Re- Organizational Structur

[Auli Ingman <Auli -dot- Ingman -at- X400UX -dot- SASKTEL -dot- SK -dot- CA>]

Re: Organizational Structure and Technical Writers
Robbie Rupel asks whether a writer fits better into a doc dept or as part of a
client department:

I've spent my entire writing career (15 years) in a documentation department; we
produce technical and admin documentation for the provincial telephone company.
I am one of 8 writers, serving 3500+ employees. We also sell some documentation
outside the company.

Pluses of my situation:
- more variety for the writer, although we tend to have portfolios of projects
that are usually ours.
- greater consistency of documentation standards, if you value that sort of
thing.
- greater chance that the area needing a writer can get someone right away. What
if your dedicated writer is already working on a project?
- more freedom for the writer. By that, I mean that I'm accountable to my boss
more than to the SME (subject matter expert). I don't have to put up with a lot
of guff.

Minuses:
- no career movement. None! A writer job here is at the top level of the
skilled, non managerial category, as are most of the non clerical jobs. To get a
lateral job, you must go through the bid process, based on senioriy and meeting
the stated qualifications. Although I've been writing this stuff for years, my
acquired knowledge of different areas counts for diddly. So this job is not a
stepping stone to anything (nothing available anyhow). But it pays pretty well,
if that's any consolation.

- My department gets about as much respect as any staff job gets. I suspect that
if I were permanently assigned to a team, I would get some reflected respect. I
think it would be easier to move to a lateral job, too, but maybe that's just
wishful thinking.

- Each time the writer changes on a project, there's a learning process
involved. You lose continuity.

- Documentation costs are buried in the general overhead, so our clients tend to
dismiss our part of the general cost, even though we do report costs to them. I
think if a department has to pay a writer, they're going to make sure that the
writer is involved early in project development.

- What if the top brass decide they've got to cut costs? It hasn't happened
here, yet, but I think a documentation area would be targetted. Bell Canada has
46,000 employees and they're going to chop 10,000 jobs in the next 2.5 years.
Documentation is something users don't value unless they don't have it. I think
I might have marginally better job security as part of a client department,
where my overhead isn't as noticeable, and where I might have proved my value by
picking up some lateral skills.

Just some random thoughts. Back to work!