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Subject:RE: What to do about a recommendation? From:"James Barrow" <vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 24 Oct 2006 06:29:45 -0700
>Robotti, Anne (Carlin) wrote:
>>THis is a classic case of you should have been upfront with this person
>>all along. Since you never told him/her there were any problems, this
>>poor sap was led to believe that you were really happy with their work.
>(Disclaimer about how many good contractors there are, whatever.)
>Quite frankly, I think that there are two classes of bad contractors.
>There's a group who think they're doing a great job, and would be
>crushed if they were told otherwise. I personally feel bad for them and
>give as much constructive criticism as possible, but YMMV.
In other words, a contractor with little or no experience.
>Then there's another group, MUCH more prevalent in every job I've ever
>worked, that are contractors so they can slide through under the radar.
Hmmm...I can think of quite a few contractors who do this, but very few tech
writers. Maybe we take more responsibility for ourselves because most of us
volunteered for this hell...I MEAN CAREER! :^)
>They *know* they're bad. They don't care. They're not interested in
>being good because being good takes too much time and work and feedback
>meetings and they just want to collect a fat check for as long as they
>can and move on.
Again, I can identify a *very* large company that I have worked for where
most of the employees/contractors were hired right out of college (some had
worked for the company as interns during college). Working for that company
was like being a hall monitor in high school: lots of he said/she said,
practical jokes and leaving work early to go 'clubbing'.
>I mean, come on. Show of hands, who out there needs a performance review
>or feedback from their manager to know that they're not meeting
>expectations? "Gee, the software went out last week and I still haven't
>finished the manual. I wonder if that's a problem?" A good reaming at a
>document review is usually all it takes to get me right on board!
Well, sure, but I couldn't tell you the year in which I developed a strong
work ethic and self-discipline.
>I bet Anonymous doesn't mean they *never* said anything to the guy about
>expectations, or deadlines, or scope of work, or negative reviews of
>docs. They just never sat him down for the Big Talk.
Maybe. I know of a few contractors who thought they were the 'golden child'
even though hints about her work were being dropped like leaves in Vermont
in the Fall.
>No with no explanation is my vote, because everybody including the
>contractor knows what the explanation is. (Or you could be a weenie and
>go with the lukewarm recommendation. Use the word "punctual" - it's code
>for "nothing good to say here, keep looking.")
I'm trying to imagine a meeting between contractor and manager during which
the 'no, with no explanation' approach was used. Lots of awkward silence,
don't you think.
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