I first learned the expression “creeping specs” while I was living in Montreal. Someone who was then a friend of mine got me a tech-writing job. Well, sort of a tech-writing job, but with more graphics stuff, something I was not then, and am not now, qualified to do.
(I could bitch about how the “learning curve” was one I was not interested in climbing, but the honest truth is I needed the money, and didn’t turn the work away. I am only bitter because, while he extended the job for as long as he could, he also didn’t warn me about how it was going to be suddenly cut off; he was certain I should become a freelance tech writer and I suppose not telling me was his way of “giving me a little push,” regardless of how unwanted it was. We’re not friends anymore, though he still has my copy of Iain M. Banks’ Consider Phlebas… let this be a warning!)
Anyway, the creeping specs then resulted from the company not knowing exactly what they wanted. First it was charts done this way, then it was charts done that way, and every time they changed their plans, that meant a few more hours of work for me. Hours were billable at that point — well, sort of, because my friend said I should go easy on them since I was climbing up the learning curve and all — but it was so frustrating doing the same things over and over because someone else didn’t know what he or she wanted.
Well, let me just say, I hate creeping specs.
And of course, you know I had some dropped straight on me today. But that’s all I’m going to say.