Re: doing a good job...

[Nancy Hickman <nhickman -at- GVI -dot- NET>]

There are a few other reasons why you would want to grow a department
that no one has mentioned. You may be meeting deadlines, but the work is
not as good or as sophisicated as it could be. In this case, more
sophisticated designs and ideas are being rejected just simply because
no one has the training to do it or there is no resource to do it. You
begin to hear "that's a nice idea, but I don't think we can do it."
Maybe your artwork or book design is not on a high level, or your
assistance or tutorials are not on a high level. Maybe you've reached
the place where people are a "jack of all trades - master of none."
Then, maybe it's time to hire some people with skills that your location
has in short supply. The time to grow is not when you are in a crisis or
in the middle of heavy work.

Another reason to grow is to increase levels of promotability. I believe
that the technical writers in an organization should have job levels and
titles that match the other technical professionals at that
organization. There should be project lead positions and other areas of
specialization for those who have the interest and the ability. It's a
good idea to do what few organizations do well, and that is to groom
leadership skills. You should also allow people to get promotions and
increases even if they do not want to go into management, by allocating
positions of architect, which is similar to what many organizations do
to keep senior programmers. This sort of planning keeps good people and
allows them to have a vision of themselves continuing to work and grow
at the same place for more than a couple of years.

-- Nancy Hickman
author of 'Building Windows 95 Help'