Lack of self-awareness in a writer...what to do?

[Geoff Hart]

The perpetually stressed Anonymous, who historically has an  
astounding range of problems compared with the rest of us <g>,  
reports a serious problem with someone promoted to the position of  
senior writer in another department, and then transferred into Anon's  
department -- and who now proves to be unable to do the work, or to  
understand what they're doing wrong despite repeated explanations.  
(Many details snipped.) Anon, Anon. asks: <<Tom says he understands  
our process and then continues to do what things how he's used to. It  
looks passive aggressive, but I'm not sure that's it. He seems to  
genuinely want to do it right but it's not happening. There's a  
disconnect in his head between what he says he knows and what he  
does. Tom thinks they map and they don't... I can't get thru to him.  
I'm beginning to think this is a failure of my management.>>

Communication always takes two parties for success: if you're  
failing, then clearly he must share some of the responsibility for  
the failure too. From your description, it seems like you're being  
more than reasonable and helpful and doing your absolute best to make  
the problem clear and help Tom fix it. That tells me the vast  
majority of the responsibility is Tom's, not yours.

Sometimes, what it comes down to is that the person simply won't work  
in the current position, and you have to do the difficult thing of  
firing them, or moving them elsewhere where they can succeed. To do  
that, you've got to do due diligence to prove your point. A few  
thoughts on how you should do this: http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
resources/2002/employees.htm

Of course, you also note: <<As the engineering writer, he wrote (?)  
technical material that went on the support site and did other  
writing. Reading his work from both times, I suspect strongly he  
gathered what others wrote and put it all together into one place.>>

Sometimes it's possible to ignore a bunch of weaknesses and instead  
focus on one strength. For example, I talk a good line about graphics  
(I understand it thoroughly), but lack the physical or mental skills  
to actually draw. But I can work with a graphics person to produce  
kickass graphics because I know the techniques and I know what needs  
to be done and why -- even if I can't do it myself. If you feel that  
Tom did a great job of gathering material together (i.e., research  
and organization), could you make that his primary job, and leave the  
writing to those who can write? By doing this work, he takes some of  
the burden off others and lets them focus on what they're good at,  
namely the writing that Tom can't do.

If not... well, sometimes the only solution really is to fire the  
employee or move them elsewhere, hard though that may be.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart at videotron.ca / geoffhart at mac.com
www.geoff-hart.com
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