# Old/outdated technologies you still use at work **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030 "2023-03-11T15:37:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/21 "2023-03-12T08:23:59Z")
The grocery store chain I work for still uses IBM OS/400 for almost all of our computing needs, including bookkeeping, scheduling, financial services recordkeeping, check processing, inventory management, tracking employee performance and attendance, product recalls, and placing orders. Up until 2021 we were also using it as the time clock, and up until a few years before that we used it to manage our 401k and ESOP accounts. Best as I can tell, we adopted it sometime in the early '90s when they first started putting computers in the stores and we haven’t bothered upgrading since then. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/22 "2023-03-12T08:26:14Z")
Work? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/23 "2023-03-12T09:10:23Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So while one can understand why a business might use paper to communicate with elderly clients who are not current with modern technologies (“Old Fogies”) other use within a modern business is surely incomprehensible! Is it? The financial organisations I do business with, as well as HMRC, all choose to communicate in part by snail mail. With my bank etc, it’s how they send important security information like my PIN. Although I can change it via their website after logging in, I have to know the current number. If I forget it, they make me phone them and go through some ID hoops, before sending a new one to my home. HMRC have only recently decided to communicate by email. They wrote to me asking if I agreed to this, but even then, sensitive information will still be on paper. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/24 "2023-03-12T16:59:30Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I work in finance (well, insurance, but we have the same data issues as other financial sectors) and that’s why the thumb drive needs to be encrypted. We do sometimes have a need to move files, and this is the compromise. From my observations, it seems like that’s less of a concern at insurance companies than investment banks. Probably because investment firms need to be worried about insider information, proprietary trading algorithms and whatnots. In many cases where I’ve worked, the USB ports have been completely disabled (at least for everything except keyboards and mice). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/25 "2023-03-12T17:59:35Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > So what to do? Well, for the last 15 years or so we have been using **CD-ROMs**. No you haven’t. You’ve been using CD-Rs, or CD+Rs, or possibly CD-RWs or CD+RWs, but you definitely haven’t been using CD-ROMs. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/26 "2023-03-12T18:05:07Z")
Yes, I believe you’re correct. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/27 "2023-03-12T18:25:11Z")
I dunno, we have proprietary algorithms, proprietary data, and lots and lots of data that’s federally protected, and that we’d get in trouble for leaking. (Name, address, SSN, medical diagnosis, birthdate, etc.) The USB port won’t work unless the drive is password protected, it’s not as if they are relying on employees to follow that rule. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/28 "2023-03-12T23:17:14Z")
Do a chisel, hand saw, a tape measure, and sandpaper count? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2023, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/29 "2023-03-12T23:51:55Z")
Well… I wouldn’t say they’re outdated in the sense of obsolete, but they are definitely old. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/30 "2023-03-13T15:13:49Z")
I still use a Rolodex. It’s much faster for me to flip that around and find a phone number, address or password. When they were still being printed, I preferred a phone book to any other method of looking up an unknown phone number or address. I still have to manually total up our employees time cards. I use a wall calendar for important dates although I also enter them into my phone. But it’s easier to just take a quick glance at the calendar hanging next to me on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/31 "2023-03-14T16:28:38Z")
I work for a major defense contractor in as an engineer. I have a company-issued 1980’s-style pager, as do most of my colleagues. We do lots of classified work, so our office is a patchwork of rooms and areas in which (among many other things) cell phones are not permitted. Tracking down someone who supports multiple programs can be very difficult, as they could be in any of a handful of spaces at any given moment. The solution? Receive-only pagers, which _are_ allowed in these areas. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/32 "2023-03-14T16:42:47Z")
My company used an AS-400 until about a year ago. We still use paper timesheets, handwritten paper timesheets for hundreds of employees every single day. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030/33 "2023-03-14T16:53:19Z")
Our training rooms have electronic locks. No one likes them, so they always use a key. The keys themselves? They are hung up in a cabinet, which needs an electronic key. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-outdated-technologies-you-still-use-at-work/981030.md?page=1)