Posted by deirdrehbrt on February 12, 2004, at 10:10:21
In reply to Re: Feeling highly irritated and frustrated right now » Penny, posted by Elle2021 on February 12, 2004, at 0:34:36
Ok, I was an engineer, but being in a small company, they needed someone who could spell, read, and communicate technical information to people who didn't speak english. They also didn't want to spend $10,000 for a 100 page manual to have an outside firm screw it up.
Oh yeah, I wasn't told that I was writing the manual until the system we were selling was due to ship in 2 weeks.
As we sold more systems (each one was unique) I started working on the manual when the project started, in anticipation of actually having to write it.
My 8 hour days thus became 9-10 hours of my engineering work, 1 hour of technical writing, and an indeterminate number of hours problem solving with other engineers.
I'll actually miss it.
I'll miss the foreign customers who appreciated my writing style because it was easy for their translation programs to handle.
I'll miss the customers who call with a problem that I can answer with "Look half-way down on page 57 in the manual".
I'll even miss my boss who could use the word "essentially" 8-10 times in a paragraph, and at least twice in a single sentence. (He was frustrating though)
I won't miss the impossible deadlines. I won't miss people who don't know how a particular part functions trying to tell me that I got it wrong.
I won't miss flying cross-country, or cross-planet to solve a problem that should have been solved over the phone.
People are frustrating. Especially people who think they know everything.
Anticipating letterhead is like standing in the middle of the Sahara with a cup in your hand because you 'know' it's going to rain. Until it's official, it can change so fast. What works on one color paper may not work everywhere. What looks like a good size on 8 1/2 x 11 may not translate well to a post-card, or a business card.
I'm with you. People are frustrating.
Dee.
poster:deirdrehbrt
thread:312042
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040209/msgs/312414.html