Re: Tech writing situation

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> You know as well as I do that in order to do your job, you must be
> respected
> in your work environment. I'm not saying that your advice to Emily
> isn't
> sound -- It is. Yes, Emily's job as a technical writer isn't
> "PRIMARILY to
> be respected," as you say, but everyone needs a certain level of
> respect
> initially in order to feel good about the job he/she is doing. This
> allows


What I'm hearing you say is that I should walk into a client/job and
automatically expect respect. What if as a writer, I'm an idiot?

I prefer to walk in with a blank slate. No opinion one way or another
and let me prove that I deserve respect (or disrespect if I'm that
idiot.

> Emily to do her job well and be satisfied with it, two essential
> ingredients
> to a happy and productive career.

To be happy and productive, you need to be emotionaly secure and
competent.
 
> And I disagree with your final point. I've met enough
> narrow-minded,
> old-world managers and engineers in my time to know that just
> because you do
> your job well, even spectacularly, they don't always respect you
> for it.

F'em. Find someone/somewhere that based on your proven
productivity/intelligence/competency, will respect you...or at least
pay me enough that respect falls down the list. I'd rather have the
respect of those that deserve respect than from someone that doesn't.
However, let mne earn that respect..it's higher quality respect than
that afforded to me by some quality that originates in your mind.

> ask why you, as the only tech writer in the company, are being
> placed in a
> subordinate role on a writing project to a guy with little writing
> skills?

Maybe, just maybe, he's very good at everything else he does. Just
because he doesn't have the position of WRITER, doesn't mean he's not
pulling more than his weight (I was a salesman for 15 years and I was
asked to ghost-write proposals for other salespeople and put their
name on them because I was a good proposal writer...OTOH, some people
doesn't think I'm a good writer and I don't claim that my strongest
feature is my ability to write. My strength is communication and
project completion, of which writing is only part. Why not give the
poor jerk a shot at blowing it before we assumke he will. Maybe he'll
surprise everyone.

=====
John Posada
Technical Writer
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com
732-259-2874

Only in America... do they have drive-up ATM machines
with Braille lettering

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