The charts illustrate the priority of spending time on different activities in the office in the US in 1980 and 2000. Overall, computer-related activities are increasingly popular and have become the dominant activities, replacing the paper ones . Meanwhile, handling emails has become a new activity in people’s daily work routine.
In 1980, people mainly relied on phones, which accounted for one-third of their working time. Following phone activities, dealing with paper documents and meeting activities had similar statistics, around 19-20% time usage. Moreover, face-to-face communication and other activities constituted a similar proportion, at just 14% and 15% respectively. By contrast, only 2% of their time was spent on the computer.
Two decades later, computer activities have witnessed a significant growth, becoming the most priority activities of US officers, surging to 30%. Conversely, phoning and working on paper documents have recorded a rapid decline, only making up at least 10%. Surprisingly, dealing with emails, which was not recorded at all in 1980, accounted for 8% of people’s working time. Additionally, other activities and face-to-face ones were similarly stabilized at 14 and 15% respectively.