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

@Hollyhocksarenotmessy

Large laminated year calendars on the wall for all sorts of things. Most places had one for holidays - you'd put a sticker on for the dates you were off (DP's small employer still has this).

My (small) employer still does this too. It works pretty well TBH.

@PaperMonster

I think some places still have these, but I don’t know what they’re called but we used to put documents in a tube thing and then in a funnel and it would get whooshed to a different department.

I really want to hear more about this! It sounds very futuristic and exciting. Like something from the Jetsons.

I really want to hear more about this!
They were usually pneumatic. Articles from wiki here and here

It sounds very futuristic and exciting.
You will see from the second article that NASA used them! But so did Victorians like IKB.

Loving this thread. I think things really went downhill in the workplace after the 2008 financial crisis. I started work in 2001, and for me it's never been quite the same since then, like the whole working culture changed (I have an office job). Having said that I am obviously against the sexism and other prejudices in the workplace from the past and what still happens today, although hopefully much less often.

I also worked for a Japanese company. The sweltering summer of '76, management supplied ice-creams for all the employees. At Christmas everyone could buy their products for 10% of the value.
I still have many friends from then.
Can't really imagine that would happen now.

I think some places still have these, but I don’t know what they’re called but we used to put documents in a tube thing and then in a funnel and it would get whooshed to a different department.
Where I work they use them to send samples to the lab.

Also John Lewis in Windsor certainly used them in fairly recent years (it's closed now).

@Jeffjefftyjeff

In the early days of email we had to print important emails and stamp them/ sign them to prove authenticity, then add to hard copy files .

We had our own, large, permanent desks with random paraphernalia like photos etc on. Now all hot desking on small empty desks.

Yes, I printed emails until I left a certain place in 2005. I don't know when they stopped, probably when the old boss retired.

Used the fax a lot.

I still have my own desk thank heavens. There will be even more of a push to hot desking now with more people working from home. A very negative development imo.

It was Caley's and I loved going in there. It's now an unappealing TK Maxx.

@Iheartmysmart

Being told by the sales director to photocopy every fax that came in, the copy to the person it was for and the original to be filed. Checking the file copies at a later date only to find folders full of blank sheets where the ink had faded on the thermal paper! This was late 80s.

I saw this in the 2000s. Fax paper was that slimy stuff for a while wasn't it. And at school, printer paper had those holes in it...

"Fax machines with the awful dialling tone and people repeatedly ringing the fax machine number instead of the telephone number by mistake."

Quite often it WAS the same number and people just switched the wires around so you couldn't fax if someone was on the phone, or when you phoned, if nobody picked up it went to the fax.

"Interesting that so many people are saying no appraisals. I had annual appraisals when I started my first 'proper' job in 1984."

I had my first appraisal in 2016. Made it to over forty before I had to have one. I haven't had once since then.
The thing is to work somewhere quite small.
Same for aircon. I hate it so much I think I just have to avoid large organisations.
@Eminybob smaller offices still don't have it, thankfully.

@NewlyGranny

Couldn't come to work with bare legs, it had to be pantyhose (tights). Had to wear a dress, or if in trousers, the top had to be jacket or tunic style, long enough to cover the crotch area. Married women with city/urban postings due to husbands' work or study were not eligible for promotion. When husband qualified in the same field, we were "rationed" to one job and had to decide whether it was his or mine, effectively expecting me to resign so he could have a job. Newsflash: I didn't!

Can you tell us more about this! What happened when you didn't resign when you were meant to? How did everyone take it and how did your career go after that?

@Cookerhood

I think some places still have these, but I don’t know what they’re called but we used to put documents in a tube thing and then in a funnel and it would get whooshed to a different department. Where I work they use them to send samples to the lab.

When an old boss told me about that I thought he was joking! We did use the lift for this though, putting a piece of paper in the lift unaccompanied and a colleague upstairs calling it up.

@Justyouwaitandseeagain

At my first proper graduate office job in 2005, the last one in at the end of the day had to switch over the back up tape for the servers. The ‘spare’ tape we would have to take home in our handbag. This frequently meant taking it with us to the pub for a drunken night out 🙈

I was doing this in 2015. Taking the backup tape home every evening and of course to wherever I was going on the way home from work.

@SpiderinaWingMirror

Just remembered the best bit! Luncheon Vouchers!

I still get them (not in the UK). They're on a card now though.

I remember the reviews. They marked you on appearance. I'm not sure if it was physical appearance or appearing confident and professional.

The pneumatic tube thing (thank you @senua for the links) was at a newspaper office. I can’t remember what was put in the tubes, or what came out. We had a room where our typed up copy was printed out and the Reuters machine which all the latest National news came through on, and the tube was in there. There were two staff in there and they sent stuff in the tube, and received stuff - paperwork, but I don’t know what!! I want to know now!!!

Pneumatic tubes - frquently used in hospitals still:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube

Smoking. All the offices were permanently fugged with smoke. I worked in an open plan office and in my immediate section of it there were 12 people, arranged in 3 groups of 4. Only two of us were non-smokers: there were 7 cigarette smokers and 3 pipe smokers. I went home with a splitting headache most days.

Typing pools. A whole room full of women (they were always all women) sitting at typewriters all day. It was deafening in there!

Telex machine. It was around the corner from my desk (in L shaped open plan office) but made a hell of a racket when messages came through.

Sexism. There were no women in senior roles. In general, women were talked down to and we also had to put up with crude conversations among the men and the occasional "friendly" bottom patting as we walked past.

Oh and rumour had it that only the Managing Director was allowed to write in green!

Yup, that was the Chairman. Only person in the company allowed to use green ink.

Started teaching in1990.
My planning for the week took an A3 size page. That was it.
If I stayed until 5.30pm I didn't have to take any work home unless it was report writing season. In fact the HT called me in after my first few weeks and said if I WAS taking work home I was doing something wrong - how times have changed!
Smoking in the staff room.
A computer on a trolley to share between me and the art teacher.
My classroom was down some steps so if I wanted to show a video I had to book the hall because the tv trolley wouldn't go down steps.
The 'Head of Girls' taking me to one side as the summer approached to remind me bare shoulders were a massive no.
I had a blackboard that rolled round and chalk in different colours.
Having to balance my register every half term before I could leave.
Marking in red pen. And actually being able to put a cross if an answer was wrong rather than a dot...........
Oh, and a tick and very good/excellent etc beign acceptable marking.

I'm not a teacher anymore - lost the plot and couldn't take it any more. I am a TA and workload for my CT is bonkers. I genuinely blame the rise of technology.

All these lovely reminiscences have made me all nostalgic with a sad feeling a bit like the homesickness I felt at boarding school.

My early working years (mid 70's - early 80s) were such happy days and I don't think I even realised it at the time.

@KatherineJaneway

Oh and rumour had it that only the Managing Director was allowed to write in green!

Yup, that was the Chairman. Only person in the company allowed to use green ink.

In the bank green pens were only used be Inspectors who would turn up unannounced and go through everything.

Luncheon vouchers! Thanks for reminding me of them.

One thing that is far better now is shopping in the City. Where I worked, off Cheapside, was like a desert for women in 1985. There was a Dorothy Perkins/Miss Selfridge or something and that was it. Lots of wine bars (that bit was fun). But when I go there these days (or pre-pandemic) my jaw drops.