Things you no longer see/do in the workplace

[TheGrumpiest]

I always really like those threads about food/shops that no longer exist, so I thought I'd start one about the work place. I joined the workforce in the early 90s working for quite large companies.

Luncheon Vouchers - loved these! Like Monopoly money.
Tea trolley lady that came round twice a day. Tea and coffee was free. Small packet of biscuits 5p.
Strippers 😲 A milestone birthday? Getting married? = stripper in the office at lunch time .
Rolls of fax paper on the floor every morning. You had to seperate and tear out each fax with a ruler.
Endless Memorandums with huge circulation lists typed out. You had to cross your name off and pass on to the next name once you had read it!
Friday lunch time = pub. People got quite tipsy.
Lack of HR type processes/concept of people management/development etc. People were just asked to not come back the next day if deemed unsuitable... One lady saw her own (unique) job advertised in the local paper and realised her time was up 😲

BTW these aren't necessarily things I miss about the workplace. Just things that don't exist anymore or not acceptable! Tell us yours!

Smoking.

People to clean the telephone.

Telex machines.

wow, we've never had a stripper in the office!
I did temp work one summer where they had a tea lady in the afternoon.
The one thing I realised recently when someone was doing this for the first time in ages is issuing paper copies of reports to Clients.

ooh and i did work experience from school in a surveyors office where they had pictures of page 3 girls pinned on the desk partitions.

Smoking
Drinking Alcohol
Blatant sexism and racism

Smoking
Not coming back to the office after Friday pub lunch
9.30 start
No overtime or working unpaid hours
Hourly lunchbreak
Cash wages in a small handwritten brown envelope

Pigeon holes for mail

Your own drawer to leave all your stuff in

High heels

Oh god, yes, smoking. Ashtrays on desks and a cloud of fug above the open-plan office. Don't miss that......

A whole room the the department computer, which chucked out vast stacks of concertina paper reports every morning.

Also, remember the reusable orange internal post envelopes, where you crossed out the last person's name and added the new one; they came with a little string to fasten them closed. Ahhh...internal mail systems......when emails were just a distant dream.....

I was going to say smoking - when I first straed working in an office smoking was banned in normal hours, but for some reason allowed after 5pm. Every day at 5 on the dot my boss used to pull an ashtray out of his desk drawer and light up!

@emmathedilemma I know it was bonkers (strippers). Someone always had to bring in a stereo and extension lead for the music!

Those envelopes for memos where you crossed your name/department out and wrote the next person's underneath.

Definitely smoking too!

I started working in 2003, we had a drinks trolley every friday, followed by many long hours in the pub, all covered on expenses.

Thursday afternoons were also pub afternoons.

I used to have to produce reports with photos in, that meant a trip to snappy snaps with a roll of film, collecting the photos, sticking them in with pritt stick and handrwiting underneath.

Fax machines

High heels

only repeating what's been said. But to add to smoking, pigeonholes, and canteens, one workplace had a bar. Yes we were journalists.

Typewriters. Having to open actual post and not emails. Tea breaks. Photocopying stuff for hours. Mailshots by post so you'd have to stuff envelopes for ages, taking post at the end of the day in big bags to the post office.

Telephones. Haven’t had one for 5+ years.

No one under the age of 40 would have a clue how to send a fax.

Someone has already mentioned it but since we went back after lockdown I've seen one solitary woman in heels. All other women in flats. It's very liberating.

All of the above plus
Internal mail delivery person - my summer job as a student in a large company
Temps sent to man reception etc based on how their looks fit the clients wishes ( 1980s - worked in an employment agency)
As well as people to clean phones, we had people to dust/ maintain the pot plants
Bottles of your choice of tipple at Christmas

Lots of sexual innuendo, sleazy men inappropriately putting their arms round women ( or worse), page 3 or topless calendars in every office: really, I worked with some total prats.

We still have actual post to open, as well as emails. And pigeonholes!

Canteens still exist in warehousing and distribution.
I clean telephones as part of being a cleaner and I also do the tea and biscuit trolley run, if I’m feeling kind. (Not strictly part of my duties, but keeps the client happy)

That green and white striped computer paper that came in a Long folded connected pile with perforations. The printers it went with were really noisy and jumped from side to side.

Really formal work clothes, men in suit, shirt and tie all the time, and women in 'power suits'

Smoking and drinking. mini booze fridges in directors offices. People seriously drinking Friday lunchtime.

Hole punch/stapler/ruler for everyone

Workplaces vary though. A couple of years ago I worked somewhere with a morning and afternoon tea break, complete with tea trolley and homemade cakes and biscuits.

Promotion drinks at 10am. As in alcohol, not coffee!

Pagers. When I was little I wanted to be important enough at work to have a device you could be contacted on at anytime that could fit in your pocket....

Getting married? = stripper in the office at lunch time .

This just made me burst out laughing 😂

In and out trays.

We still use the internal orange envelopes! Not often these days but occasionally. I mostly use them to send down my money for the staff Christmas raffle

Toblerone shaped strips of metal with your name on that marked your desk - when I was at school my ambition was to become a "boss" so that I could get one of these, but sadly they got abolished before I became a working adult!