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zotz's post about adminstrative incompetence triggered this rant, which I felt deserved to be a post of its own, rather than a comment]
As you may know, I work in a computer software firm. I am constantly appalled by the number of people I encounter, within the company and working for our customers, whose jobs explicitly include the production and maintenance of documents (that's to say: managers of technically-oriented teams, people reviewing/signing-off specifications and even some programmers) who can't drive a word processor for toffee.
Page-break-by-hitting-return-lots. Paragraphs using a slightly different font halfway through a big block of text. Slight changes in font size at random points.
Of course, there are associated failures when it comes to producing coherently-structured documents. Headings that are just big text. Random paragraph breaks (if any). Lack of a table of contents (less of a problem in a 5-page document, but a PITA in a 40-page spec). Lack of even a single paragraph outlining the purpose of the document.
Don't even get me STARTED on grammar.
I mourn the passing of the typist as a specialist role. I'm sure that many organisations would benefit hugely from the improvements in communication that would result from sprinkling a few competent typists/word processor operators about the place. A few good secretaries, and maybe some decent filing clerks (even if they are just juggling files on a hard drive somewhere) would probably be a boon, too.
[disintegrates into incoherent rambling about the lack of respect for competence, regardless of the perceived status of the job being done, in modern society]
zotz's post about adminstrative incompetence triggered this rant, which I felt deserved to be a post of its own, rather than a comment]As you may know, I work in a computer software firm. I am constantly appalled by the number of people I encounter, within the company and working for our customers, whose jobs explicitly include the production and maintenance of documents (that's to say: managers of technically-oriented teams, people reviewing/signing-off specifications and even some programmers) who can't drive a word processor for toffee.
Page-break-by-hitting-return-lots. Paragraphs using a slightly different font halfway through a big block of text. Slight changes in font size at random points.
Of course, there are associated failures when it comes to producing coherently-structured documents. Headings that are just big text. Random paragraph breaks (if any). Lack of a table of contents (less of a problem in a 5-page document, but a PITA in a 40-page spec). Lack of even a single paragraph outlining the purpose of the document.
Don't even get me STARTED on grammar.
I mourn the passing of the typist as a specialist role. I'm sure that many organisations would benefit hugely from the improvements in communication that would result from sprinkling a few competent typists/word processor operators about the place. A few good secretaries, and maybe some decent filing clerks (even if they are just juggling files on a hard drive somewhere) would probably be a boon, too.
[disintegrates into incoherent rambling about the lack of respect for competence, regardless of the perceived status of the job being done, in modern society]