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

The directors were on the top floor and the stairs changed from vinyl to carpet! But you weren’t allowed up onto the hallowed floor

I remember smoking at my desk. My first accounts job had the big leather bound ledgers with the columns, they seem so old now like something from the 1930s. We had old computers with the green writing (dot matrix?) This was in 2000 for a national retailer head office.

It also had a typing pool with 4 ladies working there.

My first job was in a lab in 2000. The lab work was all manual, everything was pipetted by hand. A few years later it was fully automated with robots. We used internal envelopes and there was a tannoy where you could interrupt everyone's concentration just to find one person! There was still a smoking room but that disappeared after a few years. You could see where there used to be a bar but it had closed before I started.

when writing an internal memo some people wrote along the edge of a ruler to make sure they wrote in straight lines. Then they had to go along and put all the bottom onto y's and g's. Who ever thought that was a good idea?

@Sparklingbrook

Working in the bank staff were not under any circumstances allowed to go overdrawn.

Yes ! I remember we had to go into the managers office Mr ..... who would ask why you had taken a cash advance from your credit card Or post dated a cheque anticipating you salary. I was 18 and was out partying every Thursday/ Fri / Sat / Sun !

I loved the bank, great first job, no computers, just 2 machines and an encoder in the ‘machine room’
Microfiche for balances and piles of statements every day to post out and file the duplicates. Secretary still used a manual typewriter.
Ledger books to issue new account numbers. It’s amazing really that banks managed to run without computers.
I remember our chief cashier smoking on the counter just putting her cigarette down to serve !. Different world, Happy Days.

I'm amazed at everyone saying they weren't allowed to wear trousers. I worked in the City from mid 90s and trouser suits were entirely normal.

But yes, remember smoking in the office and heavy drinking at lunchtime !

What will the future be? We actually had to come into the office!

In 1998 UK finally ratified the EU working Time directive providing for 4 weeks paid leave. Before that, it was up to individual employers (and if you were lucky you were unionised and they got you something).1998. Not that fucking long ago.

My first two jobs had no paid leave. I was then a SAHM and when I returned in the early 90s (by then a single parent) my job gave you 2 weeks a year paid holiday. Hell, but fairly normal. After a couple of years service it went up to 3 weeks, and 3 weeks was definitely very normal, anyone on more than that was lucky.

@DenisetheMenace

Ostensibly, there is so much wrong about this thread. Looking back 30 years plus though, in all honesty, I don’t think I would have changed a single thing because, personally, I had a blast.

@DenisetheMenace completely agree. I had a blast too.

CloudPop

I'm amazed at everyone saying they weren't allowed to wear trousers. I worked in the City from mid 90s and trouser suits were entirely normal.“

Major international bank, 1991, trousers not allowed.

(That’s when I left)

That all sounds very familiar @Inanun2. Sitting there encoding cheques and trying to make it all balance so we could go home!

Remember the huge pile of statements on the 1st of the month to put into the window envelopes?

i started work in 82 so can relate to many of these on mentioned - as a bloke something that was brilliant was the works sports teams. Mainly football for me but I knew people that played rugby, cricket etc. Many professions like civil service and banking were virtually an extension of university days - wednesday afternoon off to play representative matches. Most of the banks had sports clubs dotted all over the place. Play a match, get free food and a pint in the club house afterwards. Happy days.

My dad who worked for BT even used get time off to play British Gas in a snooker tournament!

Fair enough. Maybe I worked in a particularly trouser friendly environment! Also yes to the person who mentioned sending postcards to the office from holidays. Man that's a blast from the past.

most of the old works sports ground have long been sold off :(

Yes, I had a couple of jobs where there were big sports and social clubs, playing fields, clubhouses, all sorts of sports clubs after work. Both went for housing years ago.

I was given a letter from my company telling me how disappointed they were that I was pregnant. That was in 2010!

First job as a waitress at 14 and we were given half a lager at the end of the shift and could smoke in a room out the back of the kitchen.

My boss would repeat his racist 'jokes' loudly, for effect. Usually got a few twitters / smirks from around the office, no one ever said anything.

Carbon paper, flimsies, tippex.

I'd forgotten about the sandwich trollies coming round the office. They were good. And typing a memorandum to send round in the internal mail. I had a job in a supermarket at one point where you had to wait for your wages at the end of the shift, in cash in an envelope. The management would take ages to arrive, leaving you there for up to an hour sometimes. People were sometimes robbed on the way home.

Smoking in the office - horrendous.
Had to wear skirts, dresses or skirt suits in the office with tights. Trousers were unheard of.
Being whistled at when walking across the shop floor.
Page 3 pinups on male colleagues' desks.
Stencils
Electronic typewriters then huge word processing machines which we had to share.
Calling some of the older bosses "Mr".
Clocking on and off

This thread is ace! Such memories.

Agree with all of these - work was fun back in the day. I worked for a bank in the early 80s and we had a largish high street branch with something like 60 staff. All the processing was done in-house - prior to it being farmed out to specialist centres and eventually automated, so we needed that many. The branch now has about 6 or 7 staff I think. We had so much fun - loads of social events, theatre trips, inter branch sports, Christmas parties etc. Plus if we finished work early once the doors closed at three, we could leave.....!

Promotion was on the basis of when you started. I did get moved up ahead of some colleagues because they didn't want to work in the boring fuddy-duddies dept - but they were asked first. Apart from one girl who had recently got married so they assumed she would be getting pregnant soon.....

Appraisal was a very brief and simplistic thing where you were rated each year out of 5 for quantity and quality of output. And it would end with a brief summary saying "X is always well presented and smartly turned out" (maybe not for the boys though...?). We also had customer record cards which frequently said things like "This attractive young lady called today to request a personal loan...."!

Bank staff used to be able to have a subsidised mortgage. When I started you had to be 21 to qualify if you were a man, and 23 and married if you were a woman. I bought a house on my own at the age of 21 and had to go to the Woolwich!

Senior managers could have metallic paint on their company cars, but junior managers could not. At one point they had a rule that junior managers could not have a house that was valued at more than their boss's. Frustrating if your boss was childless and lived in a two up two down..........

Having to add up in your head and then subtract in your head. The till was not an adding machine. Wore a uniform and women were not allowed to wear trousers. Had to wear court shoes. Had to wear tights never bare legs. Using a machine which took an imprint of bank cards/credit cards and the customer signed it. Using a bank card to guarantee a cheque only accepting cheques up to the value of £50. Typing out receipts on a type writer. Typing out confirmation letters on a type writer.
Going to the pub at lunch time and drinking alcohol. Staying behind after work for drinks where people smoked and got pissed, then Rockingham to work the next day with a bang over.