Ever since the early days of the office computer,people have been predicting the rise of the paperless office.
They were wrong. In fact, the amount of paper printed out in American offices has increased every year since the 1980s -- until 2009.
In 2009, the amount of paper used in businesses in the U.S. finally decreased for the first time since modern offices began. A slight drop was visible at the end of 2008, but 2009 brought a striking 10% drop in the number of pages printed out in American offices.
Some researchers suggest that the economy may be part of the reason. Fewer workers to print papers, fewer contracts being signed, and less work being done might be causing less paper use. Manufacturers of printers and ink certainly hope so. Their dismal reports for hardcopy use generally include a hope that things will turn around in 2011.
But mail delivery peaked in 2006 and has been sinking every since.
And this brings us to another likely explanation for the drop in hardcopies in offices: we just don't need as much paper any more.
In addition to the undoubted desire to cut costs, researchers list three other workplace changes that can explain this phenomenon:
- Concern for the environment. The environmental impact of reducing paper use is enormous, and more of us are conscious of the need to do so. A couple of decades ago, it was natural to many people to print out emails and file them, or to make hard copies of papers to share. Now, we're likely to feel wasteful if we do that, and we only print out copies when they're really needed.
- With the rise of web firms and web professionals, we no longer just post paper documents up on the internet. Now, web content is designed to be read online, not to be printed out and read from paper. Look at your SmartPay screen -- it's friendly and easy, and you have no reason to want to go back to the confusing paper bills of the past.
- The "digital natives" -- people born after 1980 -- are in the offices now. Those of us who grew up with the internet don't worry so much about losing information, and don't find that paper feels more natural.
The paperless office is still in the future, if it's on its way at all. We still printed out thousands of sheets of paper documents this year for every working person in the country. But a 10% drop in a single year is impressive. Let's see if we can't improve on that in 2010.