2/15/2023 0 Comments Parklife nail salon and spa![]() We created flowcharts of advertising schedules by manually drawing arrows and writing in numbers. Here I am in Foote Cone & Belding's meda research library, circa 1998. And although missing pages is no longer an issue a new hassle is keeping track of personal passwords for each database. 40 years later there are no books published, or libraries, as everything is digitized and accessed from websites. Sources that were used extensively would end up having torn or missing pages, or the binders were put back on the wrong shelves or taken from the library and not returned. Also, we can complete projects without negotiating time with others when we had to share secretaries.Īll of the audience and media/marketing research data we used came in the form of hardbound books and "pocket pieces", and there was a substantial library full of these books they were constantly being updated (monthly and weekly). This enables us to make revisions immediately and do things in exactly the way we picture them in our head. However, one task that we now do that has actually made our lives simpler is doing our own typing and preparing reports and presentations. Today, alas, we perform tasks that they once did, making us a bit less productive as we spend time doing timesheets, making travel plans, filling out expense reports, scheduling meetings and reserving conference rooms. These hard-working employees (whose title was changed to administrative assistant 25 years ago) carried out countless tasks that were largely menial, but crucial. As you can imagine dressing up every day could make working in the summer very uncomfortable (especially since the subways weren't air conditioned until the 1990s). Before then suits, or at least shirts and ties, were expected to be worn every day until Casual Fridays started in the mid-1980s. Not a technical breakthrough, but the loosening of dress codes coincided with the proliferation in technology. Then about ten years later e-mails could be accessed on employees' company-supplied Blackberries, then to personal smartphones. Similarly, web access was initially restricted. Replacing paper memos, e-mail emerged in the mid-90s but its availability for the first year or so was limited to staff who were in upper management positions. ![]() This portability allowed for working from home and taking them to meetings (but making it a challenge for a presenter to make eye contact). About 15 years later (2010) laptops, for the most part, replaced desktop computers. And users had to use a sign-in sheet to reserve time. Before then we accessed research databases using a few computers that were kept in the research library. Since there was no voice mail, if I didn't answer the call it bounced over to my secretary who scribbled down a message on a pink "While You Were Out" tablet. Before caller ID we answered our desk phone without knowing who was calling (shudder!). This advance, which was first introduced to our office in the early 1990s, is the one that I still marvel at the most. At this first job the big advance was the IBM Correcting Selectric typewriter, which had a cartridge that enabled allowed the user to go back one space and erase a typo. This milestone had me thinking about the "primitive" work conditions I encountered in the spring of 1979 and the changes I've witnessed since then (most which didn't take place until the 1990s). 2019 was the 40-year anniversary of me beginning my first job out of college (Penn State), which was working in the media planning department at New York ad agency Scali McCabe Sloves.
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