20 Thing that have changed in business in the last 25 years.

As I was replacing the toilet paper in the stall just now, it occurred to me that a LOT has changed in American business in the past 25 years.

I started my actual working life at MCI in April 1984, exactly 25 years ago. I had three years of college behind me and I dropped out due to dismal grades, depression and the desire to move with my family in California, rather than remain in Arizona, alone.

I had taken a series of odd and temp jobs with an eye towards something more permanent. I searched the want ads in the Sunday paper and I saw an ad for a Customer Service job, starting at $6.00 per hour, part-time, with benefits.

I had a system for answering ads back then. I eschewed the dinky or amateurish ad, preferring the ones obviously placed by larger corporations. I mailed them a copy of my resume and got a fairly prompt phone call in return. I put on a navy blue skirt, a white blouse and drove the circumference of the Earth to get to my interview.

(I’m looking at all of the anachronisms in just the past two paragraphs. Wow, I’m old.)

I aced the interview and thus began my foray into Corporate America.

Here is a list of stuff that has changed. Some things have changed for the better, some, not. It’s random, just as I’m thinking of it.

1. Janitorial service used to be every day, not just one day per week. That meant you could put really stinky stuff in your trash can and the guys would just take care of it for you. Also, mopping, sweeping, vacuuming and all that other stuff would occur, so you wouldn’t have crud under your feet when you were working.

2. Office furniture used to be really ugly and uncomfortable.

3. Dumb Terminals were used to display computerized records. The screen was black and the text was either green or orange. Turn it off at night or else an image would burn into the CRT.

4. There was no email. Seriously. Memos were distributed on paper, by someone. The first email I ever used was MCIMail. It wasn’t windows based; you had to start your email with slash codes and stuff. You couldn’t send one to anyone who didn’t work at the company.

5. There was a lot of goofing off. It wasn’t dicking around on Facebook, or updating a blog, but it involved walking around with an empty manila folder, as though you were on your way to someone important with something important. You would stop in the break room and BS with someone there, chit-chat with your buddies, or just go outside for a minute for some fresh air.

6. There were a lot of committees back in the day. At the phone company it was called the Sunshine Club. Monthly contributions were made and the committee would see to it that you had cake on your birthday and presents for weddings and births and flowers for funerals. I’m still conflicted about whether or not I miss this. I do miss assembling in the conference room for cake though. No one does that any more.

7. No one would look at you twice if you ordered a glass of wine at lunch. Make it a bottle if you were with a customer.

8. You could smoke at your desk. Even in California.

9. Your boss was your boss. Not your semi-equal colleague with different responsibilities. He or she was higher up on the totem-pole and you knew all about the chain of command. There was not an open door policy.

10. Watch your personal calls. It was the office phone and the office phone bill. There was a phone in the break room for local personal calls. Except that Rick was always on it, talking to his wife about some stupid shit.

11. My headset weighed about six pounds.

12. Word processing was in its infancy, the first program I learned was Word Perfect and when I printed, it came out on paper fed through the printer on two spools. You had to tear the ends off of your paper and separate the pages where they were perforated. There was one font, it was ugly.

13. You could only use the Word Processing for big projects (or for my homework after 5:00 PM.) If you need to type something, you can use that Selectric over there. Oh, and my MS Word doesn’t recognize Selectric as a word. Fuck Me.

14. One of the guys in the office sold coke. No one saw this as a problem.

15. You had to dress up in office attire for work, including pantyhose and heels. (If you were female.) You could wear slacks, if you could find them. Men had to wear long sleeved shirts and ties. Malloy’s Dress for Success made the work day long and uncomfortable for many, many people.

16. The work day was actually 7.5 hours, 9:00 to 5:00 with an hour for lunch and two 15 minute breaks. Try and leave at five now and some smart ass will say, “Working Half Days?”

17. There were a lot more people working then. Typists to type, mail room types to deal with correspondence, receptionists to answer phones and route calls, secretaries to see to the needs of the bosses. Now titles may sound better, but you work twice as much for the recognition.

18. There is a lot more micromanagement now. Mostly because technology makes it easy. Back in the day if you were out in the field, you weren’t reachable. Your boss took it on faith that you were with customers, he or she had to. Actually, I might have been at the mall, or getting a manicure, or sharing a joint with the rest of the account team in the parking lot after the meeting.

19. There were a lot of sales meetings, sales events, trips, team building, dinners and other events that cost a fortune and were very swank. You’d drive somewhere, stay in a beautiful hotel, be wined and dined and walk away from the event knowing that the company valued you and your division. I haven’t seen a good kick-off in a decade. I had a room in Monterrey one time that was directly over the bay. When I opened the window I heard the water lapping at the shore and sea lions barking. Those days are gone.

20. There was never a staff meeting on Friday afternoon. It would interrupt golf.

Okay, it’s five and I’m heading out. I might do more later!