RE: On Office Politics and Being the New Kid

["Ron Hearn" <RHearn -at- cucbc -dot- com>]

Hi Lori
It sounds like you are definitely stepping on the other person's toes
and her rather bizarre conception of the purpose of documentation. It
reminds me of the developers' mantra - "if an application was difficult
to develop, it should be hard to use."
In your case, I think you have to go back to your job description or
role and see if documenting her area is part of your mandate. If it is,
you should inform her that she is preventing her from performing your
role. You might also list the well-worn benefits of documentation (e.g.
fewer support desk calls etc.). Failing that, I would recommend
escalating the issue to your manager, who should be aware of what is
going on if you can't resolve it. Also, as a new employee, you don't
want this to come back and bite you at evaluation time. Mentioning it
during an evaluation will be too late.
Good luck and let us know how things work out for you.

Ron Hearn
Documentation Specialist
Credit Union Central of British Columbia
1441 Creekside Drive
Vancouver, B.C. V6J 4S7
(604) 730-6391, fax: (604) 730-7792
rhearn -at- cucbc -dot- com



-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Lori Olcott
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:25 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: On Office Politics and Being the New Kid

Hi Y'all - 

I've been settling into my new job for a little over a month now.  It's
not a titled tech writing position (Data Management), but the interview
team was very excited about my writing background.  "We don't have much
documentation.  This will be great!"  Since being hired, I've been
learning the systems and writing up how-to's for what I've learned so
far.
 There is some  documentation available, but it's very high level - not
something a new person would be able to use very effectively.

I've been getting extremely mixed messages from the lady who maintains
the
group's intranet site and who wrote much of the documentation that is
out
there already.  She is quick to say that she's not a writer, and has
asked
me to let her know if there are any holes that need to be filled. 
However, when I gave her what I'd written, she said she didn't want any
"personal notes" on the site.  She also said that she doesn't like
documentation that tells someone exactly what to do to run the system. 
She wants to force people to learn the system and feels that
step-by-step
instructions are a crutch.  While I can understand her not wanting team
members to be fully dependent on guides, I disagree with her disdain for
step-by-step manuals.  When a person is new on a system, they need the
basic procedures to make the system work.  Ideally, those procedures
will
also include overviews and "this is what is going on behind these
commands" information to help develop an understanding of the bigger
picture.  But to outright deny access to basic documentation seems very
counter-productive to the group.

I also suspect that some of this is a territorial reaction.  I'm
encroaching on what has been her area.  And since my title isn't
"Technical Writer" or "Documentation Specialist", she's not as obligated
to accept my input (even though it was one of the things I was hired
for).
 This lady's been very nice in other office interactions, so I'm not
writing her off as a hopeless personality conflict.  Nor do I want to
step
on her toes.  But I do want to ensure we have good documentation that
will
allow an inexperienced person to quickly grasp the basics of a system
and
successfully run the more routine tasks.  I haven't discussed this issue
with our manager yet.  I'm hoping to figure out what it is that she
really
wants.  If I can give her that (or reassure her on what's worrying her),
then I might be able to get my goal accomplished.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Lori

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