What was the norm when you started work

[harknesswitch]

Inspired by another thread, what things were the norm when you started work that would now be unbelievable.

When my Mum told her employer she was pregnant, in 1972, they sacked her

When I started work you could smoke at your desk and we were even given branded ashtrays

No email, everything was printed out by a work processor and filled in by hand. We had one of those personalised ink stamps to use which we signed so they knew who had filled in the form

Not being allowed to wear trousers to work. Having my own secretary as a graduate trainee who typed my letters from a dictaphone tape and did my filing. Also a night typing service that worked from 5 -10pm under a dragon of a supervisor.

Filling in my timesheet by hand for someone in the accounts department to input into a computer.

Writing out schedules by hand, adding up the totals and then getting the comptometer department to check my addition.

Faxing 50 page contracts overseas at midnight because we were working on a tight deal and you could guarantee that the fax machine would jam at about page 30 and you'd spend half an hour fixing it.

1970. I'd been in the job less than a week. My (male) boss told me it was inappropriate of me to wear a trouser suit to work (teacher). None of the other lady teachers wore trousers. It was unprecedented.

I replied very politely "You are wearing a suit with trousers".

He sighed and nodded. We both continued to wear trousers.

I joined one of the big accountancy forms in the mid-80's.

Suits were expected, at a push a few might not bother with a jacket if they were not meeting clients. Dark or skin tone tights (definitely no bare legs or sandals). I think trousers were permitted from about 94/5.

Most work areas were open plan and the chain smokers congregated under the air inlets. The aircon engineer was almost a permanent fixture in the office (as it rarely worked properly).

We could have a decent meal in the office canteen (breakfast and lunch). Pub lunches most days of the week were commonplace, as was drinks after work.

Couriers weren't really a thing. If something was important the office junior was sent out to so deliveries for the day in a taxi.

Aside from the occasional spreadsheet, I don't think I typed much until about 2000 (we all had typists/secretaries).

Affairs were "overlooked" but, as soon as one became "serious" one party would be expected to look for another job/be managed out.

Friday lunchtimes at the pub.

Christmas parties actually in the office.
In fact if anyone was leaving, had a big birthday, getting married, retiring it merited a lunchtime celebration in the pub. It was actually more inclusive than going out after work which could be awkward for some people.
Queuing up to use a crappy photocopier.

Worked in a food factory so no smoking on the factory floor but the toilets were packed to the rafters at break times with smokers. Heavily subsidised canteen, full English breakfast for 10p. 2 course lunch for 50p. Separate canteen for management. I’ll never forget the day I was given the key to that Canteen, I was so proud. The food in there was the same, but we had table service. Paid 10p a week to join the “welfare society “ which took us on regular day trips at weekends, and did a panto and Christmas party for the kids. Full drs surgery on site offering all routine care, including smear tests. There was a nurse on-site full time, and a dr came in once a week.

I don't work in an office, but starting out as a university lecturer I remember having to make OHP (overhead projector ) sheets - at first these were actually hand-written with special pen onto the OHP sheets, and then we started being able to make them in the photocopier machine which I thought was very fancy and high tech!

I also remember wooden pigeon holes for our post. And until quite recently, marking students' work in hard copy, with a carbon triplicate feedback form! Now it's all online marking.

People didn’t spend hours checking their emails, eBay, Instagram, Facebook etc. People got on with their work! There certainly wasn’t the pressure to reply to things now this minute , if you sent a letter it would take a day or so to arrive, then a day or so to be answered. And once you left work at the end of the day that was it for most people , no emails pinging away in your inbox. So yes, less pressure, we hadn’t heard of work life balance but most of us had it without knowing.

If you got an envelope with a green Urgent tag stapled to it that meant a response was needed within the next week. If you got one with a red Immediate tag a response was needed within the next couple of days.

People didn’t spend hours checking their emails, eBay, Instagram, Facebook etc. People got on with their work! There certainly wasn’t the pressure to reply to things now this minute , if you sent a letter it would take a day or so to arrive, then a day or so to be answered. And once you left work at the end of the day that was it for most people , no emails pinging away in your inbox. So yes, less pressure, we hadn’t heard of work life balance but most of us had it without knowing.

If you got an envelope with a green Urgent tag stapled to it that meant a response was needed within the next week. If you got one with a red Immediate tag a response was needed within the next couple of days.

People didn’t spend hours checking their emails, eBay, Instagram, Facebook etc. People got on with their work! There certainly wasn’t the pressure to reply to things now this minute , if you sent a letter it would take a day or so to arrive, then a day or so to be answered. And once you left work at the end of the day that was it for most people , no emails pinging away in your inbox. So yes, less pressure, we hadn’t heard of work life balance but most of us had it without knowing.

If you got an envelope with a green Urgent tag stapled to it that meant a response was needed within the next week. If you got one with a red Immediate tag a response was needed within the next couple of days.

Good luck these days saying that you’ll deal with something immediate ‘within the next couple of days’!

Whilst work is less fun now, and I miss lunchtimes in the pub, other things have improved.

Do we really want to go back to the days when promotion depended on how long you had worked there (PP upthread), or when a woman earning more than a man was regarded as contrary to the natural order of things (a different PP), or when we all did time-wasting admin tasks and/or spent ages hunting for lost hard copy files?

Or when you had to call slightly senior male colleagues ‘Mr’ and do whatever they said, even if it was stupid or pointless, because we had to know our places as young women?

