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> What the hell is wrong with consulting firms these days? They never seem to
> get the story right about the client's specific needs and environment. And
> then they accuse us writers of lying! Your entire post sounded patronizing,
> chauvinistic, and totally unprofessional. We're not animals that you can
> just yank on and off jobs, accuse of "chatting".
I think this response to Andrew Plato's comment is totally unfair. Nowhere in
his post did Andrew indicate that he got the story about his client's needs and
environment wrong; indeed, it seemed to me that he got it exactly right. He
then used his experience to make an educated guess about the fit between this
writer's credentials and his client's needs, and placed the writer on the job.
After she'd been there a while, he found that her behavior was what even *I*
would consider unprofessional, and he had to clean up the mess her behavior
caused.
There's a huge difference between casual chatting with other workers, and doing
so to the extent that it gets in the way of the other workers doing THEIR jobs,
and the ability to distinguish between the two is one mark of a professional.
Further, I think, based on many years' experience in this business, that Mr.
Plato was far from wrong in expecting that the writer would be able to
demonstrate her knowledge of SQL and other required things within that first
week. I've been in that position many, many times, and I consider it a mark of
professional honor to demonstrate my usefulness to the client as quickly as
possible.
As for being "animals that you can just yank on and off jobs," the mark of a
good contractor is that you can be placed where someone needs results in a
hurry, and you're flexible enough to know how to handle quick changes of
responsibilities. If you can't be productive fast, and you're not flexible,
then you shouldn't be in the contracting business. That doesn't mean you're not
a good writer - just that the contracting environment isn't for you.
I sympathize a lot with Mr. Plato - been there, done that, had to deal with an
unhappy client, lost a LOT of money because the person I hired really screwed
up. I'd advise Sue Pyle to walk a mile in a hiring entity's shoes before
flaming Mr. Plato again.
