Re: Giving TW help: Are we training our replacements?

["Ed Wurster" <eawurster -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Chuck Martin wrote:

> Bottom line: When answering pleas for help here, and in other online
> venues, are we in some cases telling people how our jobs are done
> fundamentally, people who are angling to take our jobs for lower pay,
> especially people who are "offshore?"

The answer is yes. But I am reading the same things you write, and I am
onshore.

I suspect that many who read your posts on this list are potential
competitors, whether onshore or offshore.

> But I wonder, too, if the question arises more because of my own
> situation. Long have I been quick to jump in and offer answers when I
> knew them, here and in other places. But until recently, I've been
> working regularly. Now a parallel question that occurs goes along the
> lines of "Why should I tell someone else how to do those fundamental
> things when I could be paid for doing them?" Probably some
> frustration from still getting no responses when I apply for jobs I'm
> quite qualified for.

A lot of posts in techwr-l contain similar frustration.

My interpretation of this frustration is:

- number of technical writing positions and contracts is diminishing
- average rate paid for technical writing is declining

These are my observations, and the person who goes to work tomorrow on one
of these assignments should not care at all that I sit here still looking.

> Part of my (internal) struggle is that I know I'm probably making some
> assumptions (I don't always have definitive information, and don't
> think it's necessarily appropriate to respond by saying something
> like "Why are you asking? Are you from India (or the Philippines, or
> Ireland, or Israel, etc.) and have you ever had any TW training?")
> because I don't want to get into the too-often-seen mode of righteous
> indignation and outrage and I don't want this to descent into a
> racial issue.

There's a simple answer for your internal struggle. Give limited free
advice. I genuinely like to instruct people. But I know that when knowledge
is given away so freely, it diminishes the perceived value.

> It's just it seem the nature of some questions are different.  I don't
> particularly want to be unhelpful. These communities are incredibly
> helpful, especially when we're in situations where we're the only TW
> at a company and we hit a bind, a FrameMaker crash, a RoboHelp quirk,
> etc.  But what happens when people start asking fundamental questions
> that are typically taught in even the 10-week certificate courses?

I agree with you. What I do is ignore topics that don't interest me. If I
have an immediate need to understand Framemaker crashes, I use google and
limit the search to a particular newsgroup.

That leaves more time for other areas of interest, and also for responding
to posts look yours.

Good luck with the search.


Ed Wurster

http://www.eWurster.com/blog/
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for Computer Systems and Networks
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