Washington Business Spring 2017 | Washington Business | Page 37

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I’m the first born of an immigrant family, so I have a very
different work ethic — a good work ethic is important in
any career you choose. If anything, it’s definitely true that
we’re hardworking and willing to be patient to succeed.
— Cynthia Leon, Gen X
present, but I hate the fact that it can also make you less present
depending on how you choose to interact with it.
austin neilson: The big thing that I’ve noticed in my work is that
the traditional work week, your 9 to 5, 40 hours at the office, has
really changed. I think that with technology working mobile is a lot
easier. In my case — to work from home and still be productive. It
might not be the best thing, folks should always unplug. But, there is
always that extra drive, that when I see something there and get the
idea that can help my career, the regional chamber, or our goals in
the Tri-Cities, that I am able to tap into that right away and not let
it drop off my mind. I think you’ll see in my case and a lot of other
millennials that it’s really 50-60 hours a week that is spread out to
many different places and times during the day.
barry hullett: The increased use of computers, email, cell
phones has had a big impact on my job over the years. It’s made
it more efficient. I embrace the new technology, even if it’s now
difficult to get disconnected from work.
My feeling is that the increased use of data and automation will
continue at an accelerated rate. The good part of that is that it’s
going to make industrial jobs safer and less manual. But this future
will potentially be at the expense of some of the manufacturing jobs
we’re trying to preserve.
Machines will be doing a lot of work. I’m seeing it. Robotics, self-
guided vehicles are now becoming affordable and commonplace in
industry. I think it’s a good future, but it has some risk.
brian forth: For me, technology has just been a tool. It’s been
something to help solve problems. For my company, we build a
website to solve a company’s problem, whether it’s to get more
customers or streamline their process. But, technology to me has
never been an end in and of itself, it’s really a means to an end.
When I was teaching, we used to always joke because there was
a computer in the classroom, that it was a computer class. To
me, a computer is the same thing as a pencil. We have to think of
technology as the tool.
jack lamb: The website is absolutely huge, social media also plays
a large role. These are things that, being a millennial, I have a better
understanding and adapt quicker than previous generations. Shoot,
I was there to see the whole thing grow up. I’ve seen what works
and what doesn’t work. Because of that I think we have created
such a solid following and our message has been transparent.
That’s where I think we have used technology best. Telling the
story. Through technology, in-house marketing and the website,
I haven’t paid a penny in marketing other than
advertising on the radio. That’s because we use
these free social media bases that are technology
driven.
wayne j. martin: Technology, wow. I recall
when I first came into the job in 1978 and early
‘80s. Computers weren’t that big a thing. We had
to do a lot of writing. We used to have one secretary for every five
scientists. You had to write your papers, give it to the secretary,
they typed them, they gave them back, and this circular thing kept
going until you got to a final draft. Moving from the age of that to
when typewriters got more sophisticated and there were correcting
elements to it and we started typing our own, the ratio of typists to
scientists got to about one to 10.
I watched the evolution until we had one secretary for 40 or 45
scientists. It was better to do your own typing. That change made
a huge change in the volume of manuscripts that got produced. It
had a huge impact on the science industry, both as a scientist and a
manager.
The second technology change is just communication. Cell
phones, the internet. The internet is not a great thing for science, in
that anybody can put anything they want on the internet: personal
opinion, fake science. There’s a tendency for the younger kids —
we had a lot of interns — to misconstrue or misuse information
from the internet instead of going through your standard citations
and going out and getting published articles that have good solid
reference lists.
cynthia leon: I’m on that cusp where I still had a typewriter, so
unlike most millennials, I had to work with a typewriter. I didn’t get
a computer until I was a senior in high school and I didn’t get an
email account until I was in college. I know what it’s like to have to
find a fax machine to get something sent to somebody. Talk about a
huge difference from the fax machine to your iPhone being able to
capture something immediately. I appreciate a lot of the technology
we have because I’m pre-technology. I didn’t even have a cell phone
until after I graduated from college. I actually used payphones. I still
love letter writing. Because I have family in Mexico, I wrote letters
to them. To this day, I still love getting mail because it is such an old
tradition. Letter writing, to me, is one of those things a millennial
will never appreciate.
virginia valdez: I think technology has been a blessing. In my job,
we are still in the process of converting some of the older technology
to the newer. It has been interesting to see how that’s been handled.
I’ve been here two years, and the people who have been here longer
than me, it’s even more of a struggle for them because they’ve been
here for a decade or more, they are used to doing things the way that
they have always done it. With change, it can be challengi ng and
scary, at first, especially to veterans who have been here and have
always done it that way. To let go and let change happen, because it’s
a natural thing that happens with time, is really crucial.
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