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Original poster

What was normal in your workplace in the noughties that would be outrageous now

658 replies

Shhhhivegotasecret · 02/12/2023 19:32

My example - all the men going off to continue business meeting at a Stringfellows leaving all the women behind…. Would be the stuff of tribunals nowadays, back then it was 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:
thenightsky · 02/12/2023 22:36

Floopani · 02/12/2023 19:43

Working day shift at A&E, going to the hospital social club for a drink during our hour lunch break and then returning for the rest of our shift.

I was going to post this, then spotted you'd already done it. Our social club lunch pints of stella were Fridays only.

Tereo · 02/12/2023 22:36

Working as the "file girl" in an insurance company, which meant I had to spend the day finding and retrieving files from around the office and putting them back in the massive electric filing cabinet .

Very insulting and sexist secret Santa gifts..

Going on a work trip where the entire company played dares (things like licking someone s belly button) ...

Hocuspocusnonsense · 02/12/2023 22:37

The sales team and bosses smoking in the office.

Being told I would never progress because I didn’t have the right accent. Only those who went to public school progressed.

Lucytheloose · 02/12/2023 22:38

uninterestingusernamealert · 02/12/2023 20:20

Oh - being asked about if you wanted to have children and when in interviews, and also being asked if you were married. That sort of thing.

And not being believed if you said you didn't want any children (because that's what women were supposedly for).

Anothernewname123 · 02/12/2023 22:39

Confuzzlediddled · 02/12/2023 19:40

Women not being allowed to wear trousers!

My first professional job advertised themselves as progressive by informing me that women were allowed to wear a trouser suit 'so long as it wasn't too casual!'
That was mid-late 1990s.

Same place still had smoking in the office and the men would pop out to the local strip club at lunch time/on Fridays.

A better tradition was the champagne trolley that would come out not only for completed deals but also birthdays, marriages and if we'd been particularly busy for a sustained period.

TheThingIsYeah · 02/12/2023 22:40

@Ocani It was more fun.

This is the salient point. The workplace now is fucking dire (work in The City) compared to 20 years ago. The Lehmans debacle gave firms an excuse to cutback on wages, the Antibribery legislation made being stingy compulsory (no more nights out, gifts at Xmas etc), and as for COVID...well that was the nail in the coffin.

Original poster
Shhhhivegotasecret · 02/12/2023 22:42

JudgeJ · 02/12/2023 22:31

So true, most of the women I worked with could give it out as much as the men!

Show quote history

I do think my early working experiences built resilience and I never felt the rampant sexism particularly held me back in my career. I do feel glad for young women today that they don’t have to put up with that shit but work did seem a bit more exciting then …

OP posts:
jesterdourt · 02/12/2023 22:44

Faxes

In the noughties?

Im surprised at all the smoking as it was banned in the mid 00s wasn’t it & many were aware re dangers of passive smoking

MrsHedgewarbler · 02/12/2023 22:44

This thread has confused me no end. I don’t recognise many of these things as being from the noughties, but 70s and 80s, possibly to mid nineties.

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 02/12/2023 22:44

TheThingIsYeah · 02/12/2023 22:40

@Ocani It was more fun.

This is the salient point. The workplace now is fucking dire (work in The City) compared to 20 years ago. The Lehmans debacle gave firms an excuse to cutback on wages, the Antibribery legislation made being stingy compulsory (no more nights out, gifts at Xmas etc), and as for COVID...well that was the nail in the coffin.

Yeah the City was hilarious in the 2000s. I've shared a few stories but there are millions more.
I also loathe the intrusiveness of modern work where lines are so blurred like with people promoting their work on SM. It's quite sad really.

Slitheringheights · 02/12/2023 22:44

Smoking in the canteen.
My sister was told to wear a skirt in her office job.
Regular visits to the pub on lunch breaks lol

Hocuspocusnonsense · 02/12/2023 22:45

One of the teams it was well known the male boss who would’ve been mid 40’s only ever employed new staff if they were under 25, female and attractive. He was known for it and it was laughed about. He would take his team out for very long boozy lunches. Now I look back on it he basically surrounded himself with attractive 20 something women and would enjoy sitting in bars plying them with alcohol under the pretence of being a ‘cool’ boss who appreciated his staff.

KimberleyClark · 02/12/2023 22:45

It being expected that you would be away from your desk for an hour at lunchtime.

Crushed23 · 02/12/2023 22:46

TheThingIsYeah · 02/12/2023 22:40

@Ocani It was more fun.

This is the salient point. The workplace now is fucking dire (work in The City) compared to 20 years ago. The Lehmans debacle gave firms an excuse to cutback on wages, the Antibribery legislation made being stingy compulsory (no more nights out, gifts at Xmas etc), and as for COVID...well that was the nail in the coffin.

