Didn't You Get the Memo?

Charles

Emails, memos, employee publications, a message from the Chief...all these things come into your cube  daily. Reading them is always important, of course, because you get the information you need to act responsibly. But the chat by the water cooler  is about how hard it is to get anything done when we have so many instructions.

Not all memos are bland, however. Sometimes they give us good information, while other times they lay down the law (finally doing something about that new guy near the window!). And if they're kept in the permanent records, a Historian can analyze the contents and maybe blog about them when the world is ready.

In the post-war era, as I discussed last summer, Wells Fargo's Public Relations office circulated memos that offered insights for workers to consider. The gist was to be positive, and positive things would follow. Over the years, other groups and executives sent memos about other things as well, and I found some in the Archives.

Most of them, as you'd expect, are the standard fare — make sure your TPS Reports  are in on time and don't staple the pages, please make sure you wear a blue hat on Thursday for the new campaign...you know, work stuff. But some are celebratory and salute the human need for good food at a good price. And some are downright forceful, stopping those among us who would ruin things for everybody .

But the memos present a snapshot of time that's real and everyday. Charges for telephone calls were a real issue once, before package deals and cell phones (like texting  is now).

So as I go through the fine points of the past, like memos, as I go through the big stuff, like contracts, I get a solid look at the everyday means of how people did business, as much as the everyday ends of that business. I get a real glimpse of how history unfolds — one person at a time or one day at a time.

And one hot lunch at a time.