Temp Work – Diebold and Phillips

One of my temp technical writer positions was for Diebold, Inc. in Canton, OH. I worked on updating their spreadsheets and operation manual templates to reflect the changes dictated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This was another short-term project, lasting about 6 months. It was also the best pay I’d received as a Technical Writer… ever!

After that, it was subbing, lawn mowing, and waiting tables until the last 2 years before I retired. I was assigned by a different temp agency ( I don’t remember which one, Office Temps, perhaps) to Phillips Medical on Cleveland’s far east side. I wrote operation and maintenance manuals for their CT (computed tomography) scanners and imaging systems.

I wrote the manuals both from engineering notes and meetings on each of the products Phillips produced there. I also made regular visits to the labs, where they had CT Scanners up and running. I sat at the operator’s console and went through and learned how to operate the machines and how to get the computer images that a doctor or medical technician would need for medical diagnostics.

I retired from there 12/31/09. Interestingly, when I announced a month before retirement of my intention to do so, the management of the technical writers section offered me a full-time job, with benefits… alas, too late. I’d already decided that 12/31/09 would be the end… period. If they’d offered it to me 6 months or a year previous, I might have accepted it.

Note: Phillips is the company that bought out Picker, whose manuals I’d worked on for PPI… It was the same facility that I worked at, writing for PPI.

To be Continued

–LE