I have never seen so much paperwork in my life, and the industry i am in (retail/trade side of cars and trucks) has always been a paperwork trail, for damn near everything.

I remember in the late 80's early 90's how we all thought in The Future ™ that paperwork would be a thing of the past.No, incorrect, just like those air highways full of cars. Now, as an added bonus we get to scan it to the pc as a backup ..and still keep the original, presumably for backup backup. As humans we just lurve our paperwork, emails, texts etc and everything saved so you can cover your ass if need be .Insanity arggggh get me away from this stuff!

What happened to the real future ?

You mean the one that, with work being automated, the main problem would be filling our leisure time?

I guess it depends on industry.

Compared to my previous job, this new one here is pretty much totally digital. All forms are electronic, all work is managed by a central ticketing system where forms are stored with the requests. Even purchase orders for large expensive equipment are mailed and confirmed by mail.

Well, I don't know about today, 2012, but some years ago computers actually INCREASED the usage of paper. The reason for this is that people can make more copies and print more data easier than before, so they "over print" things they don't really need, but since they don't have to write the information on their own...

The last place i worked at ,2004-2009, we had to dedicate a complete mezzanine level to old paperwork.Terrible.Print out a quote, print out picking slips, goods recieved inwards, outwards, ohs forms, checking trucks in and out, pre delivery paperwork in triplicate..and on and on.Insanity.

i work at a publisher,and here we are already focusing on transitioning for all digital, in my mind,the advent of ipad like computers are a bless for students when they lower the price,no more shuffing 50 kgs of books in the backpack to school, digital teacher table,

If you want to know what happened to the real future, you'll have to fill out a form in triplicate. To get the form, you'll need to submit a supply request. In triplicate of course.

Cheers!

Rick...

Yea I remember the sales pitch, "Computers will cut the use of paper down to almost zero, with the use of digital storage"....I bet the trees were shaking in their roots when the 'pooter came out lol.

We get the forms in quadruplicate here, there is an extra copy because the tax man wants his cut too

We have new computer systems, but because they are on the cheap and do not actually work as they should, we have to generate a paper back up copy as well. So, twice the work, marvelous.