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> However, I've been getting calls from my previous contact there, asking
me
> to work on projects which are firmly in their marketing writer's
territory
> and capabilities.
Its not your job to run their company. Take the projects, bill the client,
be happy they like your work. Let them solve their own internal problems.
> I'm going to talk about this with him when we meet again in two days; I
want
> to nip this in the bud before it becomes a problem. Something like:
"Isn't
> this more in X's area? I like working with you a lot, but she's probably
got
> better marketing skills to give this the right spin. And if I was in her
> role, I'd be upset if you didn't come to me with this first." Has anyone
> else dealt with a similar situation, as a freelancer or contractor?
I wouldn't do that. Like I said, they hire you to write docs, not question
or analyze their internal business practices. I realize you're just trying
to "do the right thing." Sometimes the right thing is to leave your nose
out of other people's business and just do the job you were hired to do.
The alternative to this is that the whole thing could blow up in your face
and you'll never see another project from them again.
I have clients that have obvious internal wars over using the services of
my firm. There are tech pubs managers (or at least there 'were' tech pubs
managers) who hate my guts and would like to see me fall into a vat of
liquid nitrogen, but the engineering managers adore us. Because the
engineering managers have more power, we get hired. The local tech pubs
Lord will have 839 simultaneous conniptions over our abuse of the Laws of
Information Mapping or some paranoid nonsense. We just do the job we were
hired to do, try to appease the rants of the tech pubs lord, and make the
engineering manager happy.
If you get in the middle of an internal war (even a cold war) you are
likely to become a casualty. It is a LOT easier to blame a consultant for
some ickiness than a full-time person whom you have to work with everyday.
Andrew Plato
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