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I'm a techno-geek. So, it might surprise you to hear me say, that technology can sometimes get in the way. All these high-tech gizmos can have inherent flaws, and an over reliance on them can be troublesome. The danger, however, isn't that things can go wrong. Things always go wrong, at some point. No, the danger is in relying so much on the advanced technology that you don't keep prepared for situations where technology doesn't function. Like making sure you've got both flashlights, and candles ready for when the power goes out. Because even if you have your flashlights on hand, if your batteries are dead, then all you've got is a rather heavy stick in your hand.
Which is why having old school methods, like candles, is important. It's why once I've finished working on a story draft, I'll print out a copy, and store it in my file cabinet, even as I back it up to memory stick, and external disks. It might seem preposterous. But it's a habit I picked up in high school. And I still have access to many of the things I wrote back on my TRS80, C64, or Amiga. It doesn't matter if I had the orignal media or not, none of those are compatible with modern computers. Nor were they highly compatible with each other, and so as I went from one system to the next, I learned to retype in that work that I cared enough about to continue working on. Who knows at what point in the future my current files become obsolete. One truth I know, is technology changes faster than you anticipate, and in ways that are hard to anticipate. But a printed page can always be retyped into a new system.
And that brings me to the observation that kicked this off. I was in a local chain eatery, had ordered my food, and stepped up to the register. The young woman punched in the order on her little screen, and then got a worried look on her face. Then she started tapping the screen repeatedly. The look turned into a frustrated frown. The register had frozen. The screen she scowled at and kept jabbing with her forefinger was for all intents and purposes a paper weight. Out from a door, came another young woman, who came over to help. She stepped in front of the register, and poked, and prodded, and jabbed the screen in nearly the same manner. It reminded me of that old saying, that craziness is doing the same thing over, and over again expecting different results. We all get a little crazy I think from time to time, in these situations. I wondered out loud if they could reboot it. Or just power it off and back on. A third employee stepped out, and tried to log in to the other register. But by the quick, rapid jabbing of that screen, I could tell that the problem wasn't localized.
And it hit me as I watched them: an old fashioned mechanical cash register wouldn't run into this problem. Then I wondered, to whose advantage was it that registers are all complex computers these days? I guess it makes the training easier. Just punch the button with the item name or picture. Easier for the employee; no prices to learn and memorize. Yet even in working order, they aren't flawless. A few weeks back, I'd stopped in at the local Friendly's to buy a sundae to share with my wife. After ordering the sundae, the waitress spent a good ten minutes poking away at the register trying to get my order in, before finally getting the manager to help. It was a far cry from the days of my first girlfriend (who's first job was as a waitress at a Friendly's) who could knock out five orders in the time it took me to make up my mind what flavor I wanted. It's not that my ex was uber competent, and this young woman wasn't. I'm sure this young woman was every bit as skilled as my ex, I got the impression that the systems were now so complex they had the potential to bog things down. And for what? So that corporate HQ can know exactly how many scoops of each flavor was ordered on any given day? Supply chain management? If it makes me wait more than a minute for the cashier to punch it in, I think there's a problem.
Back to the salad, and it took more than five minutes, and three employees trying the same ineffective CPR method on the two registers, before they finally gave up and calculated by pen and paper my order. This was a special salad, not on the regular menu, which meant they had to figure out the price through some arcane means. (There wasn't a sign to be found with the price on the counter.) They had to manually figure out the tax. While they could open the cash drawer with a key, they had to ask me if the change was correct. Which it wasn't. And that's another problem with an over reliance on the machines to tell us all what to do. The transaction wasn't beyond their capabilities. But their ability to interact with small amounts of money had atrophied through lack of use. Many registers these days automatically spit out the coins, so a cashier only handles the bills. And I know, that for the most part, these are jobs that are filled by high school, and college kids, and that this is neither their career path, nor dream job. So I understand why the corporations make the registers the way they do. That layer of control, that machine with buttons that say "Burger" "Fries" "Soda" "Ginormasize it" are there to make the life of the managers, and trainers easier. Because kids come and go by the month at these jobs. But the training, and the system, fail when they don't prepare the employees for the moments when that technology isn't functional. In both the above cases, they were lucky. I was by myself, no child hanging on to get antsy or throw a fit. No lines backing up while they tried to sort things out. I've worked in fast food service, so I don't give them a hard time. But I still sigh, and wonder just how much we fail ourselves, and our future, by failing to prepare them better in those first, early jobs of their lives.
