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RE: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?"
Subject:RE: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?" From:"Sweet, Gregory (HEALTH)" <gregory -dot- sweet -at- health -dot- ny -dot- gov> To:"Janoff, Steven" <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- hologic -dot- com>, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>, TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:50:18 +0000
As an hourly employee and union member (shop steward actually) let me address some of these points:
"I'm asking why, on principle, should a software tech writer have this privilege?"
Because all employees should have this privilege. It's called work life balance and many people who came before you fought, bled, and some - including women and children - died to get it for you. Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.
"So the protected writer makes a few bucks here and there. Big whoop. Nobody's getting rich off this stuff. And this "protected class" is getting penalized in other ways, is my point."
Not the point at all. No one who works for someone else should expect to get rich. You should expect to live a reasonably comfortable life from one job. If you choose to have more than one to increase your comfort that's your choice. But as long as there are plenty of people willing to give up hard earned benefits thinking they'll be the next millionaire, wages and benefits will keep going down for us all.
"The real down-side is that if you treat people like hourly employees, they will work like them. There is a totally different mindset that comes from working to a clock. If you tie my compensation to a time clock then you will only get the work from me in my job description for the time on the clock."
This is entirely dependent on the culture of the organization and completely untrue where I am. Most of the people at my organization are hourly. As stated I am an hourly employee. We do not punch a clock nor have a narrow job descriptions. We respond to needs 24x7 and work all the hours necessary for a given situation. We all do our best to "complete our tasks in a timely manner", whatever those task might be today. However if we are required to work beyond our 7.5 hour day, then we get compensated accordingly.
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