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As long as I am filling a slot in the org chart that is "Technical
Communicator" with the appropriate salary and benefits I really don't
give two hoots what others in the organization think or call me.
Actually I prefer to be known as the "Contractor." You wage slaves that
get all hot and bothered about trivialities such as this ought to take
this trash off line and quit littering our mailboxes.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Tracy Boyington [mailto:tracy_boyington -at- OKVOTECH -dot- ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 1998 7:47 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: secretary's day
My last post on this... I promise :-)
John Gilger wrote:
> Who cares whether someone thinks you are a secretary? As long as the
> payroll department puts the correct numbers on the paycheck, they can
> call me a secretary, a scribe, a writer, or damn near anything else,
> except late for dinner.
Ah, the old "it doesn't bother me so how could it possibly bother anyone
else?" logic. Who can argue with that? :-)
Here are some reasons one might care if one's coworkers know the
difference between a technical writer and a secretary. And they have
nothing to do with tender egos.
(1) When I first started working as a secretary, the university where I
worked did not pay for clerical workers' health insurance until they had
worked there for a year. Admin/professional workers, OTOH, were covered
free of charge from day one. If you were in this situation, and your
employer decided a tech writer was pretty much the same thing as a
secretary, you'd pay your insurance out of pocket for a year.
(2) Imagine a conversation between one of your coworkers and someone
you'd like to work for: "So, you work with John Gilger?" "Oh yes, he's a
wonderful secretary." Gee, too bad -- I was looking for a writer.
(3) As others have pointed out, while you're doing secretarial duties
(or trying to explain why you don't) you aren't doing your other job --
the reason the payroll department puts the numbers on the check in the
first place.
