Comparison to Technical People (was Fire Them All)

[Emmy Aricioglu <EMMY_ARICIOGLU -at- HP-ROSEVILLE-OM3 -dot- OM -dot- HP -dot- COM>]

Item Subject: Re: Fire them all


     My group agrees that, officially, tech writers are on the same plane,
     but that unofficially (in the smoke-filled room where the rankings
     take place), tech writers are not really equivalent to hardware and
     software engineers. During the last rating go-round, we tech writers
     were lumped in with the marketing and support people. Again, we found
     we were not on the same plane (perhaps because we normally don't have
     direct contact with end-customers? -- we really don't know why).

     This business of comparing unlike jobs is similar to the Academy
     Awards process. How can one acting performance be compared (ranked)
     with another? Isn't the only fair thing to have all the actors play
     the same role, then have a vote? But I don't want to restart the
     fairness thread again!

     My suggestion to Brian is that he go to his manager and ask the
     manager to help him change his ranking. In other words, ask the
     manager how the comparison could be changed. Someone (or some group)
     in Brian's company has the perception that writing is "B" work. That
     perception needs to change. Ask the manager to help make this change.
     It won't be easy to do this and it is a longer-term project, but it
     would benefit you, the manager, and the other writers. Good luck.


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=