What Was Work Like Before Email? Submit a Story

We can talk all day about exciting “new ways of working.” But are there things you miss about your workaday past? We want to hear your story.

You’re a little bit nostalgic for the days when a Rolodex was a workplace reality, right? The tip-tip of your typewriter, cigarette smoke purling toward the stained ceiling tiles? For the younger set, it’s the way you were able to focus — even just a few years ago — pre-Instagram, when your boss’s no-checking-your-phone policy still had some traction. I for one can’t stop wondering what work was like before email.

The point is, you don’t actually want to go back to all that, but maybe there was something better about the “old” workplace — whether it was forty years ago or just last summer — and the kind of work you were able to generate because of it.

If you have a tale about old ways of working to share for our new “Nostalgia” column, we want to hear it! Please send your story to [email protected] with the subject line “Nostalgia story submission.” We’ll publish our favorites on the site and in forthcoming newsletters.