I’ve seen it happen many times. Colleagues who challenge themselves in their careers and nab a desirable job with a sought-after title. Maybe the job is a Technical Communications Manager role. Perhaps it’s a Senior Technical Writer position.
After they settle into the new role and demonstrate success for some period of time, they appear to stop learning. It’s as if they’ve reached their goal and don’t want to push themselves anymore. Here are two examples I’ve witnessed:
- The manager who just wants to write. They love writing but they’re not that keen on technology and they avoid terms like DITA and XML, even though more and more jobs require these skills.
- The technical writer who works for a large well-known company that is struggling financially. He knows the company is going through challenging times but doesn’t bother applying for any jobs outside of the firm. He feels secure and can’t be bothered to be proactive. One day, senior management decides to lay off almost everyone in the division, including the technical writer. He’s unemployed for six months because he is now competing with all the other writers who were laid off. He almost exhausts his savings in the process.
It’s not unique to technical writers and managers. I know someone who worked for years as a marketing consultant. When social media became more and more prevalent, he dismissed it as a fad, when it actually became a requirement for a job. If you were an employer and you had to choose between an eager candidate who was well versed in RSS feeds, blogs, and viral marketing and an experienced but expensive marketing person who was still mired in the 1990s, who would you choose?
In my opinion, all of these people became complacent. They stopped caring about learning and improving.
Why do people do this? Do these examples ring a bell? Why do you think that some people fall into this rut?
I have worked as a
Check out the Peter principle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle
It’s not exactly the answer to your question, but it does speak to the correlation of promotions and decreasing productivity.
As for the motivational part, I find it’s hard to generalize why people stop being motivated. But as you say, it DOES happen in many professions.
Thanks for your comment Kai!
Robert,
Thank you for the posting. I’ve seen those situations too. I have also seen the other side of this issue. I’ve some people are so preoccupied with the latest technology that they forget the job at hand. I’ve been to network meetings (and not only with technical writers) where people are so into debating whether Facebook is more effective than twitter than they ignore content and real problems such as platform’s compatibility or creating material ready for translation. Or even other “mundane” issues like proper language. And I’ve seem a lot more of that since I moved to BC. There seems to be an obsession with “looking cool” around here.
I wonder whether quality of content has become a secondary issue with today’s communicators, and would like to hear your opinion.
Thanks for your comment!
I, too, have seen the opposite situation you cite. Some writers (though they’re the minority, in my experience) love the idea of new technology but perhaps don’t consider if it’s usable or adds value to users. If writers aren’t considering their audiences and are just embracing the latest technologies because their emerging, they’re not really doing their jobs.
Ideally, I think writers should always put their users at the forefront but never close the door to learning or new technologies. Otherwise, it’s a recipe for a stagnating career or even obsolescence.