Re: need suggestions on handling a boss

Subject: Re: need suggestions on handling a boss
From: Jen Jobart <jenjobart -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Steve Schwarzman <steve -at- writersbookmall -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 21:11:37 -0800

This doesn't help your dilemma for tomorrow, but in the future, maybe it
would help to get agreement on a detailed doc plan before you start working
on a project. You could outline the topics that you intend to address, and
she could make any requested changes before you have any
information-gathering meetings. That way you have initial signoff and
agreement on what you're going to do beforehand. That makes it harder for
her to go back and request you do things differently when it's too late to
change course. It also makes it easier for you to make sure you're
documenting the things she expects you to document.

I'd suggest that in many manager/employee relationships, you're mostly
dealing with two individuals, who probably, being individuals, have
different styles of working. Sometimes, working styles conflict. Your
best bet is to figure out how to work together. Pointing fingers and
finding fault may make you feel better, but it isn't necessarily a
productive way to work better together in the future.

Jen Jobart
http://jenjobart.blogspot.com

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 2:24 PM, Steve Schwarzman
<steve -at- writersbookmall -dot- com>wrote:

> >It sounds like you may have misunderstood the double context of
> "documentation."
>
> I understood the double context of "documentation," but don't hold much
> stock in it doing much good for Kari. Once you get into that employee-said,
> manager-said thing, formal procedures aren't likely to help in most cases,
> aside from actual legal stuff (like the harassment cases) as people have
> noted.
>
> If her boss is gunning for her, chances are not in her
> >> favor that some higher-up will want to read her dutiful documentation of
> >> what her boss told her, and what she did, etc. etc. It's far more
> likely,
> >> I
> >
> > think, that the upper boss will simply rely on what Kari's boss says. In
> > employee-said, manager-said situations, directors tend to side with
> > managers.
> >
>
>
> > >You are misguided.
> >
> > I'm not saying that this is how the world should be, but how I think it
> often is.
>
> >
> >
> Steve Schwarzman
> --
> *Technical Writing Management: A Practical
> Guide*<
> http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Writing-Management-Practical-Guide/dp/1456534181?&tag=writersbookmall-20
> >
> Now available at
> Amazon<
> http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Writing-Management-Practical-Guide/dp/1456534181?&tag=writersbookmall-20
> >in
> softcover and Kindle editions
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References:
need suggestions on handling a boss: From: Kari Gulbrandsen
Re: need suggestions on handling a boss: From: Peter Neilson
Re: need suggestions on handling a boss: From: Steve Schwarzman
Re: need suggestions on handling a boss: From: Lauren
Re: need suggestions on handling a boss: From: Steve Schwarzman

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