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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Identify the two best writers/editors on your team. Do you think they could take over a lot of this work?[/b] Make them a layer between you and the rest of the staff, so you only get things once they've already given them a first pass. You will still wind up doing review and editing, but things will arrive on your desk closer to a final draft. The goal should be for you to never or almost never have to correct things like basic grammar and punctuation, and to rarely have to pass something back for major structural issues. That way your review can be just to perfect it before it goes to your boss.

I'd also look at your staff and really assess their strengths and weaknesses. Can you allocate assignments in a way that better plays to their strengths. Do you have weak writers who should basically never touch long-form projects? People who are decent writers but prone to typos and other errors when they are in a rush could be shifted to projects with longer headways so they have a chance to take their time, and so on. I'd be rigorous about this -- apply a rubric to each member of the team and see if you can shift people around to maximize the staff you have.

And then I'd really emphasize writing, especially "clean" writing without basic spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, in future hiring. Again, I know you are limited somewhat as a fed, but to the degree that you can insert some screening for writing quality into the process, do so.[/quote]

Doesn't the above essentially punish one's best performing workers by giving them more work?[/quote]

Depends on if you take something else off their plate. If you have a couple terrific writers on staff and everyone else needs a lot of help, I'd make the two writers your assistant editors (doing something they already excel at) and give some of their other work to someone else. Most people have some stuff on their list that is administrative and anyone could do -- give that work to the people on staff who aren't as good at the stuff that requires more skill. And bonus, the people you are elevating into this role are getting valuable experience that can go on a resume for a promotion or another job. Most competent workers will embrace that.

This is what management is. Delegating, allocating resources, facilitating your team to do their best work. Right now OP is essentially doing his or her team's work themself. That's inefficient and doesn't play to anyone's strengths.[/quote]

I'm the editor above.

Your logic is understandable, except it's poaching my skill set for skills I'm not paid for. I'm paid to do X, not paid to do X AND write the company letter, handle my boss's high level correspondence and stand behind him trying to catch all of his grammatical errors (many). It's shocking how many 'educated' people don't know the proper use of a semicolon, how to use a comma, the difference between effect and affect, their and there, and on and on.[/quote]

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