I think every company nowadays has that bean-counter known as "the efficiency expert." The movies, Office Space and American Beauty both use the "EE" as a comic vehicle to drive home their satire. And last week at Le Day Job, I received the obligatory email that I would be expected to write my boss a detailed report of what I do on a day-to-day basis to earn my paycheck. Deadline for completing this little autobiography? Friday. Well, last week suffering from the flu, I opted to put off until tomorrow what I could've done then. And so, when the reminder email ("I need this information within the next two days, People!") came around this morning, I decided to bite the bullet and draft mine. Within minutes of hitting "Send" on what I thought was a really good description of why they should keep me and not train Bubbles the Chimp to take over my slot, I received a follow-up email from my boss.
Since the boss knows how much I love to write, would I mind going into more detail so that they could use my description to create a Policy and Procedure memo based on what I do? Ummm...yeah. I did mind. Because what the boss lady forgot is that I love to write FICTION. I write ROMANCE. I write about people who overcome insurmountable odds to not only achieve an improbable dream, but find love while doing it. Hardly the type of stuff one expects to read in a P & P manual!
What about you? Does your boss know what you do when you're not chained to a desk in his/her employ? And has (s)he ever made a bizarre writing request of you because of it? I'd love to know I'm not alone.
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About Us: Romance Writers Unlimited (or RWU as we call ourselves) was founded in August of 2000. We are a small, tight-knit group of friends and crit-partners who write romances in all different genres.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
posted by Gina Ardito aka Katherine Brandon at 7:40 PM
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6 Comments:
At March 12, 2008 at 11:48 PM, 
Leslie Ann Dennis said........
Leslie Ann Dennis said........
Try working in a library by day! LOL! I get asked for SO MANY recommendations about every type of book you can imagine. I try to explain I really only knew about fiction, mainly romance, but I still get asked about non-fiction and biographies the most. Ugh. And I'm ALWAYS being asked to proof something before it's put into P&P. Le ugh. I'm really not interested in technical writing, but I'm always the one they run to. sometime I wish the workplace didn't know what I REALLY do.
At March 14, 2008 at 2:09 PM, Judith Leger said........
Judith Leger said........
Oh, yeah, been there, done that. The worse or the best was when one of the students asked me to write a few paragraphs extolling the 'Cowboy' which is our school's symbol.
He had to have it because it was a competition for a spot on the homecoming court and he really wanted the open spot. So I wrote something for him. John Wayne, golden sunsets and all that. He won first place.
Did the writing in less than 10 minutes. This is not something I normally do so quickly but I'm glad it worked out for him. Other office correspondence, I make it short, sweet and very to the point. No frills on that.
He had to have it because it was a competition for a spot on the homecoming court and he really wanted the open spot. So I wrote something for him. John Wayne, golden sunsets and all that. He won first place.
Did the writing in less than 10 minutes. This is not something I normally do so quickly but I'm glad it worked out for him. Other office correspondence, I make it short, sweet and very to the point. No frills on that.
But they tried to explain to us why we needed a four page form to fill out to take a purchasing order on a box of 6B pencils.
You know, at the moment my husband has a theory. His office is full of the kind of people who write every day. I won't be too specific about it, obviously, only to say he has seen the need for extremely experienced writers of non-fiction functional work related coupling of words and phrases to be put over the coals by somebody who is primarily a writer.
Perhaps your boss might be asking you as a writer to put down into words in a way that they know will be more readable or more understandable than something like an IKEA manual. Maybe it's not so crazy a request after all.