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Subject:Re: sanity check--please!! From:John Hedtke <jhedtke -at- OZ -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 13 Mar 1996 02:41:43 GMT
Jlrcgn -at- aol -dot- com wrote:
>Dear fellow tech-whirlers--
>I work for a small engineering consulting/software development
>company and need to get your opinion on whether or not i'm crazy or
>the management team here is just totally whacked out (working as
>the only tech writer will do that to you!!)
<snip>
>I realize that proposals are a "last minute" affair by definition, and
>that stress is a huge, unavoidable part of technical communication, but now
>the management team is saying that I "added no value" to their proposal
>process!
>WHAT?!? Excuse me, don't you need to have at least some information to be
>able to
>write a proposal?!?
>Please let me know if you have experienced a similar situation and how you
>handled it. I have been here about 10 months and am finding that total
>lack of information flow and blaming people after the fact is the mode of
>operation. Will i find this same scenario everywhere?
>HELP!
>Thanks for any help/comments/hints you can provide for a sanity check!
>Janet Renze
>jlrcgn -at- aol -dot- com
Janet:
Having worked in a whole lotta companies both as a freelancer and a
captive, it's my opinion that you ought to look for a better job.
This modus operandi is far too typical, but it's not the rule (even if
reading "Dilbert" will make one think otherwise sometimes). You're
not getting valued for anything you're doing, they tend to be
firefighters, and they're already showing their true colors by blaming
you for their own ineptitude. It's likely going to get worse when
they have to actually deliver whatever solution they're going to try
to come up with.
You probably won't be able to educate them out of this, because the
whole company is built on this basis (firefighting/fear/fuddling).
Just figure that managers like this are the reason that God gave us
middle fingers, and move on down the road.
Anyone else share this opinion?
Yours Truly,
John Hedtke
=================
Things like this happen. But they ain't fun.
