"Up until the 21st century, people sat side-by-side or back-to-back as telemarketers, typists, word processors, file clerks, and more. Give or take a family photo, cubicles were designed to be a carbon copy of the next person’s work space where workers would complete the same (oftentimes) monotonous jobs. Even in some outdoor work, such as toll workers, one booth worker collected the same dollar bill as the next one. The only difference in their days were the cars that drove by.
Around the ‘80s, Corporate America’s advancement in technology and communication began to blossom. Cloud-computing software took on the duties of printouts in file cabinets. Email, texting, and social media took tasks away from the mailroom. Desktop computers with the Commodore 64 metamorphosed into notebooks, laptops, and tablets. And online faxing cleared real estate in the supply rooms away from 4- to 5-foot fax machines."
Source: https://www.saybrook.edu/unbound/the-obsolete-office/
