I turned 50 this week, and that got me thinking about how much has changed in the workplace over the last 31 years, since I took my first summer job at Oak Ridge National Labs.
Technical work was tied to a physical place. It had to be. The computers were big, the networks were poor, and the access points were few and far between. Oak Ridge National Lab had the height of technology available at the time. I used the TECO editor to create my Fortran programs and JCL statements on a stand-up terminal connected to a DEC minicomputer. From the DEC mini-computer I could queue up my batch jobs to compile my programs and if they compiled successfully, to run them. The IBM computer that actually ran my JCL job was at Sandia National Lab.
I got the results back, if I was lucky, a half day later. A young man with a cart came around and delivered the job printout rolled up and secured with rubber bands. I created a HUGE rubber band ball over the summer. I've been using rubber bands off it for the last 31 years. It's still bigger than my fist.
Because Oak Ridge is a nuclear facility, we had security guards with guns, and our picture badge contained a radiation dosimeter. You never forgot to wear your badge.
During my college years technology advanced at a rapid rate. We stopped using punch cards, and started using mini-computers. Instead of short lines for short stints at keypunch machines, we had long lines for long stints at terminals. I started writing my programs after I got in line.
When I started working full time for Data General, I got permission to bring home a bulky terminal and a modem where I literally plugged the handset into a rubber cradle. This enabled me to work from home on occasion. If the mini-computer needed a reboot, I still had to drive into the office to enter the reboot instructions in octal via switches on the front panel.
A few years later I was working for DEC, and got my first workstation in my cubicle. This was the height of the Xwindows explosion, and it introduced a mouse alongside my keyboard. A few years later we got our first personal computer at home. This enabled me to use a "green screen" communications program, and a much smaller and faster modem, to dial into work remotely. Everyone went into the office every day, I didn't work much with people beyond my office, and when I did, it was by email. I vividly remember talking with a sales rep in Australia by phone; I sent him some reference materials by email while we were talking, and I heard the "beep" as he received it. We both marveled at how fast our corporate network was that day. Usually it took a couple of hours for email to get delivered.
Now, I can work anyplace where I can get my laptop to connect to the internet. I go into the office when I have a face to face meeting (rare) or it's too noisy at home. I work with people all over the world, and across many different time zones. I use instant messaging almost more than I use email, and online awareness is popping up in almost every application. I have a teleconference number with international calling attached to it, and I automatically plug those numbers into every meeting invitation I send. I have Sametime Unyte for a meeting white board and presentations. I use Sametime Unified Telephony to call into meetings. I use a IBM Research telephony application that reads my calendar and dials teleconference numbers for me, so I don't even have to look up the phone numbers for meetings. My kids have laptops just as highly powered as my work laptop. I haven't used a modem in years.
Where will technology go by the time I retire? My guess: email will be mostly dead as a medium for workplace communication, probably replaced by messages left in online social networking spaces. Calendars will still be critically important because more of our work will be collaborative, and verbal. I'll log into Second Life to start my workday. My cell phone will transcribe and read instant messages through my blue tooth headset. My car will be connected to the internet.
And finally, I'm sure my kids will tell me constantly I'm hopelessly behind the times. I'll lament consumer technology companies changing things for no good reason. And IBM will still be in the forefront, bringing new technologies to the workplace to make businesses more productive and efficient.
Beth Benoit | 18 September 2009 11:32:45 AM ET | | Comments (1)
