RE: Motivation

["Kathi Jan Knill" <Kathi -dot- Knill -at- template -dot- com>]

Megan wrote:

>> I keep hearing about how busy and over-worked documentation groups
>> (including my own) are, but I can't believe I'm the only person who has
slow
>> times slow enough that I wouldn't be missed if I was gone for a few days.
>> Do other companies go through the same thing?

I'd like to hear what some of the managers on the list have to say about
this. For my current company, my manager encourages me to use the "down
time" to do some learning about things that both interest me and that are
somewhat related to what I do for this company. So for example, if I think
it would be useful for me to learn Java, I get a book or something online
and study. For a more direct writing related example, I also have purchased
a book on indexing. This is an area that I lack formal training in, and one
which I think is extremely important to writing good doc.

Don't get me wrong here. I'd love it if I also had the option to go home to
do some of my "to do list" but I realize that most companies would not
appreciate it. Even if I go for days without communicating with anyone, it
would probably take me going home for a few hours/days to have someone come
looking for me to work on an major project. Isn't that one of Murphy's laws?

As I said, I'd be interested in management's perspective on this topic. This
company is not the first one that I have worked for that had "down time" or
"slow time" and I assume there are many out there that are in a similar
situation.



Kathi Jan Knill
Sr. Technical Writer
Template Software
Kathi -dot- Knill -at- Template -dot- com
"Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make
them all yourself."