I recently had a discussion with a friend about working in an office in the 1980s. I recalled an experience in 1983 when our word processors were shared IBM terminals. [su_pullquote]1983[/su_pullquote]
I was writing a fairly detailed summary of how our field support offices would be brought up to speed with docs and training before the release of the next software release for our computerized PABX product. I was called away for a moment, then returned and completed the report, saved the file, then sent to the noisy shared teletype printer. Our admin then picked up the printout, made copies, and distributed it to the project team and several layers of management. These were the days before email, you see.
The next morning my boss called me in and asked how I dared mention that I deserved a 10% raise, which astonished me. He pointed to that phrase, which had been tacked on to the end of some bullet points. Apparently, while I stepped away for a moment, a co-worker stopped by the workstation and saw my report, then innocently added the comment. I had been royally screwed. The lesson learned was to always save and log off when you step away from a workstation, even for a moment to answer somebody’s question. Ahhh, the joys of early Silicon Valley.☕️
