Re: Blue chip, bored, and biding time

[Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

Steve has some good advice, but I don't necessarily agree that management is
just waiting for you to find a new job.  Not only 2 months after hiring you.

I do agree, however, that you need to be proactive.  Try to figure out what
you can do to contribute.  This may be tasks that no one has thought of yet,
or ones that no one has had time to develop.

I think it's a good idea to have a straight talk with management, and to ask
for a little guidance.  But instead of asking them questions like "how can I
improve", ask questions like "what role were you expecting me to fill when
you hired me" or "how did you expect me to contribute to this group".

As many of us know, there are lots of people, managers included, who don't
have a clue about tech comm people.  Lots of managers know they need one,
but don't know what to expect from them or how they'll fit into the team.
This may be true in your case, which means it falls on you to educate them.
This is tough (trust me, I know), especially if you're used to being given
more direction.

One point.  If someone gives you a job, do it in a timely manner instead of
stretching it out.  And, like Steve says, make sure the person/management
knows you did it and how efficient you were.

One thing I've started doing is to plan out my schedule.  For example:  In
October there are 168 available hours.  I reserve one fourth of all hours to
accommodate overruns, rush projects, and other unexpected circumstances.
Then I estimate time committed to various projects, figure in routine
maintenance to existing documents and pubs management tasks, and then
calculate how much time is still unaccounted for.   If I can, I then suggest
projects to fill in these hours.  (I have an additional challenge in that
there is pressure to stay "billable", which means although I can identify
truckloads of organizational/planning work, these are severely discouraged
and I'm forced to go begging for hours that can be billed to a client.)

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database


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