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!

Hang on, a stripper just used to come in the office and take their clothes off in front of the entire workforce?!!

I used big ledgers where you fitted in new pages using a key to unwind the spine.
We had to write in all the entries using a black fountain pen.

We got the information from large cards printed by a NCR machine - the operator worked in a glass 'box'.
We then had to manually compile a trial balance of all the accounts using a ncr adding machine.
Late 70s to mid 80s!

Do team building activity days still a thing & if so are they just an excuse to get pissed together

And smoking.
And a boss who used to regularly bring her 3 stinking Irish Wolfhounds into the office 🤮
(Local Government office - early '80s)

clocking in
someone passing round the Avon book
collections for someone whos leaving[ only to come back a week later!]
massive card for person leaving

Yes, I was sent on a course run by a lovely woman with twin set and pearls, 3 months later we switched to Sage.
Computers before Microsoft windows. ( aka word processors)
Telex machines
Fax machines
On site catering ( canteen)

The credit card machines that were big and plastic and you ran it across the card and carbon paper to make a copy of the actual card. If the purchase was above the guarantee amount on the card, you had to phone a number and wait for a long beep to authorise the purchase!

I had a couple of jobs where you clocked in and out by stamping your card in a machine. People would queue at it at 5 to 5 ticking down the minutes.
I also remember little brown envelopes with your pay inside, my pay was like that for my paper round.

I have fond memories of the smoking room. I didn't smoke, but it was where all the best chat and gossip was to be found.

One company I did work experience with in the early 80s had a directors' dining room, where all the top brass were fed a slap up three course lunch every day. No quick sandwich at the desk for them!

Each desk having it's own bin. And everything waste went in it- no recycling- imagine!

When I started teaching, back in the Dark Ages, we had a Banda machine to make copies of worksheets. You pressed hard and wrote or drew on a carbon stencil and then put it through the machine to make the copies (at first we had to turn the handle mechanically, but then the school purchased an electric Banda). The only two colours it produced were turquoise and bright pink.
Someone mentioned treasury tags - I just bought some off ebay to hold together a book copy that I've been proof-reading - so they do still exist!

I had a friend that worked in a jewelry shop on the weekends at the end of the 80's
Xmas eve , she took a card, out it in the machine and forgot to run it over the card.
She was devastated. And sacked.

This has made me think of our tea trolley lady (Marjorie): worked a couple of hours a day, coming in morning and afternoon to don her nylon overall and look after us all.
This was in my first job out of school (1980).
Happy days.

I used treasury tags yesterday! It's easier to flip pages over in documents than stapling them and some things I just have to print to read them thoroughly.

The dial up modem in the corner of the office to connect to the internet or send and receive emails.

Getting your manager to sign a chit for replacement stationery which you then had to take to the stationery office.

The petty cash tin, which was handy if you forgot your lunch, you could pop an IOU in and borrow a few quid.

We had a male stripper in the office late 90s Excruciatingly embarrassing

Waiting for your turn at the Office copy of Computer Weekly so you could see the latest job ads.
And Dilbert.

All ye saying about smoking. At one of my first placements as a trainee in 2014 people smoked in the offices of where I went to audit. The smoking ban came into effect in Ireland in 2004 it was quite a shock to me. I STANK. Worst thing was I was staying in a hotel so didn't have a washing machine for my suit every night just had to do my best with Febreze.

The palaver to get a new pen!! The person in charge of them was always saying there weren't many left and you'd have to take your own in next time. The a month later they'd be trying to use all the budget up (or they'd get less the next year) so we'd all be given a box of pens. It was the same with a lot of stationery items.

Then I moved to head office and everything was just in a cupboard to help yourself to.

I worked for a government organisation in London in the early 80s and we often had 'bomb scares' where someone had left an unattended briefcase or parcel. The alarm would go off and we'd all go traipsing out to a nearby street to await being recalled. One day there were hundreds of us standing along this street and a passing American tourist asked if we were waiting for the Queen to go by

@Snoopfroggyfrogg yes! It's quite unthinkable now. If memory serves me correctly, they would keep their pants on? Only tops off? If we had a male stripper for the birthday girl/bride to be, they would be encouraged to apply oil to said stripper!

Word soon got round the company that there was a stripper in and colleagues from other floors would cram into your floor to come and watch. It always felt really tacky.

Letraset. I worked in a theatre, and remember "designing" a leaflet for a small scale tour using letraset and a typewriter.

Years ago, when having your own printer wasn't a common thing, me and OH were at the printer to pick some stuff up and they told us about some people who'd been in to get a book printed and the whole thing was done with letraset. It must have taken them ages. Whoever it was must have realised how it looked because they never picked it up.

My first job, in a bank, I sat next to woman who chain smoked at her desk all day. I was so glad when it was banned.

Also, we had to call the managers 'Mr' and they were sent our bank statements and handed them out to us!

I was about to come on and say I was a tea lady as a holiday job one summer and it was great - never been so popular!

I also did a holiday job in a typing pool.

Years ago when I worked for a bank I had to clean out a cupboard in the conference room. It had clearly not been touched for many years and I found a big box full of branded stuff, but very nice expensive things like engraved silver ashtrays, paperweights and such. Very different from the cheap pens and key rings companies give out nowadays!