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

[Fleamaker123]

@harknesswitch

The brown internal envelopes, the type with holes in them and boxes to write the name and dept it went to

Yes! Some of them had string on the top which you wrapped round a circular disc for extra security 🤣

Manual typewriters, carbon paper, endless filing, topless calendars, smoking cigs/cigars/pipes, lots of drunken nights out then meeting up for a greasy breakfast the next day before work.

[user143677433]

I used to fly from Edinburgh to London for work and you could park in the car park next to the terminal just 20 minutes before the flight took off, because the airport was so small and there was barely any security to go through.

You could also fly “standby” if you weren’t booked on a flight in advance.

[SuziQuatrosFatNan]

@LongLiveGoblingKing good question. I think we were just as busy tbh as so little was automated. It took a long time to do tasks that you would just run a process for now and strict systems to account for and record every nook and cranny of what went on which people would personally do themselves.

I remember when PCs and email became more widespread there was a definite culture of not sending unnecessary emails and being ultra selective who you send to in order not to waste everyone's time. I mean there were directives gone out to that effect.

I sometimes think of that, wistfully.

[LifeOfBriony]

Lots of these - in my first job the tea lady would bring coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon to your desk, with a biscuit. Not the cheap biscuits either, the chunky, oaty ones, sometimes with chocolate In my second job we had to collect tea from the trolley, and everyone had their own mug. It was a nice way to briefly socialise before getting on with the working day.

I don't think anyone's mentioned telex. One colleague, an older lady, could read the punched tapes.

[8Track]

Clocking in and out and the clunk the machine made. Taking a mate's clock card to do theirs if they had sneaked out early.

[Graymare]

Everyone waiting in line to get their weekly pay. Friday afternoon, little brown envelope filled with cash.
Seems unbelievably antiquated now!

[howdidigettobe50something]

Longlive...In many ways yes. For most you left work and the door when there was no email or mobiles so certainly no logging back on at home. In primary education there was the constant evenings spend making things as part of your planning but much less scrutiny and constant assessment.

[lljkk]

late 1960s California :
My dad was a student & my mother worked to support the family.
This was very common in her social circle: working wives supporting entire family including student husbands
She had to go back to work when I was 4 m old.
They did all smoke at work :)

[SuziQuatrosFatNan]

Oh yes and no call centres. They didn't exist when I started working. If someone had a query they would ring and speak to you and you would sort it.

[JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn]

It's really hard to believe just how much the workplace has changed in such a short amount of time. My first job was in 1987. No computers. Lots of smoking. Loads of sexism. Lots of extra marital affairs - especially when we were on business trips! Loads of alcohol. Great canteen. Lots of fun.

[cortex10]

NHS office in the 80s - saved a pound a week in the office kitty for the 'Christmas Do' - on the day it started with Bucks Fuzz on arrival at work followed by a Sherry reception mid- morning with the Director (after which he went home) then coach to a hotel for Xmas lunch and disco - then back to the office for a disco and drinks in the meeting room - until the evening cleaners asked everyone to leave - then on to a wine bar until the night clubs opened. Then some drove home - or caught the train or bus and fell asleep and got lost. This went on for several years.

[8Track]

Brown internal envelopes were still in my last job - left Feb 2019! And went to clients with a tea trolley (union) and topless calendars in the office (manufacturing).

[ProfYaffle]

@LongLiveGoblingKing

This is a great thread.

I have a question and I'm not sure how to ask it without being rude so please excuse me... Was work easier back then? Having the time to print out an email, hand write a reply, then get it typed up seems like a real luxury. You'd be answering only a handful of emails a day!

Even in 2000 eyebrows were raised about not responding to your own e-mails. But generally, you're right that you'd only be answering a handful of e-mails but you were only receiving that many. There were a lot more other things to deal with though, faxes, memos, calls etc

The typing pool/internal mail system was quite efficient because resources were dedicated to those tasks eg there would be multiple post runs per day

I work in HR and remember a lot of anxiety around e-mail/messaging being rolled out as staff could 'talk' to each other all day and no-one would know!

[Dolciedolly]

@TranquilityofSolitude

I started work in the City in the early 90s. We had to wear a suit for work but we weren't allowed to wear trousers, which was very annoying because trouser suits were in fashion and half of the jackets in the shops only had trousers to go with them, not skirts.

The woman who sat next to me chain-smoked, lighting one cigarette from the end of the previous one all day. It was horrendous!

Me too !!

[CaptainPovey]

Started work at 16 (early 80s)
Male dominated place where old men worked out their retirement (top floors) or did a bit of a manual job lower floors
Typing pool (all women)
Bar on site always full
2 hour lunch break
When I started I was the youngest person there and probably less than 50 women out of around 1700 total employees
Subsidised canteen
In one of the long offices there was a guy that had a coffee cup filled with beer (not a joke), he sat at the back
In my interview (I had to pass a test first). I was asked about getting married and having children.
One guy's drawer smelled really bad. He was on holiday and we dug it out. A fish he had forgotten was stinking the place out

sick

[TickleMyPickle]

Cabin crew interview 1999- weighed during the interview and then made to put on uniform and walk up and down in front of interview panel.
Fat letters were routinely sent to those that had put on few pounds, telling them to lose the weight or order a bigger skirt!!

