Respect

["Eric J. Ray (remote)" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

I've had plenty of rants on the general topic of
getting respect--in brief, I tend to spout some
variant on "you earn it". See
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/gettingalongindevelopmentgroups.html
for a recent example.

That said, another angle that you might want to
consider is asking yourself one question:
How do I add value?

Or, to recast that to address my boss's favorite
axe to grind:
What is my business purpose?

Keep in mind that, unless you have a pretty unusual
job, you do _NOT_ add value by writing documentation,
by developing online help, or by cleaning up
programmer-ese into English. I know that I don't.

I add value by:
* allowing people to easily use the software developed
  here
* showing people how this software makes their lives
  better (in some small way)
* _using_ the software and identifying potential issues
  for customers (bugs, challenges, etc.)
* helping everyone else do their job more effectively,
  by helping to clarify design documents, specs, and
  marketing collateral

I've found, for my situation, that I add value most effectively
by being engaged with the project, with the people, and
with the technology. When I review a design document, I'm
looking for _everything_, and am as likely to comment on
technical nuance as on grammatical nuance.

It wasn't always like this here...one of the people I
currently work closely with now was only able to spare
about 5 minutes to spend with me when I interviewed
here, and was quite skeptical about how a tech writer
might contribute _anything_. That said, he's now one of
the first to ask for my input, and is as likely to ask
for my opinion on technical issues as on technical
writing issues.

How did that happen? Not by complaining about lack of
respect, that's for sure. It happened by _demonstrating_
that I contribute to the project and view my role
as one of adding value whereever I can.

It works.

Eric



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