Remember what “9 to 5” used to look like?

“Office jobs involved a lot of paperwork,” recalled Stephanie Sharf, who entered the labor force in 1968.

My Analog Life looks back at how technology has changed the way we work. 

Stephanie Sharf entered the labor force in 1968, working as an assistant reference librarian for the RAND Corporation. In the half-century since, she’s had a range of office jobs. 

Back then, “office jobs involved a lot of paperwork,” Sharf said. “You filed in filing cabinets, rows and rows of filing cabinets. You took phone messages on pink message pads.” 

With no email or even voicemail, stacks of brown envelopes with inter-office memos were transported from department to department by mail delivery people. 

Sharf remembers the transition from Remington typewriters to word processors at a bank she worked for in downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s. “And of course, the system kept crashing because it was new,” she said. 

On one memorable day, Sharf said the actress Jane Fonda visited that office to prepare for her role in the 1980 film, “9 to 5.” “She wanted to see what office workers do,” she said. 

Use the audio player above to hear Sharf’s story.

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