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Subject:Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting From:"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- editors-writers -dot- info> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Nov 2002 21:34:14 -0500
>
> 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.
>
One can talk to a manager and ask a question or two without delivering "a
hatchet job". I had nothing of the sort in mind. Please do not imply that I
said anything remotely like that.
> 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.
>
Better to talk like an adult with someone than have a bad attitude toward the
other person.
> "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?
>
If you are a contractor, you take your marching orders from *someone*.
Presumably it is not the other writer in the present case. If there is a
dispute with that other writer and he is trying to prevent you from carrying
out your orders -- given to you by someone other than him -- what professional
writer is going to go off half-cocked and isolate the other writer? What
professional writer is not going to report to the one who gave the marching
orders that there's a problem? Talk about taking matters into your own hands!
> "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.
I agree with that, but that was not the situation presented by the poster.
In the case in question, it was obviously not the case that he could just
ignore the other person. At least that's how I interpreted it.
> 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.
>
Once again, I at no time suggested that anyone should be disparaged. If
anything, I am arguing for the opposite approach.
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