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Subject:Re: ANON: My replacement From:Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 27 Jan 1999 14:57:00 -0800
Clearly there's not much you can do if the managers won't put any money into
finding a good tech writer. One suggestion not mentioned is to agree to a
limited involvement in the hiring process. Another is to suggest a
freelancer--maybe the one they already work with--to get involved.
I know the owners of a small company whose accounting processes were in a
shambles. They hired a freelancer to start straightening things out, and
also paid that person to consult on hiring a permanent bookkeeper. That
person, by virtue of their expertise, was able to distinguish the skills
they needed and to look for them in the applicants. It was *extremely*
successful. The owners acknowledge they would never have realized the
difference on their own.
A second issue that struck me in the original post was the fate of the poor
administrative assistant (*not* receptionist). We can all be very witty
about jamming a non-writer into a tech writing job, but the original post
said that this individual was interested in writing. Many of us have been
there. I often encourage newbies to look around in their existing jobs for
opportunities to gain their first tech writing experience. This may have
been the start of a great writing career--if the person had gotten the
mentoring they probably expected initially.
If I were in anon's position, I might not push the "qualified replacement"
issue any more. But I would probably try to give this person some advice.
Suggest they take some tech writing classes (and suggest to the manager that
they pay for it). Get them into some professional groups like this list or
STC. Get them started on their way to tech writing instead of dropping them
in some sort of pseudo land. If this individual does end up being the lone
regular writer--well, the company may suffer for a while (their fault), but
the newbie is given a chance to progress.
Sella Rush mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database
