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!

I still steal stationary and I love my free gifts from Viking just got a pair of ear bud things. 😬

These are all from DH who had a long career in advertising.
Three pints of beer every lunchtime unless having………
Business lunch consisting of large G and T , half bottle wine, brandy and cigar plus three courses of food.
Company cars with models/options strictly allocated by seniority, much anguish if somebody wangled anything they weren’t entitled to.
Car fleet manager.
Senior directors with own cocktail cabinets.
Smoking absolutely everywhere including in cars contains non smokers.

Viking Direct!

I'm not quite old enough to remember much of the things being mentioned as an adult (I'm 35), but my parents had a sort of home office and I remember lots of the things you're all mentioning from back then. I'm kind of glad because I will probably never work in an office (I'm a musician), so I feel like I experienced some of the fun stuff (fax machines, that green paper with the holes down the sides, a huge photocopier that I learned how to fix through trial and error, etc.!) without the downsides of actually having to be stuck inside. 😄

1997-ish
one computer in the whole company which had email so you’d give your mates that address and then IT would print your mate’s reply and stick it in your pigeonhole 😆

Individual offices rather than open plan, and the more senior you were the better carpet you got. Civil service.

What????

I still clock on and off and get luncheon vouchers.

I worked in IT (or Computing as we called it then) and we had trollies full of printer paper every morning which someone had to check to make sure the database backups had worked overnight. God forbid there had been a problem because you’d get a massive continuous pile of paper about a foot deep to wade through looking for the error. Dump-cracking we called it.

Oh viking direct! I had a free faux suade holdall from them in the 1990s that became my work overnight bag for about 20 years until eventually the zip went. I replaced it with a posh leather one which only lasted about 5 years. I'm sure we also had a good alarm clock from them too

I have a relative who was an 'Industrial nurse', she ended up working with a team of about 4 or 5.

Which has reminded me do any employers do open days? As a kid I've been to a couple of factories and for a look around fire stations.

Pub lunch on Fridays with drinks paid for by the boss. 1999.

We were primary school teachers. He did a long rambling assembly on a Friday afternoon which we followed with ‘Golden Time’.

Best job ever. 23 years later, it’s not quite the same!

Anyone remember the incinerator sanitary bins in the ladies loo?

Yes! We had one at school and it terrified me.

I was sent to an upstairs department at a finance company in 2008 and they had this. I was gosbmacked. I complained and it was all taken down, but it was insane that loads of women worked there but it took a younger one with fresh eyes and opinions to come in and feel strong enough to 'make a fuss.'

There's a garage near me that is plastered with topless photos. I presume some of their customers are women and they don't care.

I worked for a big publishing company in the late 80s, and nearly every friday evening someone would have a leaving do. We'd all rush into the board room at 5pm to drink terrible warm white wine and eat hula hoops, before someone we'd never met would be presented with a card and their boss would make an embarrassing speech.

We saved up our luncheon vouchers (£1.25 a day) to go out to the nearest wine bar for lunch (also on a Friday).

This thread is fantastic. I wish a new TVs show could be made that includes lots of these (and mocks the bad aspects of behaviour).

I worked for a large company from 1986. We had lots of things mentioned, plus:

Being responsible for getting the hot drinks from the vending machine, taking the plastic 'tray' with holes in it for the cup - and everyone took sugar.

Getting exchange rates from the telex machine every day at 2pm

Being terrified of my 18th birthday because i knew they would get me a strippagram (they did, it was awful).

Speaking to my (non work) friends on the phone lots of times during the day 😳

Wearing tights to work and definitely never considering bare legs.

Having an early form of fax and finding out the ink faded completely on the paper over time.

Put your towels in the Bunny girls!

@drspouse 🤣. Yes !!!

I teach, so maybe a little different:
blackboards;
free play/ golden time on Friday afternoon;
water fountains (all use bottle now);
phoning the pub at playtime on Friday to order lunch so it was waiting when we got there;
junk modelling just for the fun;
wheeling in the TV and video (booked in advance);
BBC dance lessons on tapes

My children's school only got interactive whiteboards last year and they got rid of the blackboards. Apparently the teachers noti ed that the children were less distracted with blackboards. I used to love those five pronged chalk holders they used to draw music staves!

How about having to change massive 10 litre bottles of water on the filtered water machine - can't remember that happening for years!

Those massive water bottle dispenser are still put in the new warehousing, no idea why. It must cost a fortune and no one wants to change the heavy bottles! The plumbed in type are far better.

Anyone mentioned phone boxes yet?

I haven't RTFT but does anyone remember Roneo stencil duplicaters?

They were a bugger if someone wanted to change something once they had been on the machine. Laying it back on the backing paper without it creasing, covering the bit to be changed in a pink liquid to harden, then feeding it back into the typewriter and trying to line the text up. Don't know they are born these days!!😀