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1. Document your correspondence with your manager.
2. Determine whether anyone else in the organization can either educate
or overrule your manager.
3. Do not agree to do what can't be done within the scope of your job,
i.e. turn a non-writer into a writer.
4. If the situation doesn't improve, consider whether you'd be better
off somewhere else.
-----Original Message-----
From: INKtopia Admin
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 1:25 PM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: ANONYMOUS POST: Staffing with unskilled workers
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.****
**
What next steps would YOU take?
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