Question: I keep getting the runaround and can’t finish my doc.
Answer:
Congratulations, you’ve just experienced another wild goose chase! These are maddening when a deadline looms, and are side effect of accelerated ad-hoc development timelines, where people don’t have time to talk or really work things out in an integrated fashion.
Question: The last time I told my manager I was stressed about my workload, he just said, “Meditate.” Does that actually work?
Answer:
Sure, if you’d rather pretend that your problems aren’t real.
Question: Why are corporate recruiters always talking about building a better tomorrow and how we can all be agents of change if we would only join up with their team? I’d be happy just to keep my health insurance and get through today.
Answer:
Corporate-level cheerleading – and charity – has nothing to do with what is actually happening on the ground. It’s as much for PR purposes as it is for actual improvement of human life, which is why a lot of it happens far away. Building a better today would require accountability and meaningful actions with immediate results.
Question: I keep getting random orders out of the blue, from strangers who seem to think I work only for them. WTF?
Answer:
Congratulations! You are at the bottom of the food chain. It’s symptomatic of a workplace where everyone’s top priority is shoveling tasks onto other people’s desks as fast as they can, because they’re already drowning in work.
Question: Where can I get superpowers to keep up with my workload?
Answer:
A lot of people are trying all sorts of brain and body hacks to make themselves smarter, more focused, unleash creativity, live on less sleep – all in order to stay competitive. But no one looks to the one skill within everyone’s reach.
Question: I’m getting so much done, and my team is happy with me, but I still feel like I’m not doing enough.
Answer:
There’s an irony here: the exact same workload can feel onerous or energizing. What you want is to ride the wave of your own natural energy cycles. The low points actually DRIVE the highs so if you try to take them away, the wave just flattens down to nothing.
Question: What should I do if someone harasses me at work? If I speak up, I’ll be labeled a whiner but if I don’t, I’ll get ulcers.
So there’s this thing where women getting harassed at places like Bear Stearns are told “You never had brothers, did you? You need to understand the psychology of 10-year-old boys and quit being such a crybaby.” And yet, no one is asking why grade-school behaviors are equated with sound business practice.
Question: How do I know how long a new product will take to document? People are asking me for estimates but the project’s still in a conceptual design stage.
Answer:
Live dangerously and embrace risk by pulling a number out of your ass. If you have at least 5 years experience in tech writing, you should have some kind of gut feeling about it, which is really as good a predictor as anything else.
Question: How can I tell if a simple-sounding request really is? Does everything REALLY need to go thru the Boss?
Answer:
By-passing the management approval chain is purely a judgment call. Just ask yourself, “Do I feel lucky today?” and channel Clint Eastwood before you take dangerous risks like thinking on your own.
Art Before Science 