Back in January I wrote
Well, following that, and a couple other incidents where I was on the brink of quitting, I decided to give it one good honest try at resolving it productively, and took it to the other principals of the company. I figured the worst that could happen is I could get fired instead of getting so frustrated I quit.
I started with the one I’ve worked with the most, and spent a while talking with him. He took my issues really seriously and scheduled a meeting the next day with all three of the other principals - excluding my direct boss. I tried to keep it as productive as possible, focusing on concrete problems I could identify that had been caused by lack of adequate testing, and on the state of the documentation. It turns out some of them knew about some of the pieces, but none of them had clearly understood what a bad shape those areas were in.
Basically, they’re not making any formal changes in the structure but they’re quietly sidelining my boss on these areas so I can work around him and accomplish what the company needs.
This week an ad went up on Craigslist for a tech writer on contract, we’ve got a couple decent responses already, and I’ll be starting to interview applicants next week. I have a plan for whoever we hire to do a full overhaul of the product manual to bring it up to date, and reorganize it so the reference bits can be integrated and pulled up as immediate in-context help from the application, while also adding a big “How do I …” section.
