Re: Respect or no?

[Cheryl Kidder <chekid -at- SYMIX -dot- COM>]

Chris:

I too recognize this as the reality I am in and I too wish to do something
about it.  I, however, have no idea what can be done to put aside years of
prejudice.  I think we all had very high hopes when our Doc Dept was put
"under" the Development title.  However, these hopes have not come to
fruition.  The old attitudes remain.

The big problem is that, like any prejudice, it's insidious - it lives in
the very fabric of what we do every day.  Not knowing how to make things
better, of course I have had to just acknowledge that these attitudes exist
and move on.

What programmers never seem to "get" is that tech writers may not write code
but they do have to understand what the code does and communicate that to
users of varying abilities.

I guess programmer's attitudes come from the same place as any exclusive
club with it's own lingo.  If you do not look like them or talk like them,
then you are "other."  As much as corporations would like us to believe that
working in "teams" is the best way to better products and higher sales, this
"club" mentality is completely pervasive, which completely underminds any
possibility of "team" work happening.   One club gets its feathers ruffled,
another club is neglected and underappreciated, etc., etc. --  otherwise
known as corporate gamesmanship.  So instead of moving forward with what
might benefit a user by pooling resources, the in-fighting takes up
everyone's time and energy.

After reading enough "Dilbert's" I know I am not alone in this scenario
either.

Cheryl D. Kidder
chekid -at- symix -dot- com
 ----------
From: Chris Hamilton
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Respect or no?
Date: Monday, September 09, 1996 12:18PM

Cheryl Kidder wrote:

> However, it is no excuse for treating folks who have different credentials
> as some type of lower organism.  What I don't enjoy is being patronized or
> talked down to simply because I do not have programming expertise.

> In the grand scheme of things, should knowing how to write code be equated
> with solving world hunger?  or curing cancer?  Sometimes I just think
> programmers need to get a little perspective.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying what I described is right,
nor am I defending it. I'm just saying that it's my perception of
reality. I've seen it in the programmers I worked with (even when I was
a programmer) and even in instructors. I accept it as reality so that I
might work to deal with it and even try to change that perception.

It galls me to no end when I'm spoken down to because people think I'm a
moron because I'm not a programmer or engineer. (My status as a moron
would be secure regardless of what I did for a living. :->) But that's
part of the game. I can change it, but if I recognize it in its blunt
terms and dealwith it, I can work more effective and I save a lot of
money on Rolaids.

Chris
 --
Chris Hamilton, Technical Writer
Greenbrier and Russel
chamilton -at- gr -dot- com
847.330.4146
 -----------------------------
From way downtown, !

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