View From the Other Side...now it's the other side of unemployment

by Nancy Halverson

I have rejoined the working world again, and it feels great. So, here's my first snapshot of English technical communication.

My Place of Employment

The company where I work produces Oracle-based software for mortgage lenders, and I've joined them just as they are doubling their team of writers. The team has always worked from three different offices in England, mainly because the company is an amalgamation of separate software producers, coyly called Lynx Financial Systems.

Differences in Writing Techniques

The writers don't get much time with the software -- they've been playing catch-up for a few years, trying to undo previous 'bad practices'. For years, apparently, a contractor would come in and gather up all the functional specs, and then scurry home and write stuff -- having never looked at the actual software. Luckily, minds have broadened, and the help has actually been noticed more and more. It still contains no procedures -- kinda like dragnet..."Just the facts, ma'am." But I feel I'm getting dangerously close to including a few task-based concepts on my little project.

Remote Differences

Even though I'm working with financial software documentation, I'm not at all bored with it. Rather amazingly, it's been quite an exercise in creativity so far -- trying to keep my natural North Americanisms out of my writing, and trying not to compare the languages. I often have to ask basic questions about common practices -- and, as ever with basic questions -- some answers are surprising. The team has just set up a style guide, and we are rewriting it weekly it seems. Because we're remote, we try to debate via email, which seems odd at times, as my office-mates and I email each other when we can practically see each other's screens.

The Lay of the Office

Because our office is overcrowded, there are no cubicles, or offices with doors. We have rows and rows of tables with one-foot high barriers to separate one side. There are curves in the edge of each desk to 'suggest' personal space, and we each get a little set of drawers where we put our tea. No cube farm here, it feels like a giant computer classroom. Managers and workers sit side by side with nothing between them but monitors and a few computer towers. I honestly don't know if other work places are like this, but I can't believe that it actually functions as well as it seems.

The Pasty Van

There's a daily watch for the 'pasty van' (pronounced pass-tee) as in Cornish pasty, if you know it. A couple of catering trucks regularly pull up outside the office doors, and those who didn't bring a packed lunch, run down and get a piping hot pasty (lots of different fillings, in a fried pastry) or a 'jacket potato' (aka baked potato with some kind of toppings -- tuna or cheese or chili). And yes, everyone drinks tea, but it's generally horrible. There's quite a lovely culture though of always asking everyone you sit near if you can get them a cuppa while you're up. It's charming. I failed miserably my first opportunity by not putting in milk where I was supposed to, and not removing a teabag quickly enough. No one accepts my offers to fetch a cuppa anymore.

The Lay of the Land

And, true to Sheffield's image, I work next to a steelworks. I regularly hear the Forgemaster's blast furnaces, and my car's often covered with some industrial kind of dust when I get to it each evening. But, it's not all industrial wasteland -- there's a retail wasteland on the other side of the building -- Toys"R"Us!

My office is a half-hour commute away (via car unfortunately) through heavy traffic. Waterloo's so easy to get around (sigh). It's amazing how many sirens and firetrucks pass by on a daily commute. I pass through some great neighbourhoods though (well, evocatively named anyway). From Lodge Moor, I go by Carsick Hill and Crosspool, then I have to drive down Hagg's Hill, through Loxley, then Hillsborough and Firvale, then Grimesthorpe and finally Attercliffe. Of course, I could go through Pitsmoor, but that's just pushing your luck. It's rather depressing seeing the tender underbelly of English society every day, especially when I arrive back to my house and look out across the green valley at the grazing sheep. I guess we're just lucky that we got the kids into a school in the leafy part of town. It would have been an awful lot cheaper to live in Pitsmoor though!

So Much to Do

This week has been particularly hard slogging, as we've just moved into our house and have been cleaning up the rental (getting the whole deposit back on a rental is an artform, not a science) and I've been doing a course at the university. I'm much happier to be working but, unfortunately, it never rains but it pours, and everything landed at once.

I'm planning a meeting for STCers, and others, at the end of November. I know that there are people like me who are looking for some ways to connect with other tech writers in this region. Here's hoping that I find some helpers!

Tirrah for now ducks.

Contact Information

If you want to reach me, email me at nancy.halverson@btopenworld.com.