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You mention coming from oceanography and aquaculture, so I wonder, do
you have "a degree in the technology [you are] documenting"?
Leonard C. Porrello
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From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Ned Bedinger
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:34 PM
To: Combs, Richard
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?
Combs, Richard wrote:
> Ned Bedinger wrote:
>
>> The poster said he is an individual who feels that the
>> workplace can be opaque and boobytrapped with pitfalls
>> (minefield was the expression).
>> He's not delusional, the workplace CAN be a real snakepit.
>
> I've been working for 43 years, and as a tech writer for the last 20.
> I've certainly met a few jerks and encountered some unpleasant
> situations. But in all that time, I've never felt like I was in a
> "corporate minefield," or being "set up to take a fall." I've observed
> that stuff runs both uphill and downhill, and in both cases some of it
> is good stuff and some of it is ... not so good. And the vast majority
> of people I've encountered in the workplace just want to be treated
with
> decency and respect, and are willing to treat you the same in return.
>
> Maybe I've just been extremely lucky.
Hats off to you. I pictured you a whippersnapper the way you weave in
list traffic :-)
I've been taking note of (some would say exacerbating) the different
perceptions of work in this thread.
Michael, Gene, and you all report being stumped or unsympathetic to
workplace sentiments such as mine. I'm not sure how to frame the
difference among and between us, but I can offer that I came to high
tech from an open-air career in oceanography and aquaculture. It was
technical work too, but for most months of the year the work was in wild
places, and most days had that characteristic wild place lack of walls,
roofs, and break rooms! Having a technical base of a ship or seafarm is
great, being outside is great, and I guess any jaundiced perceptions of
the office park and the controls I work under there just naturally
follow.
You probably wouldn't know it to see me in the office, nose to the stone
in a cubie, slamming out documentation like I was born to it, but I'm
ofetn considering climbing the walls. I know I'm not an office person at
heart, have been told so many times in fact. I'm lucky to know that
about myself, so I can make a go of office work and be a family man,
even with the sense of always straddling. At my age, I'm configdent
that it isn't hormones that make we this way. I suspect it has to do
with my being raised by wolves--the wolf milk made me growly. I think
it's good ("builds character"), but not the fact that most offices I've
worked in don't accomodate my quasi-lycanthropic proclivities it very
well. I have to wear a shirt that says "Don't shoot--I can write!"
I'm sure I'd like it better in an office park cum Jungle Cat Safari
Park. I'd work at night.
Hot diggity, I didn't have any idea I was networking with seniors, that
is something to consider. I hope to get there myself some day, if Posada
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