Late 70s - Early 80s: Word Processing in a Government Office

A computer experience.

There are several.

The first one is obvious. This goes back to the very first IBM PC. In
late 1981 or early 1982 the Solicitor of Labor decided he needed one of
those new computers from IBM to track his correspondence and manage a
calendar. It was a job that fell to his personal assistant, a young
lawyer, a woman that came with him from private practice. She was given an
office across the fall from his. In it was government issue desk, chair
phone and the brand new IBM PC. Along with the PC was the documentation or
manuals. The assistant had never seen a PC, nor had anyone, and now she
was privileged to figure out how to do those tasks as best she could.

To my great relief (I was Associate Solicitor for Administration at the
time), I was not invited to partake of that exercise. She spent several
weeks doping out DOS and doing whatever it was she did. It was a mystery,
but it was a great new toy.

I should explain that prior to this time the only technology in the
Solicitor's Office, an organization of some 800 souls, 450 of them lawyers,
consisted of dedicated "word processors" and paper data sheets that were
used to manually record tracking or docketing data that was entered into a
mainframe computer operated by Boeing Aircraft Company for the Pentagon
[Department of Defense]. The former was used to produce legal documents
and briefs, letters, correspondence, and the latter was used to support our
budget activity. My big project at that time was to "strongly encourage"
each of the twelve divisions of the Solicitor's Office to get their data
automated.

The dedicated word processors were at least as technologically developed as
was the IBM PC, but they were designed to do text documents and
spreadsheets all in a proprietary format. Thus once an agency was hooked
upon the product of a particular manufacturer, in our case the Xerox
Corporation (those guys were talking about the paperless office in the
70s - fat chance!), you were wed to them unless you wanted to change
horses and start all over again. Those things were expensive - $25,000 or
more apiece in the late 70s. In fact, an IBM correcting typewriter with
a tiny bit of memory that would hold a line or two of text costs over $1000
and had to be specially justified before such an expense could be incurred.
This market virtually disappeared as the PC was cloned and became widely
available. However, that equipment was able to get the job done in the law
office very nicely. Consider the inflation that has occurred since then,
and that a good PC can now be had for $500. The economics guys call that
productivity I believe. :)

A sociological factor came into play as well. At that time President
Johnson's war on poverty had matured and many people, especially minority
women, were being trained for office work. Many had not had years of
experience in the office or no experience at all. Many did not type. With
the use of this technology those who had learned to type 30 words a minute
could be trained on the word processors and could become productive. One
such person became my secretary when I first went to Washington. She
was from South Carolina, a single mother of a son. Her last job before
her training course was as a hotel maid. She was able to hold her position
for many years and take care of her son. Her son completed high school and
won a scholarship to the University of Virginia, where he graduated. When I
went to Nashville in 1982, our best secretary, bar none, had entered the
work force the same way. Today she still works for the US Attorney in
Nashville. Office technology in general and personal computers have played
a huge role in these kinds of stories.

Sonny