Which is why having old school methods, like candles, is important. It's why once I've finished working on a story draft, I'll print out a copy, and store it in my file cabinet, even as I back it up to memory stick, and external disks. It might seem preposterous. But it's a habit I picked up in high school. And I still have access to many of the things I wrote back on my TRS80, C64, or Amiga. It doesn't matter if I had the orignal media or not, none of those are compatible with modern computers. Nor were they highly compatible with each other, and so as I went from one system to the next, I learned to retype in that work that I cared enough about to continue working on. Who knows at what point in the future my current files become obsolete. One truth I know, is technology changes faster than you anticipate, and in ways that are hard to anticipate. But a printed page can always be retyped into a new system.
And that brings me to the observation that kicked this off. I was in a local chain eatery, had ordered my food, and stepped up to the register. The young woman punched in the order on her little screen, and then got a worried look on her face. Then she started tapping the screen repeatedly. The look turned into a frustrated frown. The register had frozen. The screen she scowled at and kept jabbing with her forefinger was for all intents and purposes a paper weight. Out from a door, came another young woman, who came over to help. She stepped in front of the register, and poked, and prodded, and jabbed the screen in nearly the same manner. It reminded me of that old saying, that craziness is doing the same thing over, and over again expecting different results. We all get a little crazy I think from time to time, in these situations. I wondered out loud if they could reboot it. Or just power it off and back on. A third employee stepped out, and tried to log in to the other register. But by the quick, rapid jabbing of that screen, I could tell that the problem wasn't localized.
And it hit me as I watched them: an old fashioned mechanical cash register wouldn't run into this problem. Then I wondered, to whose advantage was it that registers are all complex computers these days? I guess it makes the training easier. Just punch the button with the item name or picture. Easier for the employee; no prices to learn and memorize. Yet even in working order, they aren't flawless. A few weeks back, I'd stopped in at the local Friendly's to buy a sundae to share with my wife. After ordering the sundae, the waitress spent a good ten minutes poking away at the register trying to get my order in, before finally getting the manager to help. It was a far cry from the days of my first girlfriend (who's first job was as a waitress at a Friendly's) who could knock out five orders in the time it took me to make up my mind what flavor I wanted. It's not that my ex was uber competent, and this young woman wasn't. I'm sure this young woman was every bit as skilled as my ex, I got the impression that the systems were now so complex they had the potential to bog things down. And for what? So that corporate HQ can know exactly how many scoops of each flavor was ordered on any given day? Supply chain management? If it makes me wait more than a minute for the cashier to punch it in, I think there's a problem.
Back to the salad, and it took more than five minutes, and three employees trying the same ineffective CPR method on the two registers, before they finally gave up and calculated by pen and paper my order. This was a special salad, not on the regular menu, which meant they had to figure out the price through some arcane means. (There wasn't a sign to be found with the price on the counter.) They had to manually figure out the tax. While they could open the cash drawer with a key, they had to ask me if the change was correct. Which it wasn't. And that's another problem with an over reliance on the machines to tell us all what to do. The transaction wasn't beyond their capabilities. But their ability to interact with small amounts of money had atrophied through lack of use. Many registers these days automatically spit out the coins, so a cashier only handles the bills. And I know, that for the most part, these are jobs that are filled by high school, and college kids, and that this is neither their career path, nor dream job. So I understand why the corporations make the registers the way they do. That layer of control, that machine with buttons that say "Burger" "Fries" "Soda" "Ginormasize it" are there to make the life of the managers, and trainers easier. Because kids come and go by the month at these jobs. But the training, and the system, fail when they don't prepare the employees for the moments when that technology isn't functional. In both the above cases, they were lucky. I was by myself, no child hanging on to get antsy or throw a fit. No lines backing up while they tried to sort things out. I've worked in fast food service, so I don't give them a hard time. But I still sigh, and wonder just how much we fail ourselves, and our future, by failing to prepare them better in those first, early jobs of their lives.
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From:
Kids today...
My dad always goes on, at length, about how kids can't make change without a fancy, new register that tells them what they need to do. Of course, he worked in his parent's hardware store as a teenager, around the time of WWII, and used to do all the math on a receipt pad! But, that's how I learned to count money, from Dad. And, I still can make change on the fly.
Now, I'll get off your lawn, old man! ;)
From:
The same at work
Oh, except those folks who've been here forever, who turn to their typewriter and keep moving freight.
We've got offices where that's preserved and people know how to do things manually. And others where it it's the computer or nothing.