Re: Personnel and Quality of Printed Manuals

[John Posada <posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM>]

Dear Anon...

I've asked Eric to post this anonymously for reasons that will become
apparent as I describe my situation. I was hired by my company about 1 and
1/2 years ago to convert all the user manuals from WordPerfect to Microsoft
Word. In the process of the reformatting, I've spent many hours with the
engineers involved, and those who use the revised manuals agree they are
far better in content, appearance and usability.

Good...you did what you were supposed to, no more, no less.

My predicament: There's a not-exactly-new secretary on board. She left the
company about a year ago, after having worked here for about 6 years. Now

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<BIG SNIP>

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issue involved, but I'm willing to put all that aside for getting the focus
on to production of high quality manuals.

It seems, based on your description, that everyone is wrong, everyone doesn't understand, and that only you are the carrier of the "Document Holy Grail".  You need to understand that you are simply doing a job FOR the company, and that the company isn't there to bend to your every wish.

You may not agree with every move that everyone makes, but none of us do. We simply do our job the best way we can

Yes, you work hard on the manuals. However, I'm sure that most of your associates work hard at what THEY do. They all care that the customer is sent top quality material, but that it doesn't start and end with documentation.  Remember, you don't OWN the documentation. You are doing the best you can, then must hand them off and move on.

By the way, there's been some talk of having the manuals printed at an
outside source, i.e. a printer. I researched this option a couple times,
and management didn't follow through. I don't understand why the company

Obviously, while you may have done it several times, you didn't do it "right" (what they wanted to know, not what you wanted to tell) once, or they would have moved on your suggestions -if your suggestions were valid and in the company's best bottom-line interest. 

I'm sure that you aren't getting the response that you thought you were going to get. That may indicate something.

By the way, I'd have responded personally on this, but I didn't know who to direct it to, and Eric has way too much to do than pass notes back and forth.

John Posada