Comments on: There’s no crying in Agile!

By: E-nonymous

E-nonymous — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:12:11 +0000

Thank you for your kindness and empathy.

…So perhaps a column about times in which you had to deal with unfair treatment that resulted from workplace dynamics and the eternal conflicts we are faced with in tech writing–lack of direction, hyper-accountability, information lost between cracks despite diligent effort, etc.? (Not suggesting a kvetch session.)

…Also–have you had any experiences in startups which were unique to that kind of environment?

By: annegentle

annegentle — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:16:01 +0000

Oh, I’m so sorry that happened to you. That type of thing has happened to me before too, and I completely empathize. You were treated unfairly (which you recognize) and publicly called out, which is unprofessional. Sometimes crying is the best stress reliever! Sorry that my attitude comes across poorly in the post – you’re right to call me on it.

By: E-nonymous

E-nonymous — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:57:16 +0000

Well, funny you should mention this subject, because I was reduced to crying in the restroom today. Over technical writing. A week ago my manager told me to “go put gray boxes around code blocks.” I had no idea how so looked up some html on the Web and sent him/her a sample URL, was told to move it to the right but otherwise it looked okay, so I moved it and spent several days hard-coding blocks around scripts in over 75 docs. And today someone higher than my manager called me out on a big mailer: “Why would you do that [because it was stupid]??” My manager jumped in with, “Why didn’t you use CSS or a class [like I assumed you would because you can read my mind]??” I did and did not because I didn’t know better and didn’t get any direction or guidance despite attempts.

So I guess my point here is that yes, it is important to be flexible. But people like commenter 1 have self-congratulatory attitudes at the expense of others whom they would rather judge than understand. Please (including, I’m sorry, you, Anne) don’t bust on people who are treated unfairly, and don’t make it a function of weakness, age ["seniority"] or rigidity. Not everything is so cut-and-dried or obvious. To think so is naive. And rigid.

By: annegentle

annegentle — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:11:14 +0000

You read my mind. I had a couple of draft titles, including, “There’s no crying in content!” and “There’s no crying in tech writing!”

By: Mike Wethington

Mike Wethington — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:28:15 +0000

While I completely agree with your statement “There’s no crying in Agile.” I’d amend it to read, “There is no crying in Technical Writing.” Can’t get your work done on deadline, talk to your boss about getting help or resetting expectations, don’t cry about it.

Unless your a medical technical writer, no one, literally, is going to die because your writing is less than perfect.

Perspective is key. Do the best you can, set expectations accordingly, keep at it, and most importantly, and this is cliche but true, work smarter not harder.