ANON: Anonymous Summary of "Inaccurate SME"

[Anonymous <anonfwd -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

Message forwarded on request. Please
reply on list.

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Thanks to all of you who responded to my anonymous
post last week about the "inaccurate sme." As always,
it?s very gratifying to have the support of so many
colleagues. Now that all the responses are in, I
wanted to let you know that:

The suggestion to get it all in writing speaks to
me most - it?s black and white and doesn?t require
any emotional/personal stuff. It?s concrete and
tangible, if I ever need to explain the situation
to someone else (i.e. manager). (thanks Laurence)

To those who suggested speaking directly to the sme
to find out what the problem is, well, the problem
is he?s young and new. He was never scared by a
technical writer, he doesn?t have a personality
problem, we do not have a chronic problem sme here,
and I?ll encourage him to check out his facts before
handing them over to me.

The suggestion to get 2 sme?s to sign off is a good
one, and I plan on looking into that. (thanks Beverly)
I might simply go to the more senior engineer and ask
for his input, even if unofficially and not for the
purpose of signing off.

All the talk about going to/not going to managers
left me a little empty. Some of you seemed to
get real agitated/political/controlling when it
comes to doing your job. I think my work is important,
but not life and death. And not worth getting so
upset about.

Thanks to all the respondents
who were supportive and even-keeled in their
perspective and advice.

I do care enough to get the job done.


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