Re: Contractors vs employees. Was: Re: Jobs Future for Technical

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM>]

> Rick Lippincott's excellent opinion on an organization's inability to retain
> "history" when it goes to a nearly-all contractor workforce.

> Paul -dot- d -dot- race -at- daytonoh -dot- ncr -dot- com writers:

> I agree, only moreso.  Issues include:

> Lack of understanding of the real issues:

I agree, I agree, I agree.

A contract writer is hired to...write the book...do the help...as a writer
with a specific purpose. A full-time, on the team, in your face *communicator*
can do so much more! If you're a memeber of the development team and are in
on the ground-floor product meetings, you can have a profound influence on
the entire product. Convincing the developemnt team that communication starts
at the GUI, then reinforcing that concept with constant contributions in
communication ideas -- how to make the screen look better, easier to read,
more organized, what metaphore to use for the toolbar, what type of control
works best for the specific information -- is hard work, but can be
extremely rewarding!

Writers that I know that contract often complain about concepts that are
difficult to explain, interfaces that are convoluted... I don't have to
do that! When you can fix it on the screen, you don't have to appologize for
it in the manual/help.

And, you increase the percieved value of the profession in the eyes of
development professionals -- and that's a good thing!

Susan Gallagher
Technical Writer
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com