RE: On Office Politics and Being the New Kid
From: "Ron Hearn" To: Subject: RE: On Office Politics and Being the New Kid Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 11:06:04 -0800
Hi Lori It sounds like you are definitely stepping on the other person's toes and her rather bizarre conception of the purpose of documentation. It reminds me of the developers' mantra - "if an application was difficult to develop, it should be hard to use." In your case, I think you have to go back to your job description or role and see if documenting her area is part of your mandate. If it is, you should inform her that she is preventing her from performing your role. You might also list the well-worn benefits of documentation (e.g. fewer support desk calls etc.). Failing that, I would recommend escalating the issue to your manager, who should be aware of what is going on if you can't resolve it. Also, as a new employee, you don't want this to come back and bite you at evaluation time. Mentioning it during an evaluation will be too late. Good luck and let us know how things work out for you.
Ron Hearn Documentation Specialist Credit Union Central of British Columbia 1441 Creekside Drive Vancouver, B.C. V6J 4S7 (604) 730-6391, fax: (604) 730-7792 rhearn -at- cucbc -dot- com
-----Original Message----- From: techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Lori Olcott Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:25 AM To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Subject: On Office Politics and Being the New Kid
Hi Y'all -
I've been settling into my new job for a little over a month now. It's not a titled tech writing position (Data Management), but the interview team was very excited about my writing background. "We don't have much documentation. This will be great!" Since being hired, I've been learning the systems and writing up how-to's for what I've learned so far. There is some documentation available, but it's very high level - not something a new person would be able to use very effectively.
I've been getting extremely mixed messages from the lady who maintains the group's intranet site and who wrote much of the documentation that is out there already. She is quick to say that she's not a writer, and has asked me to let her know if there are any holes that need to be filled. However, when I gave her what I'd written, she said she didn't want any "personal notes" on the site. She also said that she doesn't like documentation that tells someone exactly what to do to run the system. She wants to force people to learn the system and feels that step-by-step instructions are a crutch. While I can understand her not wanting team members to be fully dependent on guides, I disagree with her disdain for step-by-step manuals. When a person is new on a system, they need the basic procedures to make the system work. Ideally, those procedures will also include overviews and "this is what is going on behind these commands" information to help develop an understanding of the bigger picture. But to outright deny access to basic documentation seems very counter-productive to the group.
I also suspect that some of this is a territorial reaction. I'm encroaching on what has been her area. And since my title isn't "Technical Writer" or "Documentation Specialist", she's not as obligated to accept my input (even though it was one of the things I was hired for). This lady's been very nice in other office interactions, so I'm not writing her off as a hopeless personality conflict. Nor do I want to step on her toes. But I do want to ensure we have good documentation that will allow an inexperienced person to quickly grasp the basics of a system and successfully run the more routine tasks. I haven't discussed this issue with our manager yet. I'm hoping to figure out what it is that she really wants. If I can give her that (or reassure her on what's worrying her), then I might be able to get my goal accomplished.
Any suggestions?
Thanks! Lori
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