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Subject:Re: How to appease a consultant? ::long:: From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 4 Jul 2001 08:16:21 -0700 (PDT)
> I still have 3 weeks left on my probation period, he's here until
> October,
> how would you suggest I deal with him? I guess I figured if he'd
> been doing
> this for 20 years, things like a peer review wouldn't make him run
> and cry
> to the boss but now I'm afraid to say anything for the next few
> weeks.
You were brought on to do something. That something is not to appease
him, but to do a job. Do it. When he hands the stuff over to you, say
think you, then get to work. If it means reworking the help, then
spend a few hours with the existing deliverable, then another few
hours putting together a memo to your boss explaining, in OBJECTIVE
terms:
- what you see
- what is good
- what needs to be changed and why
- how you will change it
- roughly how long it will take to make the changes, and,
- what the advantages will be for the user once the changes are made.
Maybe, if you think it will be a hard sell, take one or two
topics...short ones that are particularly bad. Do your rework.
Present the before and after with the above memo. In the memo, point
out what were the worst failings of the before and be sure you point
out the equiv in your version and why, from a user's standpoint, is
it better.
It shouldn't take more than a day-2 at the most, to do this. You
don't need to appease anyone except your boss...he'll deal with the
consultant, which BTW, could very well be an employee and nothing
would change.
Don't let tenure, age, experience, gender, or anything, become a
factor...the user doesn't see any of this when they read the
deliverable...they only see the deliverable.
=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
"How to be happy in life: Never impose your beliefs
on anyone else and never fry bacon in the nude."
-- Anon mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874
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