I got to live the "good old days" today. And well, it wasn't great, but we made it!
Our computers were down at work today. You would have thought the Tribulation was already upon us by the chaos that ensued. For those of you that don't know, I'm working as a bank teller. And as you can probably assume, the ENTIRE banking industry is run via the internet nowadays (what isn't?).
I arrived to one of my coworkers (who tends to be a little high-strung anyway) in full fledge panic: "You'll never guess what is wrong today! The computers are down! We have to do everything the old fashioned way!"
Now, I'm pretty comfortable with a calculator and a piece of paper, so I mildly replied, "Really?"
"REALLY! I don't think we'll make it!"
Her panic was unnecessary. And to be honest, although it was certainly not easy, I think our work turned out at least as well if not better than usual because we did have to be so much more careful. It took us longer to process things (since we were doing them by hand), but it was far from a catastrophy. Meticulous care while scribbling notes on literally 4-5 different pieces of paper leads to a balanced drawer at the end of the day. Not so much as an extra penny left our door; nor did we short anyone. And, we got to practice those rusty math skills!
I have a lot of respect for those bankers who came before me, with their dirty fingers and ledger books. And I'm encouraged to realize I DO still know how to do a whole lot more than hit buttons on a calculator (yay mental math). However, I think I'm going to leave the "good old days" behind -- at least at work. Hopefully the computers will be back up tomorrow!
2 comments:
It's scary how some people seem unable to imagine functioning without technology. I used to work in a laboratory in a hospital. When our computers went down, it was a pretty bad problem. The machines that did the tests needed the computer to tell them what to do. We had doctors waiting on results on critically ill patients and we couldn't do the tests. It made me wonder why they pinned all their hopes on the computers and didn't at least have a backup plan.
Emily, I am glad we have a backup plan where I work. And here it is, Wednesday, and we're still "paper banking." The new server won't be up for a couple more days. I can't imagine a hospital not having some kind of SOMETHING to go on! That's ridiculous!
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