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Subject:Re: Personal Quality Standards From:"Tony G. Rocco" <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 16 Oct 1996 09:16:46 -0800
Garrett said:
>'tgr' mailed the following letter bomb:
><Brent Jones is making an irrational conclusion by saying that Anna would
><have no personal standards if she doesn't bend over backwards to produce
><the best possible manual even though she isn't being paid for it. This is
><an absolutist and moralistic position. She made a mistake about how much
><time it would take to do a first-rate job with the manual. Live and learn.
><She shouldn't now have to eat her mistake and spend endless unpaid hours
><just to prove to God and the king that she has high standards.
I do get impassioned sometimes, but I don't think I sent a "letter bomb." I
like colorful, impassioned prose, unlike most of the stuff I have to
produce professionally. If the things I say seem hostile, they aren't
really meant to be. Just passionate.
- tgr
><SNIP>
><Moralists be damned.
> -----
>Whoa!
>I sure didn't read Brent's discussion that way. If Anna made a mistake, she
>can certainly try to talk to her client, but it may come across as more of a
>shakedown than negotiations. When I get an estimate for repairs to my car or
>tv, and then the mechanic comes to me and tells me its going to cost more
>because he made a big mistake, we go talk to a manager next. Anna's
>predicament isn't going to endear her to the client if she just wants more
>money.
>The bottom line for me is that Anna made the mistake, so she can either eat
>crow and try to renegotiate, at the risk of damaging her reputation, or she
>can work hard to get the manual where it was supposed to be and eat the
>hours. I'm not sure why, but I can see which direction I'd motate towards --
>hard work, less feathers in the mouth. Besides, she isn't going to be very
>motivated to do better analysis next time if she can wiggle out of it
>painlessly on this go-round. Worse, what kind of reputation do all technical
>writers get when a low bid gets jacked up like this? Same as auto mechanics?
