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Re: Giving TW help: Are we training our replacements?

Subject: Re: Giving TW help: Are we training our replacements?
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 09:33:50 -0500

Bruce Byfield wrote:



In my experience, doing a professional favor is never wasted. You don't always get the favor back from the one you help (and there are some selfish nithlings in the local writing and high-tech communities, let me tell you), but you'll often find that you get a favor back from someone else who hears of your decency. One way or another, it comes back to you.


Here I agree with you. Pass it on, both in the sense of passing acquired knowledge to the next generation and repaying a good deed by doing one in turn for the next person.

However, I do understand Chuck's discomfort with certain requests. And this has nothing to do with whether the person asking is offshore or onshore.

There is such a thing as a stupid question, and in the context of this discussion I think we can distinguish three kinds of stupid questions, which individuals may choose to respond to in divergent ways.

There is the honest stupid question: I'm new here. I've never done tech writing before. I'm a secretary/lab technician/junior developer who was thrust into this position because my boss couldn't get the budget to hire an experienced TW. Please help me get my bearings so I can do a good job.

Well, we were all newbies once, and there is a sense of empathy.

Then there is the stupid question from the stupid or lazy person: I wrote a user guide once, so I'm a tech writer. Now tell me everything I need to know about software lifecycle documentation. And by the way, what is software lifecycle documentation?

Harrumph!

Then there is the stupid question from the exploited victim: My boss lied to get the contract, saying he had a staff of experienced tech writers, and then he hired me off the street, fully understanding that I know nothing about this, and gave me no guidance or training. You owe it to me to teach me everything I have to know, quickly.

Double Harrumph!

My own reaction is to delete requests that I find more irksome than sympathetic. But I'm just a curmudgeon and we all know that.





References:
Re: Giving TW help: Are we training our replacements?: From: Bruce Byfield

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