RE: document your job?

Subject: RE: document your job?
From: Ben Davies <bdavies -at- imris -dot- com>
To: Editor in Chief <editorialstandards -at- gmail -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com >> TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:43:14 +0000

"Is there a good reason, from the writer perspective, to pull all the documentation for such an environment together in one place, one document? Without the carrot/stick of ISO preparation looming?

I figure if I get killed or long-term hospitalized, I'm past caring what my replacement does. If I get laid off, well, you can fill in the blanks regarding how helpful I want to be to my lower-paid replacement, or to a company that tossed me to the curb. They'll figure it out, or reinvent it."

Unless your boss or higher-up requires this information, I do not see a need for you to go out of your way to create it; however, from a moral / ethical perspective, I would feel pretty greasy inside leaving a place that employed me for 20+ years without helping them understand the knowledge gaps I've created by not documenting how I do my job. It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge about your job no one else has. That reminds me of some old mechanics at a previous job who refused to tell anyone how to fix certain engines because they wanted to have "specialized knowledge" no one else had... because that makes them special... and more needed than others... etc.. but is it really the "right" thing to do? Your call I guess.






This email has been scanned by the IMRIS Email Security System

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need.

Try Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.

http://bit.ly/doc-to-help

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


References:
document your job?: From: Editor in Chief

Previous by Author: RE: Follow-up and Question on large Word docs
Next by Author: RE: Accounting language to plain language - translation, please?
Previous by Thread: Re: document your job?
Next by Thread: RE: document your job?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads