A Career in Technical Writing: Reversals
July 21, 2008 by J.C. Hewitt
Bullet Points
- Adjusting to corporate life can be difficult, especially if you have a tendency to curse
- A cubicle is a terrible place to receive a lecture
- The best way through a work crisis is to do your job well
- The one constant when it comes to managers is change
A visit from Ted
It was at about the tenth month when my mouth got me in trouble. I had said the wrong word about the wrong person at the wrong meeting. This brought a visit from my supervisor Ted, a falsely optimistic alpha-male who had threatened to fire me the first time we ever met. I had no idea trouble was coming when he stopped by my cube, but I naturally dreaded seeing him anyway. No one had said anything to me at the meeting. It had been a quick comment in a larger conversation. Days had passed between the meeting and my manager showing up. He worked out of Phoenix and only came to in Tucson about once a week.
Ted chose to dress me down about the issue in my cube. He wasn’t shouting, but he wasn’t whispering either. More than once the word anal lit up the air around my cube as the people who worked next to me got to hear him tell me that I had been inappropriate and disrespectful. I apologized to him and tried to explain that I hadn’t meant any harm. All through the conversation I had the sinking feeling that I was going to be fired, but the words never came. After about a half hour he ran out of steam and left my cube with a vague threat about my not having a future with the company.
I felt terrible. There was always company gossip before a meeting, and I had fallen into it. I had gotten comfortable with the people around me and I hadn’t watched my language or my attitude. I had no one to blame but myself. I probably should have apologized to my co-worker and I regret not doing so, but I just wanted the whole thing to go away so I jumped back into my work.
Working my way back
I stopped going to the meetings and I holed up in my cube. When I’d started with the company, there had been 160 report programs to document, but as the year had passed the number grew steadily until it had reached around 220. With two months to go, I still had about 80 programs left to document. The good news was that I had found my rhythm by that point. The programs all shared the same interface and many shared steps and variables. The last 80 were a lot of work, but far easier than the first 140 or so. I was documenting about three programs a day at that point, all with screenshots, descriptions and step-through instructions.
After the lecture from Ted, I gave up, for the most part, on a permanent position. I just wanted to get the last of the programs out and move on to a new gig. Just when I had written PHPS off though, Ted ceased to be a problem. One day I simply got an email from the IT manager telling me that Ted had left the company. It was a glowing letter about how much they would miss him and how important he had been to the company.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face the whole day. Ted had finally found a way to put a bounce in my step. The question was, was it too late for me to wrangle a permanent job?
Further reading
Understanding Conflict in the Workplace by Julie Gatlin, Allen Wysocki, and Karl Kepne: A discussion of the eight causes of conflict in the workplace.
Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump by Leo Babauta: A great guide to finding your way back when your enthusiasm is lagging.
Discussion questions
- What is the worst mistake you ever made at a job?
- How did you go about correcting that mistake? Could you?
- What are some of the unwritten rules in your workplace?
Comments
25 Responses to “A Career in Technical Writing: Reversals”
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Ah, this brings back cubicle torture memories. I once got a cubicle lecture from HR over shaving my legs. I kid you not. The conversation went something like:
HR: Amy, clients come through your area, and your leg hair is not a very professional reflection of our firm.
Me: If our firm’s clients have time on the way to their meetings here to stop by my cube, crawl under my desk, whip out a flashlight and a magnifying glass, pry through the false skin of my pantyhose to look at my leg hair, then this firm probably has bigger things to worry about than my shaving habits.
That HR woman was eventually replaced by another HR woman who resembled Frankenstein. Ms. Frankenstein had no outward qualms about my leg hair, but she did have a few things to say when I started shaving my head. Good entertainment, in hindsight, and all the more reason to love working from home.
Amys last blog post..Pick a Winner, We Dare You
@ Amy
Shaving your head is a step up the anti-corporate ladder from anything I’ve ever done. I do have a friend who was fired for her piercings though — from a phone job.
@Amy – what a great comeback! I wish I could think that fast.
@John – oh, yeah, I think everyone has done something awful at one time or another. One of MANY examples from me: I received some bad news on a critical grant proposal I was working on and yelled out the F-word. I immediately stood up and apologized and then explained.
For the record, although I work in a cubicle, it is huge and I have great people around me. But I turned down one job offer several years ago that entailed working in a tiny 3-sided cubicle in a large room made up of nothing but a maze of cubicles. I actually started getting a panic attack when I saw where they wanted me to work.
Joni — It takes practice. After some of the other things they’d said to me over the years, I had learned to be prepared.
John — That is funny about your friend, although I’m guessing she probably didn’t think so? The head shaving makes for interesting reactions in a corporate environment. Some asked me if I had joined a cult. Others assumed I was dying. One guy went around singing Shanade O’Connor songs every time he’d see me until finally I had to google her to find out who she was. One guy asked me (jokingly) if shaving my head was my way of coming out of the closet. When I told him no, that I’d done that a long time ago and he must have missed the memo, he turned a very nice shade of purple. Hehe.
Amys last blog post..Pick a Winner, We Dare You
@ JoniB,
I can identify with that situation. At least you didn’t get caught saying it about another employee.
