TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: HELP! Negativity towards the techwhirler! From:Jody LaFerriere <JLaFerriere -at- INFOMAP -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 4 Apr 1997 11:07:07 -0500
Jennifer,
The biggest problem that I see is that they asked you to edit manuals
and you rewrote them. That CAN cause negativity! Your edits have to be
input by someone who maybe expected 2 hours worth of work so the
turnaround would be quick and easy. Now they have 4 new manuals to do.
If you ask someone to paint your living room, you don't expect them to
re-drywall it.
Did you expand the manuals beyond their original 4 pages? Yikes, that's
an additional production expense at the printers.
I think my approach, in a similar situation, would have been to propose
the changes to the person in charge of the project, and get some sort of
sign-off. That way the person actually responsible for adding the extra
work to the graphics department would be the person in charge of the
project, instead of the tech writer. If they didn't want to make the
changes for the May release, you would have at least started the ball
rolling for getting this onto the schedule as a future project.
It IS important for you to get buy-in from all departments involved,
especially as a new employee. If you don't, you will fight uphill
battles for every project you work on, due to bad "first impressions".
Jody
--------------------------------------
Jody LaFerriere - jodyl -at- infomap -dot- com
Information Mapping, Inc.
These are my opinions, not IMIs
>
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
