Filing System
posted at 12:01 pm
on Jul. 16, 2003
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I called recently to access some records at a local government office. I asked them if they could look up some records for me. The conversation went something like this.
“Hi there. Can you look up the current records for Travis Smith?”
“Sorry sir, we can’t look up anything right now. Our computer system is down.”
“Oh, really? When do you expect it to be back up?”
“Sir, do you own a computer?”
“I see your point.”
“We used to have filing cabinets. We’d put everything in the cabinets and when people called, we’d put the phone down and go open the filing cabinet and pull out the file and walk back to the phone and say ‘Sir, are you still there?’ and give them the details. That was a pretty good system.”
“So I should call back later, then?”
“I could put the phone down and when the computer starts working again, I could pick it up and say, ‘Sir, are you still there?’ But you could call back later also.”
“OK, thanks.”
