In five years, get ready to explain to the new office intern that at one time, you had to use something called a “Rolodex” to keep track of all your business contacts. “A what?” they’ll probably ask. “Isn’t there an app for that?”
And don’t even try mentioning the words “fax machine” to them.
These are just two of the 10 office items that will be a distant memory by 2017, according to a “Office Endangered Species” study released yesterday by LinkedIn that surveyed more than 7,0000 professionals worldwide.
With new technology like tablets, cloud storage, and smartphones becoming standard, the old days of clunky, hard-to-use devices are long gone. “It’s no surprise to see the Rolodex gathering dust as the pace of technological innovation rapidly makes many workplace practices and tools redundant,” said LinkedIn’s connection director, Nicole Williams, in a press release.
But with the speed that technology changes today, even that iPhone 5 could be considered cumbersome to the new crop of young workers in a few years. When asked what their dream office tools would be in the future, workers in the survey envisioned having a robot or clone assistant to help them with their daily chores, an office with natural sunlight and a quiet place to take a nap, and 19 percent hoped for a mute button to drown out their fellow coworkers.
Click here to see the 10 office trends going the way of the VHS tape. (To those under age 20: We used to need them to watch movies at home… don’t ask.)
