FWD: Reporting structure

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

Name withheld upon request. Please reply on list.

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>That is, your first level manager is outside of the TW group (a
>Product Manager, Tech Support Manager, Manager of Engineering Services,
>Marketing Manager, etc.). If so, do you have a team leader, or does each
>writer report individually to the outside manager? Does the size of your
>Tech Pubs group have anything to do with this?

At the small software company where I work, this has been the case as long
as I've been here (about two years).

I think it definitely has to do with the small size of our group (usually
three, depending on releases and such).  We once did have an official head
of documentation; that was just before I came in.  I hear those days were
better in some ways, but I don't know from personal experience.

We are all supposed to report to the outside manager, but, of course, what
happens is that everyone gives me (the senior tech writer) their
questions/complaints/suggestions, and what I can't answer gets forwarded to
our manager.  This in spite of my frequent warnings to "check with John on
that."  Basically, I believe what the management is getting now is a Head
tech writer without an official title (meaning, of course, that the added
responsibility doesn't have to be acknowledged through extra pay and
bonuses).

I believe this situation is very common, and actually we lurch along fairly
credibly, but there are some problems.

>What are the pitfalls of such a scenario? Is the visibility and/or
credibility of your group affected in any way? Do you feel >that your
outside manager understands your needs and concerns and is a
>reliable advocate for your group?

One major pitfall is that our manager doesn't understand or appreciate our
concerns.  For example, recently we came to a deadlock about a matter of
punctuation.  Because I'm not the head, we approached our manager to break
the deadlock.  He made several joking comments about the triviality of our
problem.  Yeah, he was joking, and yes, to outsiders, these matters often
seem trivial.  Good writers, however, know that consistently and
correctness in punctuation and writing style aren't trivial at all.  He
isn't much of an advocate in terms of those needs and concerns, since he
doesn't really understand them.  "Oh, no one cares about that stuff
anyway."  It also means we don't always get a lot in the form of meaningful
positive feedback, as opposed to the occasional and vague, "You guys do a
great job."

One glaring problem in our writing department, that I think is related to
this, is high turnover.  People tend to stay a year or so, and then leave.
Why?  I believe it's because they come in as entry-level writers, and after
they get some training they decide either, "I really would like some
support, supervision and training, so I can hone my skills," or "Gee, I've
shown I can get the job done with almost no support, so I can do better
than this."  Since technical writing is hot, hot, hot, right now, they find
other jobs easily.

The advantages of this situation is that you must be very independent, make
good decisions and take responsibility, and stay organized and focused.
However, since all those skills sound great in interviews, I think they
contribute to our turnover problem!

Your mileage may vary, however.