In the serviced offices were I work we have a custom of dress down Friday.
We’re not talking shorts and vest here, merely casual and comfortable. But last month, just for a change, someone suggested a ‘No technology Friday.’ We would all come into the serviced office and for one day only, attempt to function with an office similar to the late 70’s.
It was agreed. What a laugh we thought. Well, it wasn’t a laugh, it was a nightmare.
The small things that we take for granted on a day to day in a modern serviced office have streamlined our days to such an extent that we can no longer function without them. To start with, someone had brought in an old Remington typewriter circa 1975. No word processors, no photo copies. If you wanted something typed then it had to be done on this huge rickety machine and the manual keys had to be struck with enough force to hammer a nail through Oak. All mistakes were covered in a thick white correction fluid. If you wanted copies then they were produced via carbon paper on the typewriter. That is, unless you had put the carbon in the wrong way around, then you got nothing.
You couldn’t fax or email the document, it would have to go by snail mail. No instant decisions can be made.
So you have to jump in the car and take a drive to see the client. However, due to the fact that we are so used to mobile information, via the phone, laptops etc, we have actually become incredibly unorganised.
We leave without thinking. There are no worries because we can catch up over the phone. Not so in the 70’s office. You need to leave with a suitcase full of files and hard-copy notes. If there’s traffic then you are late and there is no way of telling anyone so to be safe you need to leave really early just in case. So you simply cannot get as much done in the day.
Oh, our no technology day lasted until 10.00am. There is simply no way you can run a business in a serviced office without toady’s technological advances.
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