Re: Personnel and Quality of Printed Manuals

[Connie Winch <CEW -at- MACOLA -dot- COM>]

The following comments are not meant as a personal attack on anyone.
Just coming to Anon.'s defense if I may...

(To those whose comments I'm quoting and responding to, I hope that I
haven't misunderstood you.  If I have, please clarify your meaning
on-list.  Thanks.)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Posada [SMTP:posada -at- FAXSAV -dot- COM]
> Sent: Monday, March 23, 1998 12:08 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: Personnel and Quality of Printed Manuals
>
<snip>
> It seems, based on your description, that everyone is wrong, everyone
> =
> doesn't understand, and that only you are the carrier of the "Document
> =
> Holy Grail".  You need to understand that you are simply doing a job
> FOR =
> the company, and that the company isn't there to bend to your every =
> wish.
<snip>

My response:
Delivering quality to the customer is hardly a personal wish - it ought
to be the mission of every business.  And whether that's the stated
mission or not, if it doesn't happen, customers leave and/or generate
negative word-of-mouth.  Hardly a problem that a business can get away
with for very long.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Richard Mateosian [SMTP:srm -at- CYBERPASS -dot- NET]
Sent:   Monday, March 23, 1998 11:33 AM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Re: FWD: Personnel and Quality of Printed Manuals

<anon's original post snipped>

Get over it.

You can't change people's minds by giving them orders. Respect and
understanding come slowly.

My response:
There's respect for a person and then there's respect for the role that
s/he and his/her deliverables play in the success of the organization.
Anon. stated that s/he's willing to put personalities aside if it will
mean improved quality, so I don't believe that Anon. is complaining that
the secretary or others don't respect him/her as a person; rather Anon's
colleagues stated that the *manuals* were not a high priority.  Anon.
rightly sees this as a problem and wants to know what s/he can do to
ensure that the customer receives a quality product.

My suggestion to Anon:  Off the top of my head I'd say one of the
following:  do the copying/production of the manuals yourself, push the
outsourcing of the production, OR find another position in an
organization that's more committed to producing a quality product and to
supporting the documentation and the documentors.  I wish you the best.

Connie E. Winch
Technical Writer
Macola Software
Marion, OH USA
cew -at- macola -dot- com