Does anyone really use a Dictaphone anymore? I seriously just looked at a job posting at an unnamed organization and one of the required skills is Dictaphone.
In all my years of admin work, temping, and general around-offices-ness, I have not had to touch a Dictaphone.
Dude, send your secretary an email with bullet points. She knows how to write the letter. If she doesn't, you need a new secretary.
I was chatting online with Dave (who will be here in less than two weeks! hurrah!), and we were talking about the old test prep days, when we worked at rival companies (I was at TPR, he was at the Evil Empire, as it was known in my office). I remembered my least favorite item of office equipment - the Scantron.
That thing jammed more than strawberries. More than Phish!
And was about as archaic as a Dictaphone. Which is why they're giving some tests by computer (by the way, it is so much better, I don't care how scary you might find it, get over it, computers are here, they're queer, get used to it). When schools find their way into the 21st century, the SAT will go that way too, I'm convinced. For now, though, there are just too many kids and not enough machines.
They've changed the test, I see. Some more. Last I heard they'd just eliminated analogies. Those were the best part! Vocabulary! Vocabulary!
OK, I'm done. Dictaphone. Hmph.
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The Redhead is back from a long hiatus. You may contact her at wkoslow at most major free email services. I'm not kidding.
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Dictaphone my butt
Comments
Actuallyl, my butt loves Dictaphone...seriously!
by
Anonymous
on Fri 21 Jul 2006 06:02 PM EDT | Permanent Link
I feel I can speak to this because I use Dictaphone every day, sometimes several times a day (in the summers, I work on contract for the govt. and this year, I'm working as a executive assistant to a lawyer)
I was chatting with my coworkers about this very subject (they also use Dictaphone extensively) and we agreed that it's a generational thing. As more and more people of the 'computer generation' start moving up in the heirarchy, Dictaphone will die. But for now, it's alive and kicking. And may I say something in defence (nay, praise!) of the humble Dictaphone? It's soooooooooo much easier to type up a letter from a tape than to read my boss's handwriting. I can spend an hour trying to decipher handwriting, or listen to the Dicta and get the letter done in minutes. In regards to your comment about an administrative assistant 'being able to write a letter,' it's frequently more complex than just putting some bullet points together. Often, correspondence contains technical terms and/or (particularly in my case) legal nuances that an assistant might not have the expertise to compose. I'm a bright girl; I have a graduate degree. But I'm not a lawyer (and my boss is) so I'm happy to have him spoon-feed me the legalese via Dictaphone. It's easier for both of us and I'm grateful for the technology, antiquated as it may be. Viva la Dictaphone, baby! Re: Actuallyl, my butt loves Dictaphone...seriously!
by
The Redhead
on Mon 24 Jul 2006 12:05 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
First of all, not every secretary is an administrative assistant and vice versa. There are still secretaries out there.
I worked for a lawyer and I have to say, I'd still rather work from bullet points. I'd never send out a piece of correspondence without showing it to my boss, of course. But I'm still sticking with the 21st century argument. Email's going to work 1000 times better, particularly because the originator can look at what he wrote and not have to rewind, replay, etc etc. which he probably won't do. The likelihood of having to rewrite the whole thing is lessened. Re: Dictaphone my butt
by
Zoey Castelino
on Sat 22 Jul 2006 04:05 PM EDT | Permanent Link
I think some court reporters still use Dictaphones these days, but I could be wrong. (I haven't had to go to court, so I couldn't tell you from a first hand experience.) I can see how they are useful, but I could never see myself using one - and I work in a field where I'm always taking notes!
Re: Dictaphone my butt
by
Anonymous
on Wed 26 Jul 2006 03:06 PM EDT | Permanent Link
there are a LOT of law professors who still use dictaphone. or, more frequently, just leave a series of long rambling messages for their assistants on voicemail, which the assistant then has to type up, and the boss then totally revises anyway, so it's a matter of being too lazy to write their own first draft IMHO.
then again, there are also several law profs i know of who don't yet know how to use email. when one is tenured and venerated one doesn't have to keep up with the times. at all. -eg (and sorry i missed you this weekend :( ) Re: Re: Dictaphone my butt
by
The Redhead
on Wed 26 Jul 2006 04:49 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
That is just sad.
Re: Dictaphone my butt
by
Mary Wisner
on Sun 20 Aug 2006 09:58 AM EDT | Permanent Link
I am a huge "dictaphone" fan. I do technical and high-tech marketing writing as a full-time telecommuter. So I do a lot of phone interviews.
For the marketing writing, I tape phone interviews with customers for case studies and feature articles. I then transcribe the tapes using my dictaphone. Doing this instead of taking notes allows me to focus on asking questions and I can crank out an article or a case study in a day, even including the interview and transcription. This also allows me to get customer quotes just right -- if the customer balks at a quote I put in someting, I can show them the transcript. In a nice way, of course. The bottom line is that anytime you want to quote someone exactly, transcription is the best way to go. I do the same thing when interviewing programmers about software and hardware. Sometimes I just listen to the tapes, and sometimes I transcribe them with the dictaphone. It just depends on how complex the material is and how well spoken the programmer is (which is usually not very). Today, I'm going to be just listening to the interviews again. So I won't really be transcribing I worked at law firms in the mid 70's, and we still used dictaphones then. But we also didn't have PC's. But I know my old lawyer boss doesn't use a dictaphone anymore. He does his own typing. My Panasonic transcriber that I bought at Good Will 6 years ago for $7.99 just died, and I had to go out Friday night and buy a new one. Office Max, Office Depot, Radio Shack, and Staples all carry them online, but Staples was the only one who carried it in the store. Fortunately, Stapes does price matching and I got it for the $199 Radio Shack price. Ouch. I wish someone would come up with a PC version of a dictaphone -- a foot pedal control -- so I could use a digital recorder to record my phone calls instead of the little remote control Radio Shack cassette recorder I use. Maybe there is such a thing? Trackbacks
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