The 1970s and early 1980s were a time of transition for typewriters and word processors. At one point in time, most small-business offices would be completely "old-style", while large corporations and government departments would already be "new-style"; other offices would have a mixture. The pace of change was so rapid that it was common for clerical staff to have to learn several new systems, one after the other, in just a few years. While such rapid change is commonplace today, and is taken for granted, this was not always so; in fact, typewriting technology changed very little in its first 80 or 90 years.