Confession: I cheated at work
Not what you may think
Everyone is talking about ChatGPT (so I guess I am now too).
My 9–5 job requires me to create articles and other forms of communication for the organisation to let staff know what’s going on, what’s coming up and changes they need to prepare for.
I also write communications for Executives. It’s a very different style to writing here. You have to be very specific, write in their “voice” and get the message across. Many times it’s on very short notice. One example being, “I need a communication to the Minster by 2:00pm” at 11:00am. Three hours sounds like a lot of time but, with writing, reviewing and editing … well, it's not!
Enter, my confession: ChatGPT
The communication I was to write was for the staff newsletter, not Ministerial in this case, but still something to be vetted by the Exec and get through the ll professional communication staff who manage the newsletter.
The Exec had sent me some bullet points and a few paragraphs for me to flesh out and produce a well framed article.
I had a blank on how to start. Writer’s block? I walked away and came back to it, tried all the tricks e.g. just start writing and something will pop out.
Then I thought, what if I pasted what the Exec sent me into ChatGPT? I may at least have something to work off.
Sneakily I accessed the webpage, pasted in the text and waited for the blinking cursor to save my life…
BOOM! Article written.
I couldn't believe it. It read really well. Well, it did to me, but it still had to get past the Exec and the Comms team. Just a couple of small edits, change to past tense as the article would come out after the work had been completed.
Off to the Exec.
“This is brilliant, thank you. A couple of minor changes but this looks great. Send it to the Comms team.”
ChatGPT: 1 — Human: 0
The Comms Team
“Thank you do much for your article, we’ll happily publish this in the next edition.”
ChatGPT: 2 — Human: 0
The aftermath — I still feel like I cheated.
When it comes to work, outcomes are the key, not necessarily the time it takes to get the result. Why spend hours on something that can take you minutes. We use Excel for complicated (and simple) equations and we’ve long since retired hamsters for generating power.
Will I use ChatGPT again. Absolutely!
Is there anything to look out for?
- While a machine wrote the article, you have to read through the content carefully. I’ve heard of examples where ChatGPT cites sources that don’t actually exist. 😲
- If I am presenting the content to someone else, I need to know what’s in it. It’s not a case of “ChatGPT it and forget it”. Think of it like ChatGPT being a direct report, you’d review their work before it went to the Exec.
Also …
Tim Denning has also written an article on ChatGPT that is definitely worth a read!
