Re: FWD: New Employee Problems w/ Management

["M. Dannenberg" <midannen -at- SI -dot- BOSCH -dot- DE>]

Jemand schrieb:

> I have been a technical writer for 10 years. I am  a new employee in a
> writing
> group managed by a non-writer (a software engineer). The group has
> been
> assembled over the last 10 months. One of the first hired has been
> given the
> job of planning and scheduling everyone else's assignments. With the
> exception
> of draft department guidelines for manuals, he no longer writes.
>
> He does review the work of the other writers. In my short time here,
> he has
> already told me that he sees himself as the true "Tech Writer" and the
> rest of
> us as merely his assistants. He also has a personal mission to "break"
> the
> "writer's pride" (his phrase) in the rest of us.

Sounds like you've got a major asshole on your hands. Writer's pride.
What a twit. I can of course only speak for myself, but there's no way
I'd work with a person like that.  Basically it's a question of
demonstrating to management how this guy's hurting morale and
obbstructing other people's work. If they listen, fine. If not, it's
time for you know what.

> I have read the guideline document he drafted. His style to turn
> everything into
> acronyms, drop all articles wherever possible and use lots of passive
> voice and
> pronouns with unclear antecedents.  He is a would-be military man and
> coaches
> all personal interactions in military terms. He will expound on
> history and military affairs at length. This is not good in an
> environment where our time is
> totally accountable to customer projects.

Should be a breeze. Just take any reputable textbook or style guide and
contrast your friend's guidelines with that. Sounds like he's made about
every mistake imginable and you'll find plenty of material to back that
up. You're in business, not the army. If that guy doesn't understand the
difference it's high time somebody told him.

> The other writers are not comfortable with him. Some are  down right
> hostile
> and have complained to management. He has no managerial authority but
> has
> "fired" at least one person. (It didn't happen.)He has also spirited
> documents out of
> people's cubes unasked and eavesdropped on cubicle conversations.

Now if that kind of stuff doesn't get your management's attention,
something's definitely wrong with your company.

Mike

--
Mike Dannenberg
ETAS GmbH & Co.KG
midannen -at- si -dot- bosch -dot- de

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html