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Subject:RE: What a predicament! From:CHRISTINE ANAMEIER <CANAMEIE -at- email -dot- usps -dot- gov> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 4 Mar 2002 12:00:42 -0500
Meg Ehr wrote:
> Ah, yes, but sometimes the field *is* the problem!
>
> . . . I spent a lot of time, money, and energy getting into my
> chosen field, but found myself in a position that made me feel I had to
> compromise my professional integrity. It burned me out completely,
> and I left the field altogether. . . . It may well be that Anon just can't
> abide the personal compromises necessary for him/her to stay in TW. . . .
I have to admit, I'm a little puzzled by this. In my experience, such
compromises are demanded by a company or a supervisor, but not by a field
itself. (I'm curious about what field you left.) And I don't believe such
compromises are inherent in the field of tech writing. People may run across a
company that insists on user-hostile docs or near-plagiarism or various other
painful things, but there are also plenty of TW jobs that don't require you to
check your judgment or integrity at the door.
What I saw in Anon's post was an issue of temperament that's not field-specific:
it came down to "I have to compromise my integrity to keep this job and I'm very
upset about it." I doubt that sense of integrity would change if he/she went
into another line of work.
My additional 2 cents...
Christine
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