more on angry boss and fussy printers

[Harrison Brace <hbrace -at- AIMQUEST -dot- COM>]

Wow, thanks for all the replies, information, and personal support!

I had problem finding documentation of this problem on the net (to wit,
that switching printers causes formatting differences in Word 97, such as
pagination and line breaks). After work (still fuming from the encounter) I
went to the local Computer Literacy bookshop and found a book that
discusses this issue.

In case anyone needs the reference, the book is _Mastering Word 97_ by Ron
Mansfield. On page 100 he states quite clearly that changing printers can
cause line breaks and pagination to change quite radically, and that it
this problem can be "a minor annoyance or a major disaster."

Obviously, as many of you commented, the problem I'm having with my boss is
not just about this technical question. This company has gone though a
number of technical writers and documentation here is in total disarray. (I
feel the need to add, as this is a public list, that I am in no way
disparaging our product). My boss has only been here two weeks, and I've
only been here two months. As I'm the sole tech writer, I got the blame.

Fortunately, the other people in my group were very supportive, as were the
people from upper management with whom I talked today.

I've had a number of problems with the tools I'm forced to use here, namely
Word 97 and a cobbled-together Pentium 100 system with a 1 Gig drive. I've
complained loudly that I've been loosing a lot of productivity to document
corruption, bugs in Word, and a slow, crash-loving computer. The new boss
did not seem to understand that these are real problems, and commented that
I should "just be able to write" anyway. He even added that he thought the
problem was with me, and not with the machine.

Fortunately, other people in my group, who have seen these daily problems
in action, made him aware what a hindrance my workstation has been.

Today, someone from upper management came to speak to me and assured me
that I would be getting a new system, and she added that she respected both
me and the new boss.

I'm not sure what I want to do now. Jobs a very, very easy to find around
here (Silicon Valley), and they happen to need a technical writer in
another group here. I am happy about the support I've received from other
people, but my encounter yesterday makes me feel that my boss has no
respect for my opinions. He seems to work well with most of the other
people here...but... Sheesh, to be told point-blank, in an angry tone, that
I "have no idea what I'm talking about" ... when he was clearly wrong.

Well, I obviously have a lot to think about over this long weekend.

Thanks again to everyone,

Harrison Brace
hbrace -at- aimquest -dot- com

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