Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Darn! Andrew's advice is so often spot-on! Still, the other
times...but, I digress!

I've been a contractor for more years than I care to admit.
Frankly, I must respectfully also disagree with Bonnie on
this one for several reasons. First, consider this comment:

"Especially when you're a contractor, your first line of
defense, as it were, has to be the person to whom you
report. It is inappropriate to hash things out with a
peer."

In the process of "going over the other writer's head" to
the manager for what is in reality a hatchet job (however
well deserved) is not a method of promoting the success of
the project.

Unless your contract is to improve work process, that isn't
really your province...and, in the end, the best method of
improving that process is by demonstrating how the work
*should* be done.

"Also, *someone* has to be the decision-maker there. Who is
it? I don't know who it is, but everything hinges on that,
it seems to me. There are entirely too many open questions,
though, for me to give a more definitive answer. But
fragmenting the documentation effort seems unprofessional."

And who appointed you, the contractor, to determine these
issues or to define what is "professional" beyond your own
efforts?

"The responsibility of a contractor who is having such
problems is to his agency and to the client. It is not
appropriate to just hunker down and ignore what's going on
around you."

If the situation is such that you cannot properly perform
your contract, your responsibility is to bring *that* fact
up and ask for a renegotiation of the contract in a manner
which will solve the problem in the absence of another
solution. If you can handle *your* contract
responsibilities by "hunkering down and ignoring what's
going on around you"--IMHO it is your responsibility to do
EXACTLY that. 

If, in the process, your opinion is asked, you can give it.
The likelihood of it working if you give it in a manner
that disparages the permanent people is slim; further, the
likelihood of getting a good result or a positive
recommendation in these situations is also very remote.

David

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