Corporate Intranet

Recently, I sat in a meeting that included members of the senior executives of an organization and the members of the administrative staff. The purpose of the meeting was for an administrative power to the results of a research project she had been assigned there. The research was fruitful, and the staff had to review a long list of resources for the manager to identify.

After sincerely thank yous, came the questions:

"Can you tap on the links and send it to me inE-mail? "one executive asked.

I said nothing, but wondered why the Microsoft Word document with embedded links will not be enough. I also asked why the executive would not do what I could with information from the document, which was passed - select a source of interest and Google.

For many years, I took the oft-repeated generation of "defense" at face value. Finally, I am a cusp baby, a Gen-Xer: The year I entered Stanford was the first year that the Macintosh computer weremade available to all students in the library. My name is the typewriter Good Riddance without remorse, but if the people sympathized ten or twenty years older than I said confusion about the computer technology.

Two observations have eroded my sympathy. At first, I was forced to accelerate in a variety of applications that do not exist when I was younger. I learned about basic HTML coding, wikis and blogs in the context of employment. Secondly, I have achieved a number of young graduates in high-levelPositions (especially in the nonprofit world) that are confused by digital tasks as simple as creating a MySpace page.

What gives? My hypothesis is that the technology threatens to eradicate one of the cornerstones of social benefits hierarchical workplaces: the right to perform other command drudgery.

As a freshly female college graduate in 1988 I did what many other women, as if he was not in a position to type. To add an entry skill, I feared, was to be banished toClerical duties in the workplace, where computers did not have it on the desk of every professional and Manager. Now that is basic computer skills - especially via e-mail has become - a necessity for workers promoted the boundary has moved. All types now. However, in an environment that is not specifically technical, lack of familiarity with the computer becomes a status symbol.

Agencies navigating the alleged boomers, Gen-X Gen-Y trenches: Raise the bar on the technology. There isreally no excuse to relieve the situation, senior-level workers and recent graduates of the tasks such as Google searches, and resize images into documents, or refuse to use the intranet. This was is a lot to do in order to increase the sense of equity.