21st Century Office

Death to the Office Phone and Fax Machine

Posted by The Tales of Content Marketing by Malkia "Kia" McLeod on September 26, 2012
Posted in: 21st Century Office. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

Oh, and don’t forget the Rolodex. Yes, that rotating filing device that has sat on the corner of your desk for 15 years with business contacts who retired 10 years ago. According to LinkedIn’s ‘Office Endangered Species’ study, thousands of professionals agreed they could easily picture office stalwarts like tape recorders, fax machines and Rolodexes nestled in museum exhibits next to fossils and Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons.

And what about those outdated cubicles?

Cubicles were designed to provide privacy and isolate office workers from noise. The theory behind ‘the cube’ was to give workers an area to concentrate without distractions. But anyone who sits in one can unintentionally or intentionally hear their co-worker’s entire conversation.  (A 51-year-old woman, Rebecca Wells, actually died in her cubicle. It took a whole day for someone to find the former L.A. County Department of Internal Services employee.)

Of the more than 7,000 global professionals surveyed, 19 percent said cubicles could disappear within the next five years.

Other office relics include:

  1. Tape recorders (79 percent)
  2. Fax machines (71 percent)
  3. The Rolodex (58 percent)
  4. Standard working hours (57 percent)
  5. Desk phones (35 percent)
  6. Desktop computers (34 percent)
  7. Formal business attire like suits, ties, pantyhose,      etc. (27 percent)
  8. The corner office for managers/executives (21 percent)
  9. USB thumb drives (17 percent)
  10. Selected tablets (55 percent)

New ways of thinking about the 21st Century office environment include trashing the Rolodex. Apps like AZZ Cardfile or LinkedIn’s CardMunch can easily turn business cards into electronic contacts.

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