My Department was quite aware of the fact that I loved to write. However, what they couldn’t discern was that writing for myself and writing for official purposes were two different activities. Somewhere the distinction blurred and often my superiors, and at times colleagues too, wanted me to write a piece for their personal or official benefit. The request was usually with the tagline “you are so good at it.”
I obliged not because I was flattered but because it’s hard for me to say no if anyone came up with a need or reason to be helped out. Not to say I haven’t suffered bitter consequences on account of this shortcoming but more of that later.
With colleagues, I could bid time. I never said no and tried to help as much as possible. But the problem rose with superiors who thought writing was a then and there thing. Generally the request was with a huge amount of urgency. It was difficult to make them understand that one required a particular mindset, time and least amount of disturbance to write. It was just not putting pen to paper or tapping away on the keyboard. It was a process of reinventing your own self. How could you do that when the write was not yours. The thought was not yours. The urge to let out was not coming from within.
How would I know in a speech or an article what my boss or Head of the Department wished to say when I was not aware of his thoughts on the matter. So I had to ask what he/she wanted to say on the subject. Out came the nuggets. Here was the crucial point. How they would like to say it. Directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly. Many times it so happened that I would write the way I understood which did not fit into the idea of what the deliverer of the piece had in mind.
So, they would ask me to modify the write. The whole process, as a result, became time consuming and a hindrance to my daily output. More so because I was not one with what I was writing.
And then there were those who made it a point to fiddle with what I wrote without making any substantial contribution. A comma here , a full stop there, correcting grammatical errors where there were none. I put up with it quietly so as not to be mistaken as a show-off.
Once, one of my HODs said that she felt hesitant to make changes in my drafts as I was an ‘established author’. I assured her that it was quite okay. Not because she was my Departmental Head but the fact that I usually got carried away while writing it was important to have a detached and neutral review of what I put on paper. Also, they being more experienced might have a perspective on the issue which I was not aware of, overlooked or never thought of.
Writing for official work is way different than writing for one’s own self. Again it depends on the type of write necessitating different forms of expressing. I may have an entirely exclusive format for a story. Poetry is a different cup of tea altogether. I enjoy a freer hand in my blog space. But for a speech to be delivered in a public forum I’d rather be more measured. An article for a magazine or a brochure holds your hand tight.
One of my hard taskmasters of a boss once remarked, “English is a very funny language. A word here and a word there can alter the meaning of a sentence altogether.” Working with him, though it was a pain, I realised how true it was. A tweak here and a tweak there and lo the very meaning of a note or a memo or minutes of a meeting changed drastically. I also realised how nuanced one had to be while working on official papers. However, in contrast to his own wise statement I found him mostly relying on the cut and paste method from pre-approved notes with the bizarre hope that it would see his in-hand-proposal a better chance of getting through.
As against the dynamic process of writing expectations are quite static. People who have expectations of you seldom think whether it is right to expect from a person who may or may not have reservations to take up a task asked for. With immediate family, friends and relatives you do have an option to explain yourself. With peers and colleagues you still have a chance. But in a hierarchical relation it’s more a unilateral understanding that you will deliver the goods without any qualms.
Perhaps I was too approachable which over the time I realised had its own merits and demerits. I have now learnt if not to say no then at least put in my two bit to make my position clear. Like my nephew, who is a deeper thinker than I am, would delve in to gauge whether that makes him a better person, I’d rather go with the peace and comfort that being vocal brings me.
In short, it’s work without wordlessly warring with yourself.
Thank god now, we can direct all the HOD’s to ChatGPT’s and write instead what needs to be written.
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I doubt whether they would do that. I found most of the seniors non tech savvy.
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Learning to say no is very important.
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Yes, it is. Very true.
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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A fascinating experience, reminding me of one of mine. As an area manager I often wrote typed letters for my bosses signature. He would make such alterations as you describe, in handwriting before signing them and sending them off. When reiterate first began to be used instead of iterate I set him a trap. I used iterate for repeat. He added re at the beginning.
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That’s ingenious and amusing.
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I can only sympathise with your problems, Geeta, as you were kind and helpful, but trying to please everybody is not possible, and perhaps a polite decline to do what is requested might work for your peace of mind.
Joanna
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Thank you Joanna.
Office is a complex thing wherein interpersonal relation can let you go a long way. Not only me, everyone tries to have a good working relationship with one another even if that means going a little out of the way. Those who do not are considered “difficult”. This is the work culture here where informal ways work more than watertight formal functioning.
But now that I have retired I still maintain good rapport with my erstwhile colleagues and vice versa. They help me out too whenever required.
That’s the way it is over here.
I just wanted to illustrate how writing is viewed by different people.
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Thank you, Geeta, for your generous reply. I am so glad that you are retired and so not under so much pressure. As I never worked for a big organisation, I found interesting your recollection of working times.
Joanna
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Glad you’ve found an outlet for saying what you have to say!
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Yes, this is my space and I can let go myself.
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Beautifully put—writing for yourself is freedom, writing for others is diplomacy in disguise. Glad you’ve found that balance without warring within! ✍️😊
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Thank you Mr. P for your unbridled appreciation.
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Very creative blog post! What are your goals or challenges at the moment?
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That sounds exhausting.
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Well that is life. Thank you for being on this post.
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You’re welcome. You must be a very good writer to be so in-demand.
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Thanks for writing about writing for others. My mom wrote my dad’s talks for church; they’d discuss it and she knew his feelings and style. I write my wife’s talks for church; we discuss it and I take into account her feelings and style. I actually love the process of trying to predict how someone else would say something, then I carefully rewrite it a little better.
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That’s nice. However it’s different from Office where you do not get so much time for detailed discussion and the topic is also not common for the writer and the deliverer.
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Thank you so much for sharing this thoughtful post, Ma’am. I increasingly feel that workplaces in general need to recognize healthy boundaries around time and mental labor. I totally agree with you official writing is such a different genre altogether. I currently have a part-time job at a customer service point in my campus library, so I can relate to the amount of care and thoughtfulness that I need to incorporate in my emails when communicating with clients!
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Yes, writing for different purposes requires different skills and efforts.
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Yes, this is the way of professional writing, Geeta. Even when assigned an article for a newspaper or newsletter, editors mess with the wording enough that it can change its intent.
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