RE: Interesting Article... fewest jobs lost in Tech Writing

["Dan Hall" <dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com>]

Dave,

IME, upper management's views make all the difference - and
that's also why there's a trend (in some companies and/or
industries) away from large documentation departments.

Managers see documentation and the writers as overhead,
which we are. The problem is that some managers can't seem
to see the difference between necessary and unnecessary
overhead, so doc teams go - because one way to improve
profitability is to reduce overhead.

One can picture Dilbert's PHB saying "Hmmmmm... electricity
is an overhead cost. Reducing overhead improves profits...
Issue a memo requiring all employees to bring a candle in
to work, since the company will no longer be providing free
electricity." Doh!

For companies and managers with a long-term view, the
importance of documentation to product success should be
clear. Users might not _like_ the documentation that comes
with their VCR, but you can bet they'd raise holy # -at- *& if
the VCR box didn't contain those convoluted instructions on
setting the clock to the flashing 12:00. <g>

There will always be a need to strike a balance between the
short term and long term ROI that companies get from their
overhead costs - including writers. As important as _we_
think our work is, the profit motive drive corporations
(and a lot of people I know, too ;->) so showing management
the value (with hard numbers, whenever possible) is the
only way to change their views.

My $0.02 only

Dan

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can.
That is the only secret of style.  -- Matthew Arnold




-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-72045 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-72045 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Dave Murray
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 8:57 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Interesting Article... fewest jobs lost in Tech Writing



>Hmm. My company recently let go of 2 technical writers. Not a large number,
>either in absolute terms or as a percentage of overall employees. However,
>it was 66.67% of the writing team.

I had a similar experience.  When I started with my previous employer, the
doc department had eight writers, a translator, and a manager.  Through
layoffs and attrition, the department was reduced to 2 writers, then finally
eliminated altogether so that, "more resources could be spent on sales and
marketing."

I've talked with some who say this is a growing (and unfortunate) trend, and
others who say it depends largely on how the upper management views
documentation.

I'd like to believe the latter, but I'm curious to hear other perspectives
as well.


Dave Murray

Technical Documentation & Online Help Systems

508-285-2371-h
508-951-7130-m

mailto:davemurray -at- attbi -dot- com
http://home.attbi.com/~davemurray/tw.htm




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