At a recent event, I gave a speech about my early career, and was shocked when an attendee asked afterwards “what is a typewriter?”! During the insightful conversation that followed, I asked “what does CC and BCC mean”? After a blank moment, the attendee correctly explained how they’re used on emails but did not know their origins. You may already know, cc means carbon copy and bcc means blind carbon copy, but have you thought to yourself, how the same action was achieved before PCs?
At Primary school, I learned to touch type on a manual typewriter. I bemoaned typing classes but will now be forever grateful. When I think back to my early career as an office junior, then secretary my earliest memory is having a wooden in-tray welcome me every morning.
The in-tray contained various files with distinctive green treasury tags, hand-written notes, financial statements, memos, and client letters to be typed up, pinned to each file. My daily ritual involved checking the viability of the typewriter ribbon, having a box of usable carbon paper, stock of pink and blue coloured paper for additional copies. A signature book was essential to present completed work for sign-off, and finally a pile of Inter-Office Envelopes with empty squares for circulating documents to other departments! It raises a smile every time I think back to those days, apart from one major challenge – tables!
Here’s the challenge: the distance between tabs had to be manually calculated and marked, with the creation of table outlines, rows and columns meant using dashes of varying depth and creative carriage returns! Imagine the fun had working with financial data! When you think of automation today – it’s a 3-step process! You may laugh, you may sympathise, you may even feel pride, but that was life for typists, secretaries, and other office support at the time.
Those early days of text processing – be it on a typewriter or telex machine - established off-the-scale levels of dexterity, accuracy, and efficiency. It established firm foundations for embracing automation and embracing access to information on the then new internet search engines. As a pre-Google Gen-Xer, moving to online Contacts and Databases from using a paper diary and Rolodex was a game changer! Phones were used as phones; the traditional phone had a dial not buttons and it was natural to call someone and ask a question, arrange a meeting, or simply say hello!
Reminiscent of those days are the unforgettable squealing siren sounds of dial-up internet starting, often followed by the sound of someone shouting “who’s using the phone” as making a call caused the connection to drop; it tested the patience of a generation! Those iconic dial-up sounds – if played today - would be instantly recognisable to people of a certain age, alongside feelings of immense relief that technology has come so far.
From dial phones, typewriters, telex, and fax machines to PCs with document production, file management, and even Solitaire – all made life so much easier. Smart phones, laptops, Office 365, cloud-based storage solutions are now the norm. It may come as a surprise that Google officially launched in 1998, with iPhone launching in 2007, followed by the Android in 2008 – that’s not that long ago! How did we survive without it? The fact is – we did survive without mobiles, without texts and without WhatsApp. We called and spoke to friends, family, and colleagues when we needed to arrange to meet up, we called to make bookings and, we called just to check in now and then.
Covid-19 changed the way we work on a global scale. Going into lockdown, it was business as usual, with responsibility of maintaining the status quo for colleagues, board meetings, client engagement and delivering a service, often fell to Assistants. Moving online and remotely, meant new ways of performing old tasks, for some it was a steep learning curve and others used to hybrid working, just swam with the tide! Early iterations of Slack, Teams, Zoom, and Meet – evolved in response to this change, and created new opportunities for relationship building, collaboration and that much-needed flexibility.
Hanan Harb of SweetRush, she says in her blog,
“…the technological advancements of the 90s and 00s, made way for the movement of introspection, authenticity, inclusion and wellness…”
So, as a call to action, I encourage you to go through a period of introspection, cast your mind back to your early career, what you’ve done, how far you’ve come and consider where you’re going. The future is unknown, so embrace change and elevate wellness!
BIO
Veronica Richards is a C-suite assistant and business manager, who developed over 30 years’ strategic level expertise. As the Senior Executive Assistant at Top Source Worldwide (www.topsourceworldwide.com), working with the CEO, COO and CFO, as part of the leadership team, driving business process improvements, developing and implementing creative solutions, alongside her pass improving the candidate and employee experience.
When not busy at work, Veronica enjoys short trips to the UK coast and countryside and is committed to the development of early career entrants to the business support profession. She also supports homelessness charities and is an active member of Toastmasters. A Fellow of the Executive & Personal Assistant Association (EPAA) and Associate of The Chief of Staff Association, Veronica is a qualified CIPD Associate and recently completed a BSc (Hons) Degree in Business Management (People Management).
Connect with Veronica on LinkedIn here