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A lot of assumptions are being made about what
has only been described as "a client." Sometimes
clients really do hire writers because they recornize
that they can't do what the writers do.
About half my positions as a writer/doc manager
began when a company had none of the three
groups you describe, and in those companies I
never had a job description that didn't "drift." In
my first ever job as a "tech writer" I was also
training the service techs. In my current position
as a "technical publications manager" I am also
managing the company's engineering program
schedules (tracking start and completion of
project tasks, prodding task resources for their
progress, etc.). Along the way I have also
been responsible for managing a test lab, a
spare parts depot and two document control
groups
The companies where my sole responsibility
was to create or manage documentation were
the ones where I most felt as if I and my people
were dispensibles cogs in a machine.
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Hood" <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
>I have to agree. I would very much like to find out
> that I was wrong on this point, that asking the tech
> writer to pen a letter to a customer was someone's
> tacit admission that he's not good at stringing words
> together. Or something that mild. But really...the
> company has people who provide support, people who
> manage that support, and people whose entire jobs
> consist of handling customer relations. When there are
> 3 groups who would naturally be expected to to
> interface with the customer about his problem, and all
> 3 of them are bypassed to give the job to someone
> whose duties would normally never take them within 10
> miles of a customer - something sounds *really* wrong
> there. It may be the client company is headed toward a
> very serious problem because it has some people in
> important positions whose are industrial strength
> clueless.
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