Fwd: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting
But a manager's responsibility is to assure that everyone knows what's to be
done and how to do it. A documentation manager who shuts her door and lets the
writer's brawl over how to approach their tasks isn't much of a manager.
I do not think that your approach and Andrew's are mutually exclusive. Andrew does have a point when he recommends that, put bluntly, a very productive writer do not shackle him- or herself to a procrastinating one - he may get dragged down.
Rather, try to apportion work at the outset, making clear what everybody is expected to do. This lets you avoid a situation where you worked much more than the other guy, but not enough to finish the project on time, and still have to share the blame for a job badly done because it isn't clear who did what and who should have done what. (And will it look bad if you _then_ try to blame the other guy, especially if he's been there longer!)
That does not preclude taking your recommendation: Try to alert the appropriate manager to the problem, thereby giving him or her a chance to find a solution before the shit really hits the fan. Or giving the manager a chance to educate you, because, being new, you may have misconceptions about the best way to approach the work. (Even if this is very unlikely.)
Which mixture of the two approaches works best depends on the situation at hand, especially on the personality of the responsible manager.
Regards
Jan Henning
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Jan Henning
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany
Phone: +49 700 0200 0700, Fax: +49 8179 9307-12
E-Mail: henning -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
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