TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: does quality matter? should it? From:"Fiona Krycek" <fiona -dot- krycek -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 15 May 2007 14:12:38 -0400
I just want to thank everyone who responded to my message! I really
appreciate all the good advice and words of support. I'll let you know what
happens !
Fiona
On 5/14/07, Fiona Krycek <fiona -dot- krycek -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> hi there,
>
> I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on the following:
>
> The doc group I work in is part of our Engineering department. About a
> year ago, Engineering got a new chief who declared that our documentation
> was too low-quality. At the time, the doc group consisted of a documentation
> manager, two senior writers, a midlevel writer (me), and a junior writer.
>
> Our Engineering chief's strategy for fixing the situation was to lay off
> one of the senior writers (the rationale was "we need an engineer
> more"), fire the other senior writer, force out the documentation
> manager, and pressure the junior writer into quitting. All this left only
> the midlevel writer (me). After about two months, one of the senior writers
> was replaced. After nine more months, a third writer -- an entry-level
> person -- was hired.
>
> So, now we are now a group of three, and we have been reorged so that we
> report to one of the software managers. At the same time, the demands on the
> writing group are even greater than they used to be because of new product
> offerings and because the company is now localizing everything. We writers
> are stretched very thin, so much so that we occasionally ask engineers
> to work on documentation (and to their credit, they have done it). I feel
> like even if I put in a lot of extra hours, my work is never going to be as
> good as I want it to be because the demands are simply too great. For a
> while, I dealt with this by working 60- to 80-hour weeks, then I reverted to
> more normal hours and just sort of resigned myself to the fact that I'm not
> going to be producing the best work of my life. My co-workers' feeling is
> that this is all OK, since documentation is only a "frill" for most software
> companies, and we shouldn't be emotionally invested in what we're doing
> anyway. Both my co-workers put in 40-hour weeks and don't seem too concerned
> about the fact that, overall, our doc quality is going down, not up.
>
> I have been trying to adopt this point of a view, but even if I agreed
> that documentation is only a frill, this seems to be contrary to what our
> Engineering chief goes around saying. After all, poor quality was the reason
> our last manager was pushed out of the company (ostensibly).
>
> So, my question is, do other people think that documentation is only a
> frill? If you were (or are) working at a company that doesn't take
> documentation very seriously, should this/does this bother you? If it
> doesn't bother you, would you be bothered by the contradictory messages
> coming out of senior management (contradictory because senior management
> says documentation is important, but does not support this through hiring or
> planning)? Can you suggest any strategies for managing this situation?
>
> thanks in advance,
> Fiona
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
