Plays well with others

[Lief Erickson <lerickson -at- mqsoftware -dot- com>]

Cross-posted to TECHWR-L and STC Mgmt SIG. 

Note: If you're not interested in my story and just want to jump to the
questions, go to the bottom of the message.

----------------------Story----------------------------

I was the first writer through the door at my company two and a half years
ago. I have been here longer than 90% of the company and I truly understand
our product and technology. I have written all of the documentation until
recently, so I am a good resource of information. Since then the company has
grown--partially through acquisition--I am now a manager/team lead for three
writers, two of whom work 100% remotely (writers from the acquisition). (I
was promoted in January after the previous team lead left.)

According to Sally's* resume, she has been a technical writer for a dozen
years, a contractor for five of those years, and been with this company for
six months. She, however, doesn't show the dozen year's worth of technical
writing or the five years contracting experience. In fact, she is like a
brand new writer just out of college. The writing part is fine, she lacks
the technical part of "technical writer," which is key because our product
is complex for a very technical audience. She needs constant direction and
doesn't have the leadership that I would expect from someone with as much
"experience" as she has. She even struggles with some of the most basic
Windows operations (e.g., Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v).

Sally is cordial with me and the others that work here, but she is curt and
often unapproachable. (Sally and I share and office and others have remarked
that if they see her at her desk they will visit me after she has left for
the day.) She keeps to herself and doesn't talk unless spoken to and she
feels threatened or as if it is a personal attack when questioned about
project status, work completed, or what she's currently doing.

While I have the technical knowledge to explain most of the information that
she needs or to elucidate what the developers have given her, she needs to
be able to collect and digest the information herself so that she can write
about the product. Again, the technical part of technical writer. On several
occasions she has done little or nothing for days waiting for someone to
notice that she was stuck with a problem. She will hem and haw until someone
asks her if she needs help.

James* is one of the remote workers. James' experience has been as an
attorney, translator, and editor. This is his first technical writing job
and has had no training in technical writing, both of which can be overcome.
He is very talented, so I know that he can succeed if he wants. Like Sally,
however, he doesn't like being asked where he is on projects and is openly
hostile to others in the office.

*names changed

----------------------Questions----------------------------
How do you follow-up with your staff to ensure that they're completing the
work assigned? 


How do you deal with people who are constantly grumpy and generally have a
bad disposition?


How would you go about teaching/training a new technical writer? Or is it
something that they must pick up on there own?


How would you deal with Sally and James?



-Lief

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