[Babyroobs]

Qualified as a Nurse in 1989, becoming a staff nurse meant making and starching a frilly little hat which was pinned on with white hairgrips. Always wore dresses which were uncomfortable to bend / stretch in when giving patient care. Had a belt and buckle. Male nurses were a rarity.

[cervixuser]

smoking at my desk, telex at reception for sending messages, tea trolley in morning and afternoon, calendars with nude women, being told that you didn't have a sense of humour if you complained about rampant sexism

[Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel]

Sexual harassment and sexual assault
Smoking at your desk
Pub at lunch
Wearing skirts. Trousers frowned upon


Shit times.

[DenisetheMenace]

Anyone remember phones that looked like thunderbirds’ ones with lights on top (“just putting you through)
telex and it being your turn to come in early to sort out the pile of crap that was faxes?

No trousers allowed, having to become incredibly diplomatic with “handy” senior staff to avoid difficult situations, being asked to be ”welcoming” to important potential clients (I was a very pretty young woman), then being waved out of the meeting room with the same clients like an irritating insect as, as a senior PA, I delivered the tea and biscuits.
Having to get a taxi to M&S to buy bread and butter pudding (seriously, boss was having Nigerian Finance Minister to dinner, who had an urge for public school pudding), having to also act as PA to his girlfriend (because she was far too busy and important to get her own f**king keys cut).
Ladies not allowed to buy drinks in El Vinos (this was the late 1980s.)

On the plus side, very cheap mortgages (in the days of 15% interest rates), free canteen lunches (and they were fantastic, my singleton home food bills were tiny) and for the bosses it was expected that they bought drinks all evening for their junior staff (to the extent of leaving their card behind the bar when they went home to their families). It was much, much easier then to climb the career ladder based on ability rather than formal qualifications (which was crucial for me and other women of my limited background).

Actually, looking back, I probably wouldn’t have changed very much if I were being vety honest. Mostly because of the last point.

[hedgehogger1]

Not me but a family member was a teacher in the Netherlands. When her husband had an affair and left her she wasn't allowed to be a teacher any more! Wasn't respectable enough!

[Mandalay246]

No bloody appraisals

That was the best thing!

We had one computer, it took up a whole room and was a complete mystery to everyone but the operator!

I was office junior and spent a good part of many mornings taking morning tea orders and going into town to buy the food, and another good part of each morning writing up the banking forms (an accountant's office - we accepted payment for several of our clients).
I also did the cleaning once a week. I used to buy cigarettes for one of the men in my office when I was out and about. We used large 'adding machines' instead of calculators.

[JumpingFrogs]

@Sparklingbrook My first job was in a bank (early eighties) and I remember being given a severe telling off for accidentally overdrawing on my account by a few pennies!
I remember a very smoky staffroom, with all the daily papers for us to read in our lunchbreak.
Second job, NHS, mid eighties. Shared an office with 3 others, 2 of whom were chains, but it would never have occurred to us to complain! Office was in an old nurses home, and we used to do our filing in the bathrooms (they placed a board over the bath and fixed shelves above ) A great deal of casual racism and sexism, which generally went completely unchallenged.
Third job, NHS, early nineties. We moved to swanky new offices, and some of the older women were irate when they were told they could no longer wear slippers in the office!

[lachy]

First job I was paid £1.50 an hour, and my first weeks pay packet was £52.50. I bought a pair of Levi 501's and a white shirt, and went and got pissed with the rest.

I worked in an office where smoking was allowed at your desk, I had my own desk - no one would have ever thought about hot desking. Every letter that left the department was printed 3 times, original, file copy and "the pinks" which were circulated daily to all managers.

Tea trolley came round at 10.30 & 3.00, Friday lunchtimes were always spent in the pub, going back to work at 2.00 only to be back in the pub by 4.00.

Christmas Parties were legendary before I started, but were still very raucous, one big dent in a filling cabinet was down to some rampant shagging.

Every manager had their own office, and it was well known that you needed to knock very loudly on one door before entering as the occupier was more than likely sleeping.

Crazy fun times.

[Popetthetreehugger]

Luncheon vouchers , Friday lunch in the pub, double entry book keeping .bank reconciliation by hand . Going to petticoat lane for lunch and a mooch . Watching the queen mum lay the foundation stone of the Lloyds building from my desk ( turquoise Feather hat ) being at a lunch in the tower hotel when the ticker tape routers machine told us about trouble in the Falklands . The computer was In a glass office , a huge machine , operated by a man called bob, with a bow tie and mad hair . I started work a week after I left school at 16 with no qualifications ( guessing ... as never enquired ) huge dyslexia. But had a pretty face and a sunny disposition 🤣 and spades of self confidence!