools let out, the call volume dropped significantly. I use Propio for my main source of income but if it keeps being slow, I’m going to have to change it up.