Technology consisted of a stapler and a phone...

I remember walking into meeting rooms and thinking to myself, I'm the youngest one in the room. Now I walk into the room and think, My goodness, look at all these youngsters.

Time passes by, and for most of us who've been around for several decades, the changes are almost incomprehensible. Technology has completely changed our lives; computers, smart phones, drones, video-conferencing, and on and on....

I graduated from college forty-three years ago and after a few interviews with different companies, started work for a major oil company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My first office consisted of a corner in the file room that had been divided off by several file cabinets. My technology consisted of a desk, a stapler, and a phone. Across the hall was a Xerox machine capable of making legal sized copies of the contracts we prepared. If you needed letter size copies, there was a commercial duty paper cutter on the table.

We had a bevy of typists who churned out the mounds of paperwork we created.....all of it on the latest IBM Selectric typewriters. No word processing machines existed, and mistakes meant starting the whole page over. Typos and grammatical errors were unacceptable. Those gals were good!

To a small-town boy from Kansas it seemed to be a constant whirlwind of activity. We had access to a Telex machine, a secretarial pool, dictation machines, and all the paper and postage we needed. Contracts were generated and mailed to the other parties for review......weeks would go by before responses would be received, and negotiations could proceed. We thought we were being efficient if we could complete the process in a month or two. 

I remember the first IBM word processing machines we installed.....they were as large as a desk. I remember the first desk top computers....given to engineers and geologists only. I remember the first internal emails, the first video conferences, and when it was a big decision to allow access to the internet. Wow, the changes I've seen.

While the technological changes have been dramatic, there have been other changes as well. Corporations have become more demanding of their employees. The workplace has become less genial, and more impersonal. It seems as though people have lost the ability to communicate on a one-on-one basis, and everything is driven by the current task at hand. Personnel departments don't even accept hand-delivered applications and resumes anymore. It all has to be submitted electronically so the computer programs can screen the application for "key words".

So while I embrace much of the change that the last fifty years has brought to bear, I truly miss the folks who knew how to manage and lead people, which is much different than the management of technology.

But, let's face it, I'm no longer the youngest one in the room, and those times have passed us by. Will they ever return? I doubt it, but after all, What do I know!