Re: Do you just bite your tongue?

[Jo Francis Byrd <jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com>]

There's probably not any easy answer or solution to this one, Debbie. You did
the right thing by letting your supervisor make the ultimate decision. Life is
difficult when someone "higher up" insists on something that is inaccurate,
wrong, badly worded, whatever.

Without knowing the corporate politics where you work, it's difficult to know
what to tell you. Your best course of action may be educating your
supervisor...explaining why you made the corrections in the first place. This
assumes, of course, the supervisor is amenable to being educated, or can safely
back you without putting his/her job at risk.

Good luck!

Jo Byrd

Debbie Packer wrote:

> I could really use some advice. I'm really having a hard time with this. Part
> of my job is to write copy for our web site and other documentation. Many
> times, I will get copy from "someone above me" that they would like to use.
> I'm usually asked to read through it and correct any errors before I publish
> it.
>
> Several days ago, I received a couple of paragraphs to be used for a new page.
> I went through it, corrected the errors, and incorporated it with my page.
> Today, I received an update. The person had taken the text I had put on the
> page, updated it with some extra copy and added back in 4 or 5 of the errors
> that I had corrected.
>
> This isn't the first time this has happened. Today, I politely attached the
> changes to an e-mail and forwarded them to my supervisor. I informed him of
> the situation and told him that I was not going to publish the document with
> the errors, but that I would not argue if he chose to. He did. Either way, I
> still think it makes most of us look bad, but what do you do? Do you argue for
> what is right or do you keep your mouth shut so you can keep your job?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Debbie