GalaxyBoy
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I started in the early '80s at a large Megacorp. Since there were only two dedicated word processing machines in the building, they were reserved for external letters only. You hand-wrote everything, double-spaced so you could make changes, with lots of literal cut-and-paste. Peers and the boss reviewed and commented on the hand-written version, which only went to typing when it was deemed final. Internal memos (what we would email or text [Lync] today) was hand-written on a form, and went to the file that way.
One telephone was shared between two desks, and long-distance calls had to go through the company switchboard and a charge number had to be provided. The telecopy (fax) machine was the size of a desk, and if it were more than six pages it was cheaper to FedEx it. Pay phones were provided in the hall for personal calls, which were discouraged.
Drawings were pencil on mylar, and sometimes had to be re-drawn because the mylar was worn through from so much erasing.
The boss of about 200 people was at the door at 8:03 taking name of those who were late. Lunch was strictly 45 minutes, and there was a traffic jam to get out of the parking lot at 4:46. It was impossible to walk up the stairs at 4:45 due to the crowds coming down. Occasionally, a few people would sprint across the parking lot if they were in front of the crowd.
Days off had to be approved a week in advance by three levels of management.
IT was in a dedicated building with a giant machine on a raised floor. When the first PCs finally appeared, management insisted on charging clients for computer time, just like the mainframes. There was a card that went into a slot next to the PC that tracked time used by which project. If your department thought it needed a PC then a business case had to be written in detail, itemizing every single task it would be used for. These requests were typically denied.
I'm stopping now while I still feel like I'm less than 90 years old!
One telephone was shared between two desks, and long-distance calls had to go through the company switchboard and a charge number had to be provided. The telecopy (fax) machine was the size of a desk, and if it were more than six pages it was cheaper to FedEx it. Pay phones were provided in the hall for personal calls, which were discouraged.
Drawings were pencil on mylar, and sometimes had to be re-drawn because the mylar was worn through from so much erasing.
The boss of about 200 people was at the door at 8:03 taking name of those who were late. Lunch was strictly 45 minutes, and there was a traffic jam to get out of the parking lot at 4:46. It was impossible to walk up the stairs at 4:45 due to the crowds coming down. Occasionally, a few people would sprint across the parking lot if they were in front of the crowd.
Days off had to be approved a week in advance by three levels of management.
IT was in a dedicated building with a giant machine on a raised floor. When the first PCs finally appeared, management insisted on charging clients for computer time, just like the mainframes. There was a card that went into a slot next to the PC that tracked time used by which project. If your department thought it needed a PC then a business case had to be written in detail, itemizing every single task it would be used for. These requests were typically denied.
I'm stopping now while I still feel like I'm less than 90 years old!