RE: How many have this problem at work?

[Chuck Martin <CMartin -at- serena -dot- com>]

No, no, no, and, just for good measure, no.

Technical communicators, or at least, not the ones I work with, and
certainly not me, are not secretaries sitting in a pool with a 8-5
punch-in-and-punch-out schedule and an expectation that their hands are
working on the keyboard during the entire punched-in time. I am paid not
only for what I do, but also for what I know, and for what I know how to do.


But as good as I am at what I do (and I've been tabbed with a "superstar"
label by more than one observer, although I would never adopt the term to
describe my capabilities), I'm also quite aware that (a) there are many
things that I don't know, and (b) this field is in constant motion, with new
things to learn and new roadblocks to overcome daily. I'm no more god's gift
to doc teams everywhere in my work life than I am god's gift to men
everywhere in my social life. Improving and bettering myself is an ongoing
process in every facet of one's life, both work and non-work. Part of what
*must* be done as a knowledge worker is to always be refining and enhancing
that knowledge. Your company is paying for that just as surely as they are
paying for the words that are produced.

Now I'm trying to decide just how offended I should be at the morally
superior insinuation that anyone not at the fingers-on-the-keyboard
grindstone for an entire 8-hour day has a less-than-ironclad conscience and
merely poses as a writing pillar. Speaking for myself, I know that I have
used this list for information, sometimes information that neither I nor the
others around me had, information that was critical to getting my job (you
know, the one I'm getting paid for) done, and done on time. Ditto for other
areas of the Internet, not to mention my extensive library or resource books
and magazines.

But stepping outside the work-related arena, the vast majority of companies
these days don't begrudge its workers a reasonable amount of personal
activity on company time, especially in the knowledge worker industry. No
one should be made to feel guilty for making a phone call to arrange either
a doctor's appointment on a lunch date on company time. Or for using email
or the Internet to do similar tasks. A realization has begun to exist, this
last part of the 20th century, that workers are not robots owned by the
company, that lives go on--and sometimes must be managed--during work hours.

That all said, like probably many others, I also devote a lot of my non-work
time (and money) to bettering myself in my field. I'm certainly not getting
paid for those hours, nor am I doing it to push myself along some career
path. I do it so I can do my job better, just as a physician reads medical
journals to do his/her job better (and probably sometimes at their offices).

Its absurd to think that any activity not directly related to actual
production work must get explicit approval ahead of time. To suggest that
someone needs to do that is an insult, a slap-in-the-face accusation that
they don't manage their time and tasks well (not to say that some people
don't). It sends a message from management that the workers are not trusted.
I guarantee you that this is not a good message.

Historically, my bosses have known that I use the Internet, and not always
for pure work. (Who doesn't have a stock ticker on their desktop that
contains their own company's stock price?) I've had a manager come up behind
me in my cubicle when I was checking non-work things out on the Internet;
it's no different that any other break. This same manager also asked me at a
later time to design a new piece of software that the company wanted to
create. I'd say he trusted me. It may have helped that documentation that I
worked on won favorable mention on more than one occasion in magazines'
software reviews.

Bottom line though, I can guarantee you this: a company that has its panties
tied in such a tight bunch that they won't allow Internet access, list
subscriptions, and the like, is *not* going to get the benefits of *my*
knowledge and skills. Life's too short and too valuable to waste on such a
repressive, close-minded enterprise.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 10:55 AM
> Subject: Re: How many have this problem at work?
<snip>
> 
> Maybe this is the start of the process that ends with me
> recruiting soldiers and ordering them to annex Europe :-), but I
> don't see any gray.
> 
> Besides the self-evident fact that people use the list for many
> non-utiltarian reasons, whether subscribing to a mailing list
> makes you a better writer or not is beside the point. The
> question is what you are being paid to do.

> 
> If your company agrees that subscribing to a mailing list is
> useful for your work, ethically, you're in the clear. Many union
> shops pay union officials to do union business, and many modern
> companies pay for employee education. So long as everyone knows
> what the arrangement is, no problem.
> 
> On the other hand, if you haven't cleared your subscription with
> your company and/or don't make up the time you spend reading and
> posting, then you're stealing. A good test might be to consider
> talking to your boss about your internet habits. If you hesitate,
> that's probably pretty clear proof that you're rationalizing and
> know it.

> 
> The same goes for doing STC work on company time, or anything
> else that you aren't directly paid for.
> 
> It's not that most companies will object. Nor is it a question of
> whether the company can sustain this kind of petty theft; most
> can. A case can even be made for doing a little internetting on
> company time when you've worked a lot of unpaid over-time - so
> long as you've fulfilled your basic contractual obligation.
> 
> For me, it's mainly a question of how I choose to live. 

> 
> Also, on a more practical level, most of the places I've worked
> in the last five years have flexible hours, and I'd like to
> continue enjoying them. When too many people abuse flex hours,
> they ruin it for everyone else.
> 
> I know that a lot of people have more elastic consciences than
> mine. Many even manage to pose as pillars of their local writing
> communities. I wouldn't tattle on them, but neither will I
> respect or trust them.

> 
> -- 
> Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
> "The Open Road" column, Maximum Linux
> 3015 Aries Place, Burnaby, BC V37 7E8, Canada
> bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7189
> 

--
"I don't entirely understand it but it is true: Highly skilled carpenters
don't get insulted when told they are not architects, but highly skilled
programmers do get insulted when they are told they are not UI designers."
     - anonymous programmer quoted in "GUI Bloopers"
       by Jeff Johnson

Chuck Martin, Sr. Technical Writer
cmartin -at- serena -dot- com 


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