Editorial

Citation

Heap, J. (1999), "Editorial", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948daa.001

Editorial

How is your nerve holding up? Have you started to stockpile essential supplies for next January - in case the fabric of society does fall apart?

Of course, if I ask your organisations whether they have been running a year 2000 project - and whether they have completed it satisfactorily - I know the answer I'll get. I also know that the answers ("Yes" and "Yes") probably are true for large organisations. Of course I also know - based on the evidence of the project I have been running - that things are never simple. We have all been writing to each other asking whether the goods and services we all supply are Year 2000 compliant. We usually get an imperfect reply and we try and clarify. In the end we go with the likelihood that what we are told is true, and it probably is. After all most of the products and services we use are not date-dependent at all.

The real issue, and certainly all the publicity, has centred on computers. However in most cases there is little problem with hardware. It is software - and data - that is likely to prove the problem. All those files that we have created with two digit dates are coming back to haunt us. Still I suspect we'll muddle through with a few minor glitches and inconveniences.

It is the smaller firms that are hoping it will all go away that pose a greater problem. They almost certainly have not had a systematic approach to addressing the Year 2000 issue. So their goods and services - both in and out - may cause some problems.

Even so, I've never quite understood the doom and gloom merchants whose contingency plans consist of a few tins of corned beef and several boxes of candles. Of course they could be right and the millennium bug might cause chaos and confusion. However, my message to my contacts (and my family) over the last few months has been that, in the event of there being a real Year 2000 crisis, the lack of a few foodstuffs might be the least of our worries.

The Eastern block has a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons and nuclear power installations that are much more a risk to society than the non-appearance of my marmalade at breakfast. Even the Americans (who are often pretty good at burying their heads in the sand) recognised this and have put some effort into helping the Russians establish a Year 2000 project. This, almost certainly, was too little, too late and we have to hope that the original fail-safe systems do exactly that.

So, if in January 2000 I am slightly annoyed by a few disruptive failures, I shall breathe a sigh of relief.

And if I've made you think that it's about time you gave some serious thought to the issue - remember, it's almost certainly already too late!

John Heap