working with an inexpereinced writer

[Beth Agnew]

As the company paying the bill for the contract writer, you have the 
right to demand a certain skill and experience level in that individual. 
It should certainly be comparable to the writer you had previously, or 
there should be some reduction in the rate if you agreed to take on a 
less experienced writer. While it's admirable to help a new writer along 
-- I certainly advocate that, my students have to start somewhere! -- 
there is a certain amount of overhead in getting that person up to 
speed. That means your time to show them the ropes, the manager's time 
to make sure they're integrating well, and so on. Deadlines could be a 
risk because of the extra time it will take for this person to learn and 
begin to produce at the level necessary.

 From the information you've given, it seems as though this person is 
completely unacceptable for this job at this current time. The 
outsourcing company will have to find you another candidate. If you 
cave, and accept the less experienced writer when it is clear you need a 
more seasoned professional, the outsourcing company will have succeeded 
at your expense. Give them the specifications of the person you want, 
and hold out for a person who will add to your team, not slow it down.

Carrie Baker wrote:
> Our company have worked with a subcontractor who provided us with a
> writer for the past year,
> Now they want to change the writer they are sending us, OK, that is
> their prerogative, although it means that we will have to teach the
> new person our products, our style guide etc.
>
> BUT, the person they want to bring is a person with  only a few months
> experience of technical writing. Although they speak very highly of
> them.
> My problem is that we have a lot of pressure and deadlines in our
> work, we have not had the extra writer for a few weeks already and I
> simply do not have time to train a person.
>