RE: Consequences of not following the procedures...

["Downing, David" <david -dot- downing -at- fiserv -dot- com>]

This raises a whole other issue -- that of the warning signal that's set to go off too easily, so that the user ends up disregarding it.

And I confess, I've been known to think I knew more than whoever wrote the instructions myself -- but that's usually when doing something relatively harmless, like microwaving a frozen entrée.

In both cases, I would say that if you're dealing with a life-and-death matter, it's a whole other story.

And yes, my understanding is that in the military, you follow order without question, even if you think they make no sense. (A former girlfriend of mine told me she thought I'd be court martialed the first day.)

David Downing
Senior Technical Writer
Credit Union Solutions
Fiserv
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Victoria Wroblewski [mailto:victoria -dot- wroblewski -at- eagletest -dot- com] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:08 PM
To: Downing, David; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Consequences of not following the procedures...

-----Original Message-----
From: Downing, David
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 8:43 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Consequences of not following the procedures...

>How can people get that careless when life and death matters are
involved? 

I was thinking the exact same thing (warning lights on an airplane!  How
can you not take that seriously?!?), and then I thought about the engine
warning light that's been going off for months at a time in my '99
automobile over the past ten years.  The three mechanics in the family
assured me it was not a big deal, but I had the car checked four times
before I started ignoring the light.

The same light recently came on in my mother's car, and she was afraid
to even start her car, even after I told her mine had been doing that
for ten years.

Not that it justifies the actions of anyone in this case, but I wonder
how much the "civilian" attitude of being smarter than the actual
technology and not following procedures is starting to creep into the
military as newer/young recruits that more comfortable with new
technology join.  (I've got no personal experience in the military, but
I believed it to be a place where you followed the orders you were given
and didn't follow your own spin on the orders.)

- V 




**This transmission may contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the information contained herein (including any reliance thereon) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this transmission in error, please immediately contact the sender and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you.**
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat