RE: An observation about the writer-engineer relationship

["Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com>]

>Yet when it comes to dealing with any sort of mechanical device around
>the office--a printer or copier, a coffee maker, an adjustable chair, a
> the dishwasher, you name it--or any sort of software glitch--it's the
>engineers who stand around dazed and confused and the writer types (or
>the IT guys, who generally are high school or tech school grads) who walk
>over and fix the damn thing.

I've not noticed this split particularly. (Many of the offices I've worked
in have had explicit rules about who can and who can't check the insides of
things.) What I have noticed is that some people will, when something goes
wrong, always check to see if there's something they can do to fix it: other
people will always look around to see if someone *else* will fix it. It may
be that some kinds of education predispose people to believe that every
problem has an expert to fix it (or should have <g>) but I think it's an
attitude of mind (self-confidence? willingness to have a go?) more than
anything else.

I know one woman who got a job in a bookshop because the lightbulb went out
while she was there inquiring after a vacancy, and while her two
interviewers were asking each other how to unscrew the light-fitting, she
put the ladder up, removed the old bulb, and replaced it with the new. True
story, though <g> I've never had the opportunity to apply it in an
interview...

Jane Carnall
"Didn't you know that Word has it in for people with paranoia?"


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