When E-Mail Was Young.

As I was writing the previous blog entry (church newsletters) I was reminded of my first encounter with e-mail. It was in 1996 and I had just gotten a new job after an almost two year break in formal employment. I was given a desk in a large room which was subdivided by partitions into cubicles that contained three to five desks each. It took a few days for the network administrator to set up an e-mail account for me, but being new to e-mail (a lot had changed in the time that I was not working in an office, including the way to communicate) this didn't concern me.

One day during my “e-mail-less” time, my cubicle and, as I found out later, all the other cubicles, mysteriously emptied out and I was the only one diligently bent over my desk, probably trying to learn what my job was all about. I didn't notice that I was all alone and I didn't take notice when the desks in my cubicle were occupied again. It was when one of my cubicle-mates asked me why I didn't go to the farewell party (with coffee and cake ) for a departing coworker, which had taken place in the conference room, that I realized that I had missed something. It turned out that the invitation to the party had been sent by e-mail, which I didn't have yet. That is when I learned something about the new way to communicate: It is all done by e-mail and not by word-of-mouth anymore.

I wonder now what other, maybe important, meetings I missed because I didn't get the word (the e-mail).

P.S.: Whenever a funny e-mail, such as the church newsletter extracts, circulated among the offices, snickering and downright laughter could be heard up and down the large room, that is when we all knew who had gotten the same e-mail.