Guidelines!!
Oct. 12th, 2023 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado1Boss: "OK, I need you to write a story about Alice and Kori for the year-end mailer."
Me: "OK, and what's the year-end mailer?"
Boss, smiling: "It's a mailer and it goes out at year-end, and we just mail it out."
Me: "To...?"
Boss: "To whoever gets it."
Me: "OK, well, what's the goal of the story, what are we looking to achieve?"
Boss: "We just want to showcase their match. Their story."
Me: "OK..."
Boss: "Both of them struggle with their weight, maybe a Big is Beautiful motif..."
Me: "Got it."
(I write a 1K Big is Beautiful story)
Boss: "Hey, about the Alice and Kori story. I know you're like a former journalist and all but I need you to make it a little more..."
Me: "Emotional?"
Boss: "No, it is emotional, I need you to make it more trite. And cut out all the stuff about their weight."
Me: "Oh?"
Boss: "It just seems so demeaning and I know Alice, she isn't the type of person to focus on her weight, you know. She's healthy, strong, she doesn't want to see a mailer calling her fat."
Me, glancing down at all the quotes where Alice calls herself fat, chubby, big, overweight: "OK."
Boss: "And by the way, your audience here, it's our donors. So you really need to focus on stuff that'll make them donate more. You know, highlight our programs, talk about the stuff we helped Alice and Kori do."
Me: "Makes sense."
Boss: (talks for an hour giving me clear, detailed guidelines, essentially outlining the whole thing)
Boss: "Does that make sense?"
Me: "Perfectly."
Boss: "I know it's a challenge--"
Me: "It's not a challenge. If you give me clear guidelines, then I can follow them."
(20 minutes and 1K later)
Coworker: "So just to be clear on this, she gave you the task with absolutely zero guidelines..."
Me: "Yep."
Coworker: "...let you do all that work..."
Me: "Yep."
Coworker: "...and then tore it apart and gave you all the guidelines that you wanted in the first place."
Me: "Precisely."
Coworker: "...You know I've been working on the year-end mailer for 6 years here and this is the first time anyone has told me that our audience is donors? I had no clue it even came with a money envelope..."
Me: "OK, and what's the year-end mailer?"
Boss, smiling: "It's a mailer and it goes out at year-end, and we just mail it out."
Me: "To...?"
Boss: "To whoever gets it."
Me: "OK, well, what's the goal of the story, what are we looking to achieve?"
Boss: "We just want to showcase their match. Their story."
Me: "OK..."
Boss: "Both of them struggle with their weight, maybe a Big is Beautiful motif..."
Me: "Got it."
(I write a 1K Big is Beautiful story)
Boss: "Hey, about the Alice and Kori story. I know you're like a former journalist and all but I need you to make it a little more..."
Me: "Emotional?"
Boss: "No, it is emotional, I need you to make it more trite. And cut out all the stuff about their weight."
Me: "Oh?"
Boss: "It just seems so demeaning and I know Alice, she isn't the type of person to focus on her weight, you know. She's healthy, strong, she doesn't want to see a mailer calling her fat."
Me, glancing down at all the quotes where Alice calls herself fat, chubby, big, overweight: "OK."
Boss: "And by the way, your audience here, it's our donors. So you really need to focus on stuff that'll make them donate more. You know, highlight our programs, talk about the stuff we helped Alice and Kori do."
Me: "Makes sense."
Boss: (talks for an hour giving me clear, detailed guidelines, essentially outlining the whole thing)
Boss: "Does that make sense?"
Me: "Perfectly."
Boss: "I know it's a challenge--"
Me: "It's not a challenge. If you give me clear guidelines, then I can follow them."
(20 minutes and 1K later)
Coworker: "So just to be clear on this, she gave you the task with absolutely zero guidelines..."
Me: "Yep."
Coworker: "...let you do all that work..."
Me: "Yep."
Coworker: "...and then tore it apart and gave you all the guidelines that you wanted in the first place."
Me: "Precisely."
Coworker: "...You know I've been working on the year-end mailer for 6 years here and this is the first time anyone has told me that our audience is donors? I had no clue it even came with a money envelope..."
no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 05:38 pm (UTC)Boss: "There's this line in here I want to cut, where it says that Alice has seen Kori's self-esteem and confidence grow ever since Kori got on the Honor Roll, and it talks about Alice helping her with that. Cut that."
Me: "Okay."
Boss: "Yeah just replace it. Like maybe instead you can say, like, Alice was an instrumental part in helping Kori get on the Honor Roll. And ever since Kori made the Honor Roll, her self-esteem and confidence have really grown."
Me: "....you want me to cut the part where it says that Honor Roll helped her self-esteem--"
Boss: "Yeah."
Me: "And replace it with..."
Boss: "Yeah."
no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 07:02 pm (UTC)Damn. You really can't make it up, huh? I'm also so glad I'm not the only person with a boss who has "suddenly knows what they want after the first draft"-itus. XD
no subject
Date: 2023-10-12 08:46 pm (UTC)