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Subject:RE: Ethics of Jumping To Another Contract Job From:Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"'steve -at- writersbookmall -dot- com'" <steve -at- writersbookmall -dot- com>, Richard Lewis <tech44writer -at- yahoo -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:16:33 -0400
On Behalf Of Writers Book Mall argued:
>
> My gut says it's a matter of the kind of work you're
> doing. If it's "being the tech writer" and handling
> routine work when it comes in, it seems less a big
> deal than if you are a crucial part of a time-bound
> project.
I'm on the fence about this.
Most captive employees (I speculate) and many longterm-ish contract
techwriters are "being the tech writer", but that makes them " a crucial
part of a time-bound project" on several projects, for which they are likely
juggling multiple overlapping project schedules, and have years of
accumulated industry-specific and company-specific and product-line-specific
experience that informs (and accelerates) their performance in those duties.
Actually, I just described my job, and I see a lot of "me too" hand-waving
in the audience...
That doesn't make us profoundly difficult to replace, but it guarantees
considerable disruption if/when we go away (or are sent away) in the middle
(or near the frantic end) of two or three projects. Any newcomer will need
time to ramp up on several fronts.
So, if the only difference in the situation was the category of the
writer-to-company relationship (ongoing extended contract versus salaried
employee), is there an ethical distinction? Or could it even apply to most
of us "being the techwriter" types? Where was I going with this...?
:-)
Kevin
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