@Amy
It was a difficult situation, but it did prompt her to go back to school and finish her BA, so in the long run she made it into a positive experience.
Wow. You have gotten me SO hooked on your series. Keep it going. I’m waiting….
@ Craig
I’m glad you are enjoying the articles. It can be hard to tell whether or not the series is succeeding, so I appreciate your support.
I don’t think piercings can get someone relieved from a phone job unless said piercings interfered with that person’s ability to do the job.
Someone working the counter at a fast foot joint some years ago was canned because the manager didn’t like his tongue stud. This teenager could speak perfectly well, sued, and got his job back. The manager couldn’t stand it and ended up transferring.
A shaved head shouldn’t be a problem, unless you worked as a receptionist or your co-workers felt overly distracted. Then you might have a problem, depending on the corporate environment. At Google, no problem. At Proctor & Gamble, a problem.
@ Craig
You are correct that she could have sued. I encouraged her to do so. She decided that she didn’t want to go through a process like that just to keep a job at a place where she clearly was not wanted. I can’t argue with that. A lawsuit is a lot of drama to go through even if you believe you are right.
Businesses can be fascinating.
Some care what you look like. They want you to toe the corporate line and adhere to the corporate image while you are working in your cube. Working remotely is discouraged because they cannot monitor you or your appearance. Person A will look much the same as Person B.
Some don’t care who you are or where you are or what you look like as long as the work gets done. Person A may not look at all like Person B. Some may work remotely and some may work in the office. I am fortunate to ply my trade in such an environment. I wear jeans and a sport coat. I am comfortable in that. Person B may wear jeans and a T-shirt. Person C may wear khakis and a polo shirt.
@ Craig
Khakis and a polo shirt is my work uniform.
@ John Hewitt
Unable to find Khakis that agree with me. But I do like the way they look. And I prefer long-sleeved shirts, which sort of rules out short-sleeved polos. GRIN.
John,
A 30-minute tongue-lashing in a cubicle–and within earshot of company employees, no less–has simply got to be excrutiating! It must have seemed like hours! You handled yourself well, though, which is definitely to your credit. I can only imagine your glee at hearing that Ted had moved on.
Thanks for sharing your fascinating corporate experiences with us!
Jeanne
I once worked at a newspaper when the general manager’s method of communication was yelling at you. Screaming at you, really. Right there in front of everyone in the newsroom. I learned — quickly — to develop a thick skin and to work accurately under pressure. I learned many things in that environment.
@ Jeanne
The amazing thing to me was just how highly the company thought of Ted, when I found him to be nearly useless.
@ Craig
I worked in a similar newsroom once. The editor began almost every conversation with “this is a disaster.” I tried to tell her once that if you call everything a disaster, it doesn’t leave much room to maneuver if you REALLY have a disaster. She did not care for my attitude.
John,
In one sense, the company’s fondness for Ted is amazing; in another, it ’s precisely what you’d expect. After all, can you imagine Ted’s ever having treating his superiors the way he treated you? I think it’s pretty safe to assume he not only never did that but very likely knew just what it took to keep them happy.
Jeanne,
I have no doubt that Ted was skilled politically. His gung-ho approach was probably more appropriate for the Help Desk employees, who he had real reasons to try to motivate that way.
I agree with Jeanne. It’s not reason to kill yourself. You are very frank, thank for it. I read and imagine all like it happened with me or my best friend.
Ring,
Appreciate your concurrence with my own thoughts! But, alas, your comment has once again reminded me of my unfortunate misspelling of the word “excruciating” in my first comment on this post! Every time I reread that comment and see the misspelled word, it’s absolutely excruciating!
Noticed my error immediately after clicking “Post,” but there was nothing to be done for it! Guess I’ll just have to get used to the idea that I’m not perfect! 
John,
Just now realized how ironic my misspelling was in a comment on a post about technical writing!
John,
How astutely aware you are of yourself and your environment. I especially enjoy how you walk the reader through your experience from comfort, to gossip to prideful outburst. The fact you actually take responsibility for yourself is delightful and you get to move on without “grudge” attached to your attitude. Grudge presents such a hostile personality as evident in some prior comments.
@ Ring
it is amazing how serious it seemed at the time, but now it makes little difference. Ted was soon gone and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.
@ Jeanne
Don’t sweat the misspelling, comments are always treated as first drafts.
@ Carol
Don’t read too much nobility into me. Had the opportunity to make Ted miserable come up, it would have been highly tempting.
Thanks, John. That makes me feel a little better.
I usually THINK about all the things I COULD do to someone. Then I don’t. What goes around comes around. I don’t want to send any bad karma into the universe, only to have it come back home — to me.
1. What is the worst mistake you ever made at a job?
Not realizing, until several months into it, that my new job was almost identitical to the job I had just quit.
2. How did you go about correcting that mistake? Could you?
Still working on it. Ever had a job you hated, but were making too much money to quit?
3. What are some of the unwritten rules in your workplace?
Don’t say or do anything that might even remotely be construed as insensitive (unless you’re part of the “inner circle”, then anything goes).
I think I really need to read your “16 Steps to Getting Motivated.