What Was It Like To Work In An Office Before Computers and Internet?
Apr 11, 2013 19:54
We already know what the office of yesteryear looked like, thanks to Mad Men. It's hard to imagine how hard it was to work in a place with so little tech. There's a discussion thread in Reddit that illustrates just how it was like to work back then before science and technology revolutionized the office space. Here are some of them:
Loud and smokey. If you've ever banged around on an old typewriter, even the electric kind, try to remember that sound and multiply it by 20 or 30 going full tilt. Now, go into a closet, close the door, and smoke a carton of cigarettes. That's what it was like.
People smoked at their desks, and you could look out over a sea of cubicles and know who was in by the smoke curling up over their cubicle walls. Research was done in libraries. We even had our own office library, which was filled with phone books, encyclopedias, manuals, research books, trade magazines, and newspapers.
User YourNewPope on what it was like to be one of the first techies:
I did programming pre-widespread-Internet. We used to have to look up things in books. Software was delivered in trucks.
In the late 1970s ... I was working as a COBOL programmer in a big insurance company, writing billing and accounting programs. I would write lines of code on coding sheets: these were pages of graph paper, twice as wide as long. I would write a program and drop the coding sheets in the inbox in the keypunch room. The keypunch girls (yes, all young women) would copy the program, one line at a time, to a stack of IBM cards. The cards were bound up in a rubber band, labelled, and put in a tray to be brought in the computer room. The computer ran 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
[P}eople usually held appointments more seriously, as there were no methods to cancel or contact salesmen, i.e., today you may get a text like "hey my day just got crazy, can we change to next week...?" Pre-smartphones, cellphones, texting etc, there was no way for the customer to contact you. I also had to make sure I had my 10 pence coins for making phone calls, which I carried in a sock. We lived in phone boxes.
User jeannaimard describes when computers arrived:
[B]ack then, computers were seen as a miraculous thing no one could ever undertand, and when you would have to train someone to work on a computer (or a terminal), they would be nearly fainting when told, then they were mortally afraid of touching the keyboard. It did not matter if the person was old or young, they were equally scared.
Every year, millions of American workers suffer injuries on the job — from slips and falls to repetitive stress injuries to catastrophic accidents. If you've been hurt at work, it can be an overwhelming and confusing experience. Medical bills pile up, paychecks stop coming, and you may not know where to turn. The good news: the law is on your side. Understanding your rights is the first and most important step toward protecting your health, your income, and your future. Read more
As people age, their healthcare needs become more complex and require specialized attention. GERIATRICS Treatment and Care focuses on improving the quality of life for elderly individuals by addressing physical, emotional, and mental health challenges. With the right approach, seniors can maintain independence and enjoy a healthier, more fulfilling life. Read more
For a long time, owning land in California felt like a "someday" luxury. The process was heavy, the prices for prime spots were high, and it often felt like a high degree of "insider" secrecy kept the best deals out of reach. Read more