Actually, tech writing is at the far end of the tech skills
as far as how tech skills are viewed by management. The fact is that management is blissfully unaware of who you are and what you do if you're doing your job correctly in any IT profession. It's one of the reasons IT pro's end up on the layoff list so frequently. In my career I've been laid off a large number of times and the resulting chaos down the road because the system isn't being maintained or worse the company replaced me with a hobbiest from marketing because they were cheaper and after all they knew how to turn on their Mac. It's been interesting when they come back asking me to fix the problem. It always costs them much more because my costs go up. One thing to consider if you had benefits and you get laid off well you're either paying for those benefits now or doing with out. In most tech jobs that's a rather sizable chunk of the compensation you're paid. So my calculation adds my current costs which being one human being costs much more than it cost the company who is buying those benefits for hundreds or thousands of people.
