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Subject:RE: Fear and Loathing at the Job Site From:"Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 6 May 2003 14:32:16 -0700
Actually, in many industries, tech writers can kill people. Bad evacuation
procedures, bad usage instructions on medical devices, poor consumer product
instructions, aviation P and Ps, these can all kill people.
My company rarely takes these projects on, simply because they scare me. We
typically do software, because it is much less likely we will kill someone.
I could not live with my self if we forgot something and someone died.
And personally? I agree with Andrew about fools. I have worked for them and
I felt myself die a little more each day I was there. But then, that is part
of why I am self employed.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of
DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 2:17 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Fear and Loathing at the Job Site
While I don't share Andrew's general view of humanity (see his post from May
1st, "I'd rather work 90 hours a week for myself than 10 for somebody so
stupid, they should be ground up into hot dogs"), I think it's clear that
there are grossly incompetent workers in every profession.
I don't see what we could do collectively to clean up our diffuse
professional community. Rather, listservs such as this one help us get
better at what we do -- and in *some* cases, to distinguish ourselves from
those who don't care about getting better.
Look at the bright side: Unlike doctors, truck drivers, and day care
workers, a grossly incompetent technical writer is unlikely to kill anyone.
---
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