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All of the replies to your problem are good, but after having fought the
same battles as you over and over at various companies, keep in mind
that personalities (friendships cut across ALL rules no matter what) and
politics (who's zooming who, so to speak) really determine the final
result.
If you and/or the reviewer(s) is/are liked/disliked, and/or
respected/disrespected all play a part in this.
I once received back signed-off review copies where two of the reviewers
demanded totally opposite changes to the document; both of the reviewers
were fine individuals otherwise, but wouldn't budge on their own outlook
of how the manual should address a certain point.
My manager said to call a meeting with the two reviewers, their manager,
my manager and myself and go through the sticking points.
So we did.
Nothing was settled. The meeting was very cordial, but no one budged. To
this day, I still don't recall how I got out of that one.
But my final advice is to just stop beating your head against a wall and
have your manager handle it. He/she should be able to then communicate
the apparent breach of company policy to the reviewers' manager for
him/her to handle.
You are then out of the line of fire and if it occurs again, your
manager is ready to take charge.
The letter from someone other than you to the field reps absolving you
of blame is mighty fine, too!
-- Ken Poshedly
Atlanta, Georgia
(High temp today will be in the upper 90's-- sheesh!)
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysius -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysius -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Siliconwriter
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 5:04 PM
To: TECHWR-L List
Subject: Reviewers who don't review
A couple of weeks ago I created a quick start guide for our users, sent
it around for review, got signatures, and sent it through our Document
Control process, which garnered more reviews and more signatures. It got
packed with the product and sent to a user. Next thing I know, I'm
getting feedback from the field reps that the default user ID and
password are incorrect. I had no access to this software while writing
the guide, and relied on our field reps to give me the information, then
later to review it. Nobody mentioned that the user ID and password had
been changed. When I mentioned (a bit testily, I confess) in email that
the reviewers should have caught this, I was told by the head of tech
support (my main
reviewer) that he never looks at the documents he's sent to review, and
that I should walk them over to him and stand over him to get them
actually reviewed.
What am I, his mother?
Any suggestions as to a response? I am holding onto my temper with both
hands, as the field reps are now blaming me for this screw-up.
Am I responsible? What can I do to ensure that this does not happen in
future? I should point out that Tech Support Guy is frequently off site
and when he is here, is virtually always on the phone. If I stood over
him to get a review, I'd have to move into his cubicle.
Sarah
disgusted
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