Re: Technical Communicator Productivity Question

Subject: Re: Technical Communicator Productivity Question
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 14:28:36 -0800

John Eldard asks...

> In an 8 hour period. How productive do you think a technical writer or
> editor or illustrator can be? Is it practical to think that since a
> corporation is paying a technical communicator for 8 hours work that every
> time the supervisor looks in on your cube you must be busily writing,
> drawing, editing? How fast would you burn out at that rate?

OhOh, did I see Unisys in your tag before I so hastily
deleted it??? I think I now understand the question a
little more thoroughly.

Certain societies and/or mindsets consider productivity
to be a direct corolary to activity. You are active,
therefore you are productive. In many occupations, this
is in deed the case. Managers who are used to overseeing
employees in these occupations can become disconcerted
by the seeming inactivity of the creative professional.

The creative professional, when s/he enters creative
mode, exhibits no tell-tale activity. S/he can, in
fact, be seen to be daydreaming, game playing, doodling,
or engaging in some other externally non-productive
activity. Very often, those periods of time when the
creative professional appears to be non-productive,
s/he is, in fact, being most creatively productive.
Witness long periods of inactivity followed by a
great flurry of activity as the fledgling idea or
concept tries its wings.

It is very difficult -- sometimes impossible --
to explain the creative process to one who is not
intimately familiar with it. You are speaking not
just a foreign language that originated on the same
planet but an alien method of communication for which
the audience has no receptors.

Warm up your resume, John. You probably won't last
long there!

-Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com


Previous by Author: Re: QUICK HELP
Next by Author: Re: QUERY: Mouse nomenclature?
Previous by Thread: Re: Technical Communicator Productivity Question
Next by Thread: QUERY: Mouse nomenclature?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads