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Moderator Note: The following is being posted on behalf of a Whirler who
needs to remain anonymous. Please post all replies to the list and not to
me, as replies will not be forwarded to the original poster.
I have been in this job for almost eight years. I started documenting two
products. Now, I’m responsible for eleven. Three share similar interface
and features, but it is a lot to handle. I’ve presented data on why an
additional resource is necessary each year, and I’ve been rebuffed. Shortly
before the end of 2011, I was told to hand one project to one of the Admin
Assistants to do since “she has a lot of downtime until the summer.” She
isn’t stupid, she isn’t clueless, but she can’t write. She is a novice at
using Word. I use Flare as the authoring tool, and it is beyond her. Again,
I’m not saying she’s stupid, but she doesn’t get the concepts or the
workflow. She gave me seven topics to review, and they’re terrible. While
they’re spelled correctly and the mechanics such as grammar & punctuation
are good, the procedures are poorly written and they’re just not
acceptable. I can rewrite them, but that’s not the point. When I brought
up the writing problems and the time involved, my manager said that I need
to help her come up to speed and work with her. I’ve tried to show her how
to write a procedure and what goes into a topic, but it just doesn’t seem
to work. I’ve suggested local and online courses that might help her, but
there’s no budget for it. This is taking up more time that I can afford to
devote to it.****
** **
I’m trying to react to this with uh…grace and no emotion.****
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