atw: meltdowns, inspiration and motivation

I can certainly understand and sympathize with Steve's recent meltdown, as I struggle to create a mantra of the trite and tired phrase; "When one door closes, another door opens",
At a recent check up in which I had to barter with my MD to forgo all required labs tests because I have no medical coverage and could barely afford the cost of the scaled down check-up required to continue the prescriptions for which I pay the equivalent of a brand new, upscale car payment each month (we are too rabid about faux democracy to consider communistic socialized medicine in the USofA), my MD, who is also aware of employment <opportunities> for punters in general and older women in particular, recommend that I check out <http://www.despair.com/>www.despair.com. (Okay, take a breath now). The more direct link would be <http://www.despair.com/viewall.html>http://www.despair.com/viewall.html.
So in the spirit of despair.com, I have reframed my mindlessly simplistic, optimistic mantra to: "When one door closes, a dozen more get slammed in you face".
I invite you all to participate with your own witty de-motivators and give voice to the rise of the creation of the multi-billion dollar de-motivator industry, on whom the success of the multi-billion dollar motivation industry was not lost (give a cheer for clever marketing and private enterprise).
And while I am on a petulant roll, having spent the last six months busting my act in a full time contract that required more than 40 hours a week and only paid straight time (and required team meetings that were unpaid and off the clock altogether) and refused to offer medical coverage; a job which I supplemented with another a part time contract so that I could afford to make the 100 miles per day round trip to the full time contract, only to have my full time contract abruptly discontinued when younger punter of the male persuasion, newly hired and new to the position of management, strutted onto the finely tuned team and marked his territory by dumping all of the older women contractors - what should I chance to run across as I once again ramp up for the job hunt but the message below, posted on a local "professional tech writer" forum, name withheld to protect the incompetent (exhale now). One can only pause in utter amazement at how an individual who has inadvertently admitted to a complete lack of ability, expertise (and questionable education and background), managed to land a job that requires all of the above. And notwithstanding the collection of glowing letters of reference and accolades that I have collected like baseball cards over the years, whom do I sleep with to get the same consideration? Here is the a fore mentioned, inspirational post: 

Hello,

My tech writer position at my company is new, so I am responsible for
creating templates for various types of documentation. (There are no
existing company standards or samples for me to follow.) While I have
experience working with a variety of documents, I do not have experience
with every single type of documentation out there. So, in some cases, I am
not quite sure what elements to include or rules/guidelines I should adhere
to for a specific document.
I've got several resources for grammar and style, but I have not come across 
any good resources that address specific content questions, so I was hoping
you could recommend some good resources to use for this type of information. 
Below is a list of the questions I have regarding the various types of
documents that I need to develop.

1) IT Production and Operations manual - What are the main categories that
should be addressed in a standard IT Production and Operations manual?

2) Forms - Are there guidelines for form usability and layout?

3) Templates in general - Are there guidelines for what to include and what
not to include in a template? For example, are you supposed to provide a
text explanation of how to fill out the content for every style heading?
(I've seen some templates that are blank and some provide the explanations.) 
Also, how do you deal with users that want a template created, but don't
know how to use the style sheets, so they end up messing up the formatting.
(I am not a trainer and struggle with the dilemma of whether or not I am
responsible for teaching someone how to use a tool that they should already
know, could use the online help, or should get specialized training for.)

I have used the internet to search for a lot of this information, but
haven't had much success, so I thought I would ask the experts.

MN Mary

Other related posts: