Pandemic Impact on TechComm Survey Preliminary Results

Tom Johnson has been running a survey on the impact of the pandemic on technical communicators. The survey is still open but he has enough results to provide some analysis. It's interesting reading. Some of the preliminary figures:

• 36% are working more each day
• 40% have gained weight
• 5% have lost their job
• 28% have taken up a new hobby
• 13% have been furloughed or had their salary reduced
• 41% had open headcount reduced or cut 

As he notes in his analysis, it's encouraging that only 5 percent of respondents have lost their jobs. Not so encouraging is that more than a third are working more each day. The weight gain figure is no surprise considering that almost everyone is working from home. 

Some of his concluding comments:

One reason I wanted to create this survey was to hopefully arrive at some well-thought, evidence-based conclusion about the best strategies for success in tech comm during these times. I’m not sure any specific strategies surface apart from the same strategies for career stability regardless of pandemics. I can endure the quarantine and the disruption to life as long as I have a stable job (my wife too). So I’d say the best measure you can take to make it through these times is to safeguard your job by staying as marketable and skilled as possible.

In some ways, technical writers have more assurances than other positions because many of us are the only resource in this job category at our work. In my recent survey about Developer Documentation Trends, the results found that 34% of respondents are lone writers, 31% are part of small teams with 2-4 writers, and 12% are part of teams with 5-7 writers. I think companies are hesitant to get rid of every resource for a job function.