Day 22

Monday, September 22, 2025

Michigan Avenue

I came across a drawer full of files at work today. My boss asked me to shred them and while I was stacking them, I found a contract from October of 1998. It made me think about how offices must have been before everything was digital.

It’s hard to imagine that work was very difficult and I’m assuming that the “fast-paced work environment” for which companies so often want candidates to be prepared originated when information and communication became so much more accessible and faster. Sure, it must feel like so long ago that people faxed contracts and physically signed documents, but in reality, that contract I found was 27 years old and there are a good number of people at the hotel where I work who have been there for over 30. It really put into perspective how quickly the workplace has changed and how much is asked of older people in the workforce.