employees

How To Tell Your People They’re Worthless by Paul LaRue

How To Tell People They’re Worthless

I saw the title of the this article on Linked In and thought what the hell. I decided to read it and see what it was about.

It is about having high standards for employees but not supporting or encouraging the employees to reach for those standards. I have worked at companies who have developed this attitude through lack of leadership and lack of communication. It seems I always land at places that need help with communication but they have no desire to change. The ship is sinking, its not their company, why fix it?

Any business or company is a a small backdrop to a bigger picture. The employees of that company have families that they support who are in turn supporting local business. Without, your business or company, the local economy in your community suffers. You say why fix it? I say I am ready for the challenge to keep people employed and communities strong.

Sometimes this doesn’t always work, the ship will change direction or it will sink. However, the point is your attitude, whether a leader or just an employee, determines if your company or business succeeds or fails.

By Melinda Anderson

Formatting: The Other Critique by Neil Dabb

My business partner, Neil Dabb has some excellent advice for those of us who self-publish in his article Formatting: The Other Critique. This advice can also be applied to the Professional and Technical Communication field; especially, when your business or company does not have a writer or editor on staff.

Other advice, check your photographs. For instance, if your work instructions state that safety guards have to be used on a machine that has a possibility of physical injury to employees, the picture or image should show the safety guard being used.

Images should also correlate to the step. In most cases, if you have five steps there should be five pictures. Not five steps on page 1 and an image on page 3 that may or may not show the employee what they are supposed to be doing.

If your employee manual states that employees should not wear jewelry when operating equipment, then the image should reflect that standard. In other words, your documentation should correlate on every level to your company, your training, your branding, and your marketing.

This will create a professional and educated work force that is positive about their job which leads to a better quality of product for your business.

By Melinda Anderson

A Positive Attitude Can Open Doors

Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious. ~Bill Meyer

What is your attitude when you step outside your door? Are you able to leave your personal problems at home? Can you separate your personal life from your work life? 

I have had social anxiety for over twenty years. What this means is I dislike crowds, I dislike going to new places, and I have a hard time working with people. I do have anxiety attacks, my heart will race, my blood will pound, and I just know everyone is judging me negatively.  However, the field I have chosen to go into requires constant contact with all of the above.

I chose to go to college and get a degree in English, emphasis in Professional and Technical Communication. I chose a professional field that puts me in contact with people on a daily basis. I chose to start and run two business that also puts me in contact with people on a daily basis. What in the world was I thinking?

Actually, I wasn’t thinking. I was reacting to an article in the Utah State University paper, The Utah Statesman, that ran an article on how smiling can affect not only your self esteem but other people. It stated that even if you are having the worst day in your life you should still plant a smile on your face because some one else might need a friendly smile more then you do.

My reaction was well I’ll give it a try. I started to smile around the campus and before you know it people were responding. The shuttle drivers would ask how my day was, other students would walk with me and we would talk, professors even seemed more willing to help me out with my assignments. My self esteem sky rocketed and I realized that my attitude was changing and I become more positive and confident.

My point is this, your attitude determines how you will feel at the end of the day. Your attitude will make you a better human being, a better student, or a better employee.  Your attitude will either draw people toward you or push them away from you. It is up to you to chose the type of person you want to be.

By Melinda Anderson

The Puzzle Your Marketing Should Be Able to Solve

It’s Marketing Monday for Dragon Tech Writing. We were considering what to post and just couldn’t seem to find our focus. Then, we found this little gem that offered some advice about stepping outside of marketing just product and services. The article suggests that you, or we in this case, also market the business. We have decided to give this a try over the next week or two.

For now, enjoy the article. The Puzzle Your Marketing Should Be Able to Solve

Full Page Marketing Flier

DragonTech Writing
Taking the mystery out of documentation

DragonTech Writing is a technical writing firm specializing in documenting software and processes, creating resumes and training materials, and formatting and editing for e-publishing.

Why Hire Us?

1. Software documentation can discover problems within the software before being released and gives customers a learning experience that minimizes frustration.

2. Process documentation can discover problems and in many cases find a solution.  Solutions allow an organization to grow their employee and customer satisfaction.

3. Resumes market your skills and abilities with concise text making your resume clean and precise.

4.Training materials can prevent employee confusion about performance and encourages employee communication with management.

5. Formatting and editing for e-publishing gives readers a polished product that they would recommend to others.

6. We deliver the product you need then we move to our next customer while you manage your business.

The Changing Face of Technical Writing:

At a recent job fair, one of the recruiters said something to the effect, “They don’t have those any more do they?”  Many of the vendors at the fair were looking for engineers and other technical professionals, but I did find several firms looking for technical writers, many on a contract basis.

The question is, Is the field of technical writing going away?  The answer is no, unless, engineers and other technical professionals learn to use language that clients and customers can understand and are willing to write the marketing and training materials that go with the procedures and products they produce.  However, the technical writing field is changing.

I was recently reading a blog that was discussing changing the title of Technical Writing to something more current.  The problem is, while the field of technical writing is expanding, attempts to change the title would only give upper management an excuse to lower the  wages and professionalism of our field; not too mention create confusion among the field itself and emplyers.  Currently, many firms are eliminating their full time technical writers and hiring contract technical writers or temporary technical writers as the need for documentation arises.

These new developments make work in the field of Technical Writing a different creature.  There are challenges, but there are also opportunities to expand the field as well.  The face of Technical Writing is changing.

DragonTech Writing, championing the cause for technical writers.

By Neil Dabb

Resumes

A technical writer can take your resume and find a layout to make it pop.  A resume is more than black and white text listing your achievements, education, skills, experience, and technologies. A resume is a marketing tool for any individual looking for a job.

No one is going to take the time to read a resume that is three pages long. No one is going to read a resume that is text heavy.  No one is going to read an unorganized resume.  For example, look at this fictional resume for Ashkevron, Harry (Fictional Resume Original). This resume and others like it will be tossed into the garbage without a second glance.

One job can receive hundreds of application from around the world. Ashkevron’s resume has all of the necessary information that a university would look for in candidates. However, that information is buried and hard to find. The visual clues are confusing and direct your eye down the side of the page skipping over the text that shows his experience.

A resume is like a 10 second commercial. It has to catch your eye, show your skills, and demonstrate your experience while at the same time evoking excitement in the hiring manager. They have to believe that you are the perfect fit for their company. Ashkevron asked a technical writer for help and here is the result Ashkevron, Harry (Fictional Resume).

This resume is only one page and it is scan able. It has visual clues such as font styles, bullets, color, and white space that invite the eye to read the text. This resume now stands out and will get attention instead of landing in the garbage.