Re: "Age-old" question

Subject: Re: "Age-old" question
From: "Monique Semp" <monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "Wright, Lynne" <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- Kronos -dot- com>, "Jody Zolli" <jody -dot- zolli -at- gmail -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2016 12:57:17 -0700

We believe that our skills and experience are worth high-end salaries; but from the company's perspective, its better to hire somebody who will do an adequate job/improve as they go but who is willing to settle for significantly less in terms of salary and vacation time, etc.

Yes, precisely. Certainly/obviously age discrimination does exist. But I believe that many times it's our demands that are "the problem", not our age, per se. And this transcends age as "an issue" to all sorts of things, such as the basic need to even have a tech writer.

Anecdote time: A client told me recently that for a new product coming out, they're going to have the engineer write the docs. Clearly the client thinks that they'll get something good enough while saving $$ by not paying the tech writer. (Said client has recently started telling me at almost every in-person meetingâI typically work remotely with onsite visits every few weeksâthat "you're expensive.")

So if a company doesn't see the value we provide, it can be totally unrelated to our age, gender, etc. We all can argue 'til the cows come home that these are bad decisions for the company. But given how short-term the ROI must always be in this fast-paced business climate, companies don't really care if the long-term effect of poor docs is angry or lost customers.

None of the above is meant to discount the very real problems that experienced, 50+ old workers have with getting hired. And I wonder if this has always been the case or is significantly worse now than 20-30 years ago?

-Monique
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives

Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: "Age-old" question: From: Jody Zolli
RE: "Age-old" question: From: Wright, Lynne

Previous by Author: Re: Transferable skills of a Tech Writer
Next by Author: Re: "Age-old" question
Previous by Thread: RE: "Age-old" question
Next by Thread: RE: "Age-old" question


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads