Re: working with other writers

["R A Downey" <rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com>]

At one particular job I had a senior technical writer who was suppose to
show me the ropes and help me developed my skills. Instead of just asking me
to do little things, he gave me manuals to write. His editing was always
detailed and disastrous on my self-esteem ;) but improved the quality of the
product.

Unfortunately due to outside concerns "Bob" began missing deadlines. Being
his junior, I too received the flack from management. Since management had
no idea who was doing what, I began to take on extra tasks.

I prepared activity reports, found and purchased tools and tried to organize
the draft-review process. I also finished books he began and did not finish.
While he wrote far better and much faster than I (up to 6 finished pages a
day, while I was struggling with a mere 2), he was unable or unwilling to
commit to a deadline. Slippage is acceptable, but there were times when
deadlines were bearing down and he showed no inclination of even starting
the project.

His sloppy work efforts soured management's opinion of us, and he lost his
management roll. We were then placed under the supervisor of Product
Development. While I'm sure he did not miss the Managerial meetings, the
gentleman in charge of Product Development knew nothing about technical
writing. "Bob" took the whole thing as an insult and refused to deal with
it. I had to step in again and explain that yes, these tools were vital
whereas these over here were the "nice to haves" that, if the company could
afford, would be beneficial but wouldn't stop production if they were not.

I got in trouble for all this only when I was found out. Management was
furious that I had been covering for my boss. He eventually left before he
was fired, but the opinion of him is still...low. Personally, other than
having more work than I should have had - I had no problems dealing with
"Bob"; in fact I owe him a lot. But even he agreed I shouldn't have covered
for him.

Two years after his departure, now I'm formalizing the procedures and
policies he's taught me. I intend to work with a second technical writer in
the coming year(s) and hope to be able to be as good a mentor to my future
partners as he was to me. He taught with a casual air, and willingly
admitted he wanted to see me do better than he.

Moral of the story: don't take the work load of a failing
co-worker/supervision. Offer to take on the extra work if they cannot handle
it, but make sure everyone knows who's work is who's. I know it sounds
rather egotistical, but I tried doing it the other way. It's just not worth
the hassle.
---
Rebecca Downey
Matrox Networks
Technical Writer
e-mail: rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com
web: http://www.matrox.com/networks