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RE: Forget stock options... what's the severance package?!
Subject:RE: Forget stock options... what's the severance package?! From:david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 26 Mar 2001 16:55:17 -0600
It is the manager's job to manage the quality of the documentation. If a
writer isn't producing what they see as quality doc, then they can take
action. But, what I usually see, is writers producing quality doc, and
manager's not caring or worse obstructing. And, when I see the end result of
this, it is usually in the culture of the company and not the technical
writer. TWs don't control culture, managers do. A TW that tilts at too many
windmills, becomes anything else as quickly as they can, or runs off to work
in a more reasonable enterprise.
And, here I am not talking doc manager's job. I mean CEO, owning VP, CTO,
etc. I've worked for doc managers that tell me that I have to turn toilet
paper (source) into readable content. I've had product managers tell me that
I'm cheaper than a programmer. I've had a VP of Dev. tell me that we don't
do doc, we do training at the same time the training was scaring customers
away. I've had the same VP of Dev. lie about content.
Maybe you work where the execs care. If so, thank your lucky stars. In the
mean time, I will look very carefully for the track marks of these things as
they show up in interviews. And, if I see them, I will leave this job for
some unsuspecting person. Hint, if they haven't been able to fill the job in
six months, or the expected ship date has passed without producing any doc,
because they have no writer, it isn't because there aren't any writers out
there. It's because the collective judgment of those writers is that the job
is more trouble than its worth.
Not so many years ago, people worked as TWs for two years before exiting the
profession. Why was that?
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