Policies and dress code, continued

[nancy ott <ott -at- ANSOFT -dot- COM>]

Dan Lupo writes:

>        I would be interested to hear about other policies imposed by
>        your organizations that you feel affects your writing, and in
>        what way.  And you may want to send your thoughts to me directly
>        or keep this tangent to the dress code thread going publically.

Well, I'd like to contribute a few plusses and minuses for work
environment and policy.  I work for a small engineering software
company.  It has no formal dress code -- most of the sales/marketing
folks keep to business attire; as for software development, QA,
customer support and documentation, anything goes.  After working for
a consulting firm where I was required to wear dresses and suits (and
my boss yelled at me the few times I wore slacks to work due to the
cold), it's quite a relief to be able to wear comfortable clothes and
dress seasonally.  We also set our own hours ... the attitude is that
you do what it takes to get the products shipped (which means that as
shipment time nears, my hours go through the roof!).

What it boils down to is that for the most part, we're treated as
responsible adults who can be trusted to get their work done.

The semi-official policy here is that documentation is part of the
development process, so we are involved on at least a superficial
level from the early stages.  We are part of the weekly development
meetings, participate in user interface reviews, and do a lot of
informal QA testing.  The developers are glad to answer questions
about the code, and I have them do a formal QA/review of the final
drafts of all manuals.  I have been suprised by code changes on
several occasions, but for the most part, I've been able to keep
abreast of the current development work.  Things aren't perfect, but
they're in better shape than at the other places I've worked.  (For
instance, I got in big trouble at one place for suggesting that they
insititute a formal QA and feature evaluation process for the
product!)

On the down side, I've had a difficult time getting the software and
workstations I need for the people in my group.  It took six months to
convince the company president to let us buy a new desktop publishing
system (Framemaker) because the one we were using was no longer
supported.  Also, out of the five people in the group, only one of us
permanently has a computer.  The others float or use borrowed
machines.  Most of this is due to tight money, though, and what
company doesn't have that problem these days?  Still, it would be nice
to get the resources I need to get my job done properly.

--
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nancy ott      |  What is more arrogant than honesty?
Ansoft Corp.   |
Pittsburgh, PA |                - Ursula K. Le Guin
ott -at- ansoft -dot- com |