GameBanshee Forums

At my work all the important administrative work is done on the computer... Whether it's patients journals, ordering orthopedic devices or writing invoices etc etc.

Still at the moment it seems that there are more papers laying around on peoples desks than 5 years ago when computers weren't really used that much and journals, orderforms, and invoices etc etc were written by hand.

What happened along the way? How come it feels this way? Does anyone else recognize this paradox?

Of course Im sure it differs from job to job...but it would be interesting to hear a little bit about what it looks like at your work? Are there papers everywhere? Are there millions of folders containing billions of papers in the bookshelves around you?

Weren't computers supposed to save all that physical storage space?

Edit: Light spam is permitted in this thread....

Well, I try to keep my amount of "paperwork" to a minimum, but I'm also in the IT line of buisness, so much of what I do is placed and documented purely electronic.

However, I do recognize the pattern from previous work places and friends n' family and personal papers.
There seem to be an deep fear of "loosing" data/information, cause computers crash, which makes people backup every single document in paper form (because paper never dissapears or gets ruined )

I do think it is on the decline though, as I feel it was worse some 5 years ago, but paper will be used for a long time to come yet, to keep important information.

Even though everything we do here is on computer now, I'm required to print and keep paperwork in certain areas for 3 to 5 years....go figure

But like Xandax has mentioned the amount has slowly declined since I've worked here.

My desk has paperwork for all Inter-Library loans, volunteer forms, courier forms, desk schedules for staff, contact info. for other libraries, etc.....

Well, the company I work for produces transcriptions of court cases, arbitrations, etc. Our clients can receive transcripts as text documents or hard copy, and many still get hard copy. Okay, so that does mean they can make notes on it - but we can also provide them with software that lets them view transcripts and make notes and search it and whatever they want to do, really... but how many of the fuddy-duddy old lawyers and judges can be bothered to spend a bit of time learning how to use a piece of software that will save them effort as well as being more environmentally friendly?