Newcomers to the world of business
take all the methods of communication
at our disposal for granted. Yet it is
only really in the past twenty years
that there has been such an increase
in the possibilities. You could be in the
rainforest of Papua New Guinea, but
someone could get you on a sat-phone.
You could be lying on a beach in Rio
between meetings when you get an
urgent message on your Blackberry®.
It’s virtually impossible to be out of
touch, yet anybody over the age of forty
can remember what it was like in the
‘olden days’. We talked to four people
about how changes in communications
technology have affected their lives.
Julia Donnelly has been recruiting
staff for an educational NGO for
thirty years.
When I first started everything was
done by mail or phone. Then when the
fax machine became available we had
to employ someone just to feed forms
into the machine. Although we deal
with applications online, it has led to
an enormous increase in the amount
of work. To be honest, it is no more
efficient now than thirty years ago.
Drusilla Havel works in an
advertising agency with offices in
London, New York, and Tokyo.
We have a teleconferencing system
where we sit in front of a camera in
our respective countries and speak
to colleagues in different parts of
the world. It can be a real headache
setting these up, particularly when
you’re dealing with so many time
zones. I never feel very comfortable
interacting with people this way, I feel
like a dummy in a shop window. We
also use conference calls. You know,
you ring a central number, tap in your
code, and you’re connected to the
speaker-phone. Personally, I think that
is even less successful as you can’t see
who’s speaking or tell what people are
thinking when they are silent.
International business veteran Jens
Holby believes there is no substitute
for meeting people face to face.
After 9/11 we cut down on air travel
by using videoconferencing, but it just
didn’t work. In the Middle East and
South America they insist on knowing
who they’re dealing with. ‘We need
hi-touch as well as hi-tech, I like to be
able to smell the other guy!’ These days
there’s just such a communications
overload. In the old days, when you
were away, you were away. Now
everybody expects you to take the
office with you. Every hotel has its hot
spot, so there’s no excuse not to check
your email. It’s especially tough when
you find yourself in a different time
zone. Nowadays I feel as though I am
on call 24/7. The only place I feel kind
of ‘safe’ is on the plane.
Realtor Felicia Gomez, who works
in Florida, complains about the
mobile phone.
I remember getting my first one over
twenty years ago. It was the size of
a brick, but I felt like the coolest girl
in town. But now I hate the thing, it’s
like a millstone round my neck. Some
clients use the mobile phone as a
kind of acid test to see how serious
you are. They want a number where
they think they can reach you night or
day. They wouldn’t even think twice
about pestering you on a Sunday. The
situation has gotten so ridiculous that
I have three cell phones. One is for the
office, another one is for clients, and
the last one is so private that only my
mom and kids have the number. Now
when clients ask for a mobile number,
I hesitate a heartbeat and then wink at
them before giving them the number
of my client cell phone number, as
though it is a big deal! It makes them
feel special even if all they get is my
voicemail.