I Really Like Zoom, But....

 First off, yes, I do like Zoom and with the inability to travel it allows me the opportunity to get a lot of work done, literally all over the world.

Having said that, I can say that in the Stone Age [Pre-COVID], I would never have, for example, four meetings in one day, back to back or even overlapping and be expected to attend them all.  For days on end!  There would be time for a comfort break, a coffee stop, a chance to catch up on email, possibly even just take a few minutes to myself.

I get it, technology makes us more productive and that is very good.  I was thinking just the other day when, as a young lawyer, there was no fax machine.  A letter sent across the country gave you several days for it to get there, the other side worked on it and sent it back giving you several more days to get other things done.  Then came the Fax Machine, that glorious invention that spat out stretched lines of dubious ink printed on waxy paper loaded in rolls.  You could never really flatten that paper out and you had to be an expert in hieroglyphics at times to interpret the words, but it certainly shortened the time frame to work a project.

Next came crude Instant Messaging and when that little nugget hit your computer you had to stop whatever you were doing to read it...because the boss was walking down the hall to see if you got the IM!  Quickly following was the advent of email...and then attachments!  Gone were the days of a week to send a contract, have it looked at and mailed back, then more time to review it.  With the press of a button, Presto!  The document was on your desk and the boss was wondering if you had started reviewing it yet.  The time frame shortened but we were becoming more productive. 

And this loops me back to zoom.  I do like it. I'm doing things easily now that weren't done before and they are accepted as normal.  I can be in meetings all over the world and never leave my desk for hours on end.  From a business productivity standpoint it can't be beaten!

But, there are moments when I yearn for that time when I could put my feet up for a few minutes and wonder when that contract was coming back from California.....