40-hour weeks

[Dori Green]

Melissa Nelson wrote:  wanna form a support group? :)

*********************

It's called STC, the official support group for writers struggling to get the doggone info.  I did a presentation at our local chapter's spring conference on care and feeding of (and info extraction from resistant) SMEs.

Dori Green







>From: Richard Lewis <tech44writer at yahoo.com>
>To: Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan at safenet-inc.com>,TECHWR-L 
><techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com>
>Subject: RE: 40-hour weeks Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 07:44:32 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Only about 20% of my time per week is productive - that includes analysis 
>(i.e., learning).   Where does the rest of the time go?   In my current 
>assignment, I am driving enterprise-wide integration efforts (i.e., I am 
>doing a bunch of essential data flow diagrams).   I have to talk with a 
>large number of analysts, managers, etc to tie their automation efforts 
>together.  (Their documentation of what they are doing is largely useless:  
>I want to know what they are doing, and all they ever want to document is 
>how they are doing what they are doing.)
>
>   Soooooo much time is wasted in trying to get answers to my questions 
>(i.e., not on learning, but in getting the learning inputs).   There are 
>two main reasons for this:
>
>   *  Most people spend just about all of their time focused on things that 
>are either are non-relevant, or that should not be considered until much 
>later in a project.   These people - often senior level  - are basically 
>incapable of  answering questions about some of the most important things 
>for which they are charged.
>
>   *  Some people are very turf conscious.   They feel that if I know the 
>essentials of what they know that it subtracts from their power base.
>
>   This is the way the work world works except in some rare, highly-focused 
>efforts - people working 41 or MORE hours per week focused on the trivial - 
>and taking forever to get some minor thing done.
>
>   Richard Lewis
>
>
>Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan at safenet-inc.com> wrote:
>   On Behalf Of Richard Lewis wrote:
>
> > I work a max of 40 hours a week. Of that, only about 20% of my time is
> > productive.
>
>Ah, but remember that old joke:
>
>Homeowner has plumbing problem and calls plumber.
>Plumber arrives, surveys situation for a couple of minutes, hauls out a big
>pipe-wrench and hits the pipe hard.
>"That'll be $200", sez the plumber.
>The homeowner is outraged. "Whaddya mean $200!? All you did was whack the
>pipe! I could have done that!"
>Plumber ponders for a few seconds, scribbles on a pad and hands homeowner 
>an
>itemized bill ~
>"Hitting pipe ... $5.00
>Knowing where to hit ... $195.00"
>
>At least some of that other eighty percent of your time is where you learn
>all about "where to hit". Yes?
>
>Kevin
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
>Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! 
>Games.
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