The pie charts compare various activities based on their popularity in the office in the US between 1980 and 2000. Data is presented in percentages.
Overall, a great deal of time was used for phones in 1980, with paper documents lagging behind, while it was computers that were used most in the year 2000. Of particular note is email, which was not utilized in the first period.
In 1980, the usage of phones in US offices was one in three compared to paper documents at 20%. This was followed by time allocated for meeting at 19% of total time, a proportion slightly higher than that of other activities and face-to-face communication, at 15% and 14%, respectively. Finally, computers stood out as the least used activity in offices in the US (negligible 2%).
After two decades, US employees in offices shifted their attention towards technology, with 30% of time utilized for computers and 17% of it allotted for phones. Interestingly, the percentage of time utilized for face-to-face communication and other activities had remained the same since 1980. Taking advantage of emails in the office made up 8% of total time in comparison with meetings accounting for 6%.