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

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"T. Word Smith" <techwordsmith -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message
news:224707 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> Good question.
>
> --- Chuck Martin <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com> 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?"
>
> Yes.
>
> I think about this, too. But, I can do nothing about
> the fact that I:
>
> 1) Detest those cultures, cliques, and professions
> that "hoard the knowledge at the expense of others,
> because knowledge is power." I like to share. I enjoy
> sharing. And, I have found, others do share back.

Yeah. I like sharing too. That's why I don't like feeling this way.

>
> 2) I would rather share what I've learned with 1,000
> Pakistanis than suffer naive micromanagement from one
> red-blooded American SME manager (engineer,
> programmer) who won't give the time of day to consider
> my profession or talent.

Are there any other kind of American SME managers?  ::

>
> 3) As a US-based technical writer, I have done jobs
> for European companies. I have no problem with
> European (or other) companies doing jobs for American
> companies. That's the way it works. What I want is
> savings to be passed along to the consumer. For
> example, Adobe offshored FrameMaker--I would hope that
> the extra profit doesn't all go to the CEO, but some
> of it results in a lower-priced product (loss of jobs
> is making us poor, we need a break on price) and the
> reduced wages for programmers makes for an investment
> in more programming talent to develop FrameMaker
> further.

Profits not to the CEO? Lower priced product? Now you're dreaming.

Haven't the prices of our tool gone up in the past couple of years?

>
> So, I would say the fears are well founded and we all
> should consider them. But, I also suggest you consider
> how your professional instincts, heart, and gut tell
> you to behave ... and good luck! To a degree, we all
> have to take a position on this and move on.
>
I am being pulled in two ways. My heart tells me one thing, but my fears
about being able to pay the rent next month pull me asunder. (For me, the
past year and a half has been such a struggle that I had to turn down what
looked like some really great work at a very promising startup this week
because they needed someone to work for just equity for at least 2 months,
and I no longer have anything close to the resources to be able to survive
that.)