atw: Re: OT: performance appr - training
- From: Warren Lewington <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:54:57 +1000
I tend to answer questions like this with comments along the lines "since you
have refused to provide any training related to my previous suggestions over
the last ... years, I refuse to waste further time answering this question..."
But more constructively, you should go and find the SMEs and other stakeholders
you work with, then ask them what they have been trained in (including
conferences) at the company's expense over the last three years (you will
probably be unpleasantly surprised at how little is spent on technical people
these days). Collate this and create a monetary figure that you arm your review
interview with. At the point when the training question arises, confront them
with the numbers you were provided, then suggest some training relevant to you
that is commensurate to the amounts you collated. At that point you suggest an
increase in your salary to reflect that as long as you make the commitment to
arrange and successfully complete the training yourself. That will present an
indication about how really interested your manager is about "retaining" you
and "developing" you. Make sure your resume is up to date at that point so that
when they refuse; you leave when convenient to you and hopefully, most
inconvenient to them. Best signal to anyone. Do unto them before they do unto
you. Oh, and let everyone know out here why you left...
But you also have to remember that because technical writers are usually lone
rangers, and we use obscure skills; from an accounting viewpoint we rarely
receive appropriate training because there is no "real benefit" or "economy of
scale" quantifiable when one person receives training in a corporation. The
training side of big businesses focusses on generalised soft skills -
"leadership" and "management" training or other so-called guff and garbage like
Health and Safety training.
At the end of the day, as a technical writer, you need to accept that training
will always be your responsibility and you have to negotiate that into your
salary packages or your contract rates. Much of it is some form of tax
deduction and degree courses such as I am doing are easily accessible on-line
in your own time. So are conferences, and again, you have to negotiate that
into your packages.
Warren.
On 29/08/2012, at 11:52 AM, Howard Silcock wrote:
> Another option would be to focus on the 'experience' part of the question and
> put 'the experience of having my suggestions taken seriously'.
> Howard
>
>
>
> On 28 August 2012 19:23, Terry Dowling <Terrence.Dowling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> We’re in the process of scheduling performance appraisals, with one of the
> standard questions asking “what training/experience would help you and the
> company?”. As none of the training I’ve suggested in previous years has come
> to fruition, and my colleagues are similarly affected, I’m thinking we
> include a suggestion of “Training on how to accept the non-provision of
> training” What do you reckon? We could genericise it to something like
> “humility training”.
>
>
Other related posts:
