TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Top Ten Things You'd Like To Tell Engineers From:TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 12 Aug 2004 14:00:16 -0400
> Precisely. Quality is not made by the folks in the quality lab, nor
> by the laborers on the shop floor, nor by the inspectors. Quality
> is made by the top management, the Board Room. They determine the
> policies that allow "ship it anyway" to win over "not good enough."
No, they don't. They are the "visionaries" who set direction for the
company as an entity. Middle to Upper management are the people who
define policy. Top management signs the paper that makes the policy
legit.
> They send the managers to a flavor-of-the-month quality seminar and
> permit that to constitute attention to quality. They set up rewards
> for "team player" inspectors and punishments for any individual who
> is seen as stopping production. Often they make stupid decisions
> without proper regard for unintended consequences, and sometimes
> they simply fail to observe things that are wrong, but it's still a
> management problem.
That's a very shallow, one-sided view you got there. As management, I
can officially say your view both insults and disgusts me.
> What's a tech writer supposed to do? Same as in any other failing
> company. Get out and go somewhere else. The only other alternative
> is to take over, wresting power from top management, and I'm pretty
> sure no one's done that directly from a tech writing position.
In some cases, yes. In my case, I am proactive about building
relationships across the organization in the best interest of the
company and initiate policies and practices. I can't be certain, but
I'm fairly confident that this is what landed me my promotion to
management so early in my employment period here.
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