Or when slacking was a way of life for certain colleagues, and nobody was ever called out on it? That”s how we ended up with the appraisal system, incidentally.

Good luck these days saying that you’ll deal with something immediate ‘within the next couple of days’!

Whilst work is less fun now, and I miss lunchtimes in the pub, other things have improved.

Do we really want to go back to the days when promotion depended on how long you had worked there (PP upthread), or when a woman earning more than a man was regarded as contrary to the natural order of things (a different PP), or when we all did time-wasting admin tasks and/or spent ages hunting for lost hard copy files?

Or when you had to call slightly senior male colleagues ‘Mr’ and do whatever they said, even if it was stupid or pointless, because we had to know our places as young women?

Or when slacking was a way of life for certain colleagues, and nobody was ever called out on it? That”s how we ended up with the appraisal system, incidentally.

And yet we have a productivity gap. Despite working more hours.

Driving round London with an A-Z open on
your lap (later a printout from Streetmap)
Friday drinks trolley (ahhhhh mazing)
Extremely lax attitude towards H&S (I was doing risk assessments as an intern)
Bosses striding round the office calling everyone a cunt

Being paid a whole £2.05 per hour, I felt rich! Got a pay rise to £2.15 per hour when I turned 18. Whoopee. This was a retail job, early '90s.

We also had to wear black high heels, American Tan 10 denier tights or stockings and a short sleeved blouse under our tabbards. The shop had no heating, but in winter we were jot permitted to wear thicker tights or a cardigan to prevent us freezing to death. I could see my breath in front of me, it was about 6°C and we'd sneak our cardies on, alerting each other if we spotted the area manager's car arriving so we could stuff them under the counter. Blokes got to wear trousers and blazers in winter, so they were (slightly more) alright.

I once got told off for not shaving my legs, you could see my leg hair through my repulsive coloured thin tights and that was a no-no. I told the boss I was growing it to keep me warm!

Oh, we weren't allowed chairs either, whilst behind the counter. High heels for 10 hours a day was not fun. One woman developed a bad back and couldn't wear heels, so they sacked her! She'd been there about ten years, working every shift possible, was a key holder, did all the accounts for the manager as he was too thick to understand them. And they sacked her. Pretty sure that was illegal even then but it never occurred to her to fight it.

Internal memos were typed on a sheet of paper with a staff list attached to the front. When you had read it, you signed next to your name and passed it on to the next person

I worked one place where that was still done in the 2000s! This was the country's largest broadband provider at the time, and older staff point blank refused to use their new staff email accounts as it was too complicated 😂 They'd be selling Internet packages to customers while grumbling about who the hell needs this world wide Web stuff at home anyway, it'll never catch on... Been there since they were technically civil servants, pre privatisation and they were damned if they were changing for this newfangled modern technology.

Internal memos were typed on a sheet of paper with a staff list attached to the front. When you had read it, you signed next to your name and passed it on to the next person.

I worked for a company who was still doing this last year I've left since but I suspect they're still doing it now!

As a university student I worked in a clothes shop with a communal changing room! Are there any shops left where you have to try on clothes with other customers?
As a student teacher, we women were told to wear a skirt or dress on our first day of teaching practice and see what the other female teachers were wearing!
My first teaching job, the school closed at 1pn on Fridays as the town had a lot of factories that closed at 12.

@Roomba

Being paid a whole £2.05 per hour, I felt rich! Got a pay rise to £2.15 per hour when I turned 18. Whoopee. This was a retail job, early '90s.

We also had to wear black high heels, American Tan 10 denier tights or stockings and a short sleeved blouse under our tabbards. The shop had no heating, but in winter we were jot permitted to wear thicker tights or a cardigan to prevent us freezing to death. I could see my breath in front of me, it was about 6°C and we'd sneak our cardies on, alerting each other if we spotted the area manager's car arriving so we could stuff them under the counter. Blokes got to wear trousers and blazers in winter, so they were (slightly more) alright.

I once got told off for not shaving my legs, you could see my leg hair through my repulsive coloured thin tights and that was a no-no. I told the boss I was growing it to keep me warm!

My first job was as a trainee accountant in 1983. £32 per week for a 35 hour job. Less than a pound per hour.

No trousers (1985).
Telexes for rapid communication. Fax was less common. Couriers were used a lot.
Smoking anywhere you wanted in the office. That wasn't great.
Page three girls pinned up in the couriers' office.

Where I work we only stopped using faxes recently... we technically still do they are just sent via email fax!
And we still had internal post envelopes until lock down!

The tea lady was everyone’s favourite person, she came by twice a day (1992)

No trousers (accountancy firm 1992)

@MotherofPearl, aaah, yes OHPs and OHTs. About ten years after I started working I became a HE lecturer for the institute I now work for (worked elsewhere in between). Equipment was always breaking down, as it does now. Only at least then I could run into another classroom and nick an OHP!! Handwritten registers checked against handwritten pay claim forms - which was much more efficient than our current automated system!!

1977 - 83

Manual typewriters that were older than us.
Carbon copies and Tippex
Dolls eye switchboard "connecting you now caller!"
Telecopier - precursor to fax
Six of us audio typists in one room. Five of us were smokers. We let the non-smoker sit next to the window
Wine bar or pub at lunchtime
Luncheon Vouchers
Being told off by the senior partner for smoking in the street "like a shopgirl"
Stripogram for the boss's birthday
Catching mice in the basement filing room
Photocopying every page of a lengthy document individually
"Take a letter Miss Smith"