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.
Question: I got an email from a group at Corporate that I’ve never heard of, asking if we can help on their project. It looks kinda interesting!
Answer:
Respond that they should communicate all requests directly to your manager, and CC: the rest of Tech Pubs on your response.
Question: What’s the maximum number of projects to try concurrently?
Answer:
1-2 major projects or 3-4 smaller ones. This seems to hold true across many industries and is a sort of Agile rule of thumb. If you take on too many projects at once, things will get confused or there will be too many meetings and not enough time to do actual work. I start mixing up product names and talking to the wrong team until I look like an idiot. If the product names change a lot – oh what a tangled web it becomes.
Question: How do I anticipate when I’ll need to change the docs?
Answer:
Many events could change the docs, the question is when. Every company is different, so if you’re new, start by asking what has driven docs changes in the past. Don’t try to get this from a document control system, and even people’s memories have a very short half-life. Even a week later, no one, including you, will remember why something was done.
Question: I keep hearing that women have to lean in more, that we’re giving our power away, we need to take ownership. When I took that advice, my boss said, “You need to be more diplomatic.” I wasn’t doing anything different from what I saw around me every day. Around here, you have to push hard or you’ll just get buried.
Answer:
Yes it’s the Underdog Catch-22: speaking your truth only works if you’re not already from some marginalized group. Otherwise, they double down to keep you in your place!
Art Before Science 