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Except i don't think he DID hire her... he just said she was an internal hire that was added to the tech writing team, and that he's trying to train her.
Now I'm wondering about all kinds of things that aren't clear about this situation... was he assigned to be her mentor/trainer? Or did he just take it upon himself to tell her how to do her job?
And IS she a complete novice, or did she take some kind of tech writing courses to qualify for the position? Because maybe you're right... maybe she's actually capable, with some fresh and useful ideas. In any case, while she needs to follow whatever protocols are in place for backups of work-in-progress and the storage of final docs, its her business how she chooses to manage her local files.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Sarah Kiniry
Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 10:58 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Using "Fences" as File Management Tool?
Iâd be far more concerned about the effects of micromanaging a new employee and sending the message of âI already donât trust your professional judgement,â particularly when you arenât familiar with Fences yourself. It comes off as very old guard and change-resistant, especially when your solution is the built-in Windows option.
If youâre wrong, youâre not helping her at all and youâre stifling someoneâs ability to work in the way thatâs most effective for them.
If youâre right, youâre only going to turn off her ability to feel safe learning/exploring around you. She also wonât learn anything from failure because sheâs too busy fuming about being controlled.
If sheâs more comfortable and thinks she can work faster this way, why not at least give her the benefit of the doubt? You already hired her, so you have to think she has something to offer, and maybe this is part of that.
Sarah Kiniry
Technical Writer II
cPanel, Inc.
sarah -dot- kiniry -at- cpanel -dot- net
> On Nov 1, 2017, at 9:15 AM, Paul Hanson <twer_lists_all -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> I get the points about being new, etc, but there's also the other side of the coin where 'existing people' (I didn't say 'old' on purpose <grin>) should also be open to a fresh perspective. It goes both ways.
>
> For example, I worked at a hellhole for a short period of time with a senior department member who insisted on using InDesign with no application of styles - as in manually typing the TOC and the leader dots and the page numbers - for a 150ish page user guide. She would print the entire user guide and manually verify the heading in the body matched the TOC. If there was a discrepancy, she would make changes, reprint, and start over. She bragged about staying past midnight to get the user guide done because of that process. Being the problem-solver type I am, I showed her a small InDesign document with headings and a auto-generated TOC. How many hours could be spent on other tasks if the TOCs were auto-generated? I have no idea because she wasn't even open to a fresh perspective. I believe her exact phrase was styles were "too complicated" to implement. I still shake my head in disagreement. You can't convince me that in an InDesign file it is "too complicated" to apply Headings 1 -4 styles to text that is already manually formatted to look like a heading. I call that ignorance.
>
> FWIW, I downloaded the 30 day trial of Fences and am giving it a test drive. So far, so good. Think of it as creating a folder on your desktop, putting files into that folder and being able to see the files in that folder without double-clicking. You can also make the folders roll up, which has already decluttered my Desktop. That's just my observation after a couple of hours of playing with it.
>
> Paul Hanson
> My blog: http://prhmusic.blogspot.com
> Me Playing Drums: http://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/videos-of-me-playing-drums.html
> Twitter: @prhmusic
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+twer_lists_all=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+twer_lists_all=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> ] On Behalf Of Chris Morton
> Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2017 8:59 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Using "Fences" as File Management Tool?
>
> Lynne has a point; if your new hire cannot understand basic Windows file management and requires a crutch in order to do her job, how in the world is that person going to comprehend anything more complex?
>
> Further, what happens when everyone gets a system upgrade and the person isn't permitted to use Fences? Or gets on someone else's machine and can't find anything without the crutch?
>
> How about when trying to explain to anyone else where a given file is located, or vice versa?
> <snip>
> On Wed, Nov 1, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Wright, Lynne
> <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- kronos -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
>> Wanting to use her own file-management tool isn't really a problem,
>> but her attitude is. If she is an absolute tech writing novice but is
>> unwilling to listen to the advice of the person who is trying to
>> train her, she's going to be a complete nightmare.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
>> techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
>> techwr-l-bounces+Behalf Of
>> Emoto
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 7:09 AM
>> To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>> Subject: Using "Fences" as File Management Tool?
>>
>> I almost can't believe I am writing this. We hired an internal
>> candidate into a tech writer position. I am trying to mentor/train
>> her. We'll be dealing with Word documents on Windows machines.
>>
>> I want her to set up a folder structure to manage the files she'll be
>> handling. I suggest Windows Explorer as the "right tool" for doing so.
>> Instead, she wants to keep everything on her desktop and use a
>> software called "Fences" to manage everything.
>>
>> I think this is a really bad idea. Am I wrong?
>>
>> I try to be easygoing and offer "suggestions" rather than dictate
>> things, but am losing patience.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Bob
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