Okay – twice I’ve been in a meeting with people (me remotely from out on the prairie, they in some dark, dank conference room) and I have innocently brought up the question “Is this documented anywhere?” Now the first time, two people started arguing and the moderator said “we’ll get back to you.” They did – with a reference to a folder containing documentation from 3 years ago. Not extremely helpful, but trying to get someone to update was, well, pretty impossible.
The second time, different people – one person starts yelling at the other person who, in effect, said “Documentation? Documentation? We don’t need no stinkin’ documentation.” Needless to say the 1.5 hour meeting ended 1.15 hours too soon.
Now I have third-party “manuals” that are incomplete, confusing and not very current. I’m supposed to whip up an interface. Somewhere down the line, did we lose our ability to document processes in a user-friendly, yet technical way? Do we really think that we and our jobs are so indispensible that we will live forever, always remember how to do things in the only job we’ll ever have?
Should I just not ask in the first place? 
