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Re: Technical Writing and the Business Perspective
Subject:Re: Technical Writing and the Business Perspective From:"T. Word Smith" <techwordsmith -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2003 10:28:59 -0700 (PDT)
In a perfect world, yes. In a perfect world, your
training and experience would be valued, as would your
actions.
**In the real world, you have to please your boss, and
his boss, if you want to keep your job.**
(After all, you can't help your customers if you get
fired, can you?)
If your employer sells documentation, maybe pleasing
the customer will do that. If your documentation is a
necessary evil overhead, then I urge you to consider
your boss and his boss--the upper food chain--first,
even if the documentation and customer suffer as a
result.
To sum up: Goober is right. Do what your boss and
other movers-and-shakers want, even when it is not the
right thing (suck up), and eventually you will be
dubbed "Sir Team Player," at which point you can try
to change things for the better and your readers'
benefit, if the brainwashing hasn't gone too far.
T.
--- Chuck Martin <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com> wrote:
>
>
> "Goober Writer" <gooberwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in
> message
>news:217514 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> <big snip>
>
> >
> > Business first. Advocate profit. Then advocate
> > additional things with profit in mind. Doing so
> will
> > get you more visibility, show you're a team
> player,
> > perhaps a company leader, which will then give you
> > more leverage to implement your ideas, provided
> they
> > make sound business sense.
>
> Then again, customers are not necessarily users.
> Understanding this frequent
> disconnect how user happiness can translate into
> customer happiness.
>
> But isn't making the customer happy one of the
> fundamental tenets of good
> bbusiness?
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