Sadly I agree.

I think though that this has been the worst development (which @Ocani mentioned upthread):

…we all have to pretend we're passionate about everything from spreadsheets to mission direction for the sake of earning way less money (relevant to the expense of actually living) than 20 years ago.

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 02/12/2023 22:47

jesterdourt · 02/12/2023 22:44

Faxes

In the noughties?

Im surprised at all the smoking as it was banned in the mid 00s wasn’t it & many were aware re dangers of passive smoking

I worked for a huge modern law firm in London and there were people who smoked in their offices until banned.
On fridays we got a trolley that came round laden with booze and we could all go and help ourselves or stand there drinking together. The people who smoked would light up a fag in the corridor. I know this sounds like something from Mad Men, but it was 2004.

GellerYeller · 02/12/2023 22:47

Going to the company’s ‘school’ in the arse end of nowhere and accommodation being either bunks in a dorm with strangers from other branches (single sex), or single rooms in adjoining properties shared with private fee paying students (mixed sex).

For the annual company conference everyone would be allocated twin hotel rooms with a colleague.

It was only when a PP suggested upthread that twin hotel rooms for colleagues was madness and they wouldn’t stand for it today, that I realised the insanity of it.

jesterdourt · 02/12/2023 22:50

I worked for a huge modern law firm in London and there were people who smoked in their offices until banned.

I started work in the early 00s, civil service & then 2 other companies, one very big. No one smoked at their desks, same for DH. Tbf I would say law firms tend to be quite archaic in their ways.

Zebedee999 · 02/12/2023 22:51

In the 80s I worked in a card board factory doing unskilled mundane work which inevitably - at that time - meant it was largely done by women with maybe a 20:1 women:men ratio.
Each time a new man started he was summarily stripped by the women to see his tackle regardless of his protests.
Pretty sure that wouldn't be allowed nowadays, they just put up with it - no "me too" etc back then for them.

Cyclebabble · 02/12/2023 22:51

1989 when I just started work at a large accountancy firm a note went round from HR that smoking would be banned inside the office space apart from a designated smoking room. Two days later a separate note went round saying it would be banned from all areas except partner's offices (apparently they revolted). I was offered a cigarette at my interview.

Being told we were now doing well as we now had "several girl partners"- yes a senior partner really did say this.

Lots of drinking and excess. Which was largely fun, but occasionally got out of hand.

I worked later on an Exchange. Lots of coke being taken and some large merchant banks had corporate accounts at lap-dancing clubs which were then very common. No-one questioned this.

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 02/12/2023 22:52

jesterdourt · 02/12/2023 22:50

I worked for a huge modern law firm in London and there were people who smoked in their offices until banned.

I started work in the early 00s, civil service & then 2 other companies, one very big. No one smoked at their desks, same for DH. Tbf I would say law firms tend to be quite archaic in their ways.

The people who did it were selfish twats, but they were partners so they owned the firm effectively and no one was going to stop them. Sharing an office with them - grim.
Having said all that until the smoking ban I do think tolerance of smoking was higher. Now even outside I find the smell horrendous.

Susurrar · 02/12/2023 22:53

I only had summer / part time jobs back then because I was still in FT education. All I can remember was the awful awful sexism and comments that passed as “banter” back then. I
was a slim blonde with massive boobs and not a day went by without someone paying me a “compliment” on my appearance. There was this car sale place where I worked at to save up for a holiday, the owner actually offered me a payrise on the condition that I would accompany the potential customers on their test drives. I did not take him up on the offer.

jesterdourt · 02/12/2023 22:53

Alcohol & drinks on Friday was a thing though. I don’t think it’s considered outrageous now, many workplaces still have bars etc. But younger people aren’t into booze so much

Nat6999 · 02/12/2023 22:55

Going to the pub for 2 hours on a Friday lunchtime & trying to do the filing when you got back pissed. No wonder we had so many files go missing.

DatingDinosaur · 02/12/2023 22:55

GellerYeller · 02/12/2023 21:57

Promotion being based on length of service regardless of competence.

This still goes on in my workplace today... Thank god Wink Grin

doomday · 02/12/2023 22:55

London 1999- 2007 ish at a rather sainted very famous institution.

Going parties or nights out then putting each other on iv drips and giving anti emetics before starting work again the next morning.

Literally leaning so far forward I knew my bra was showing down my scrubs so I could get something done quicker by a male colleague.

The Christmas party where a very senior male 50's ( married )professional used the bodice of a very junior female (early 20"s) for the raffle ticket draw. Oh and he also turned up with another very young staff member on his arm.

So much bullying went on it wasn't even descrete.

Lots of things which would be classed as sexual harassment were just normal banter.