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

[Shhhhivegotasecret]

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 🤷‍♀️

Daytime drinking, job interviews at the pub, drinking at 4pm - all this stuff still happens in my industry, depending on the agency. Usually smaller agencies. We did have a boss crawl like a cat and take cocaine off an office table once. Not sure that would happen now.

Oh when did pub lunches stop. I’ve not been in an office environment since the noughties. But have worked… Just for myself!

I loved pub Fridays

I had a Saturday job in a department store from 2001-2003 and there was a smoking room for staff. I don't even think it had windows!

We all had mini-fridges full of booze by our desks, smoking was allowed in offices, drug taking was encouraged. It wasn't unusual to find someone passed out at their desk in the morning having partied all night (Soho) and not made it home.

Senior married executives preying on young female staff & clients giving you a 'pat on the bum'. It was my first job and I was fortunate to have a powerful female boss who protected me.

Writing it down it sounds terrible, but It was a lot of fun when I was 20 and I managed to avoid anything serious happening to me.

I miss catered meetings. We used to have biscuits and coffee laid on for team meetings, actual bridge rolls for wider departmental meetings.

Anyone else remember those little sheep you used to have bouncing around on your computer screen? Every now and then one would catch fire and hurtle across in a trail of smoke. It wasn't a screen saver, they'd be active while you were trying to work.

I had a cleaning job at BNFL over the summer of 92 while at Uni and they had smoking at desks. It was a filthy nightmare, not just ash trays and butts but burn marks all over the bins, desks and chairs. Once I graduated I remember one smoking room that was closed in 1997 for similar reasons. Since then I've never worked anywhere that allowed smoking inside.

I'm surprised at the nurses still wearing hats in the noughties. Infection control was the big thing that got rid of hats in Scotland anyway. Hats were stopped in the 90s. National uniform came in somewhere in the late nineties or early 2000s, I think.
Smoking in the toilets was still a thing until the ban in 2006.
A lot of posts on this thread are about the nineties.

I started work in 2004 and tbh it was not very different to now. We went to the local pub on Fri lunchtimes but for food not booze and that's still OK now. Team bonding! It was a non-smoking office and I never experienced sexist behaviour - the split of men and women in my department was about 50/50.

We did need special permission to access the internet whereas now it's standard.

We used to go to the pub at lunch, neck two pints instead of eating then feel half cut until 5 when we went back to the pub, got hammered and generally copped off with someone from the office.

About 15 years ago I worked as a receptionist at a top London restaurant. All receptionists had to wear make up, high heels, and were not allowed to wear coats when on the door. I wonder if its still like that? 🤔

Being treated with respect. My boss last boss ( just quit my job) though the way to motivate people is to bully them.

Similar incident at my home, in the garden, resulting in a Harry Potter style zig zag cut on the forehead.

At VI form there was a smoking room, trips to the pub by car and after I had been away ill I went in with a bottle of wine to drink with friends in the lunch break.

One of the teachers married an ex pupil, not that long after she was a pupil.

Not the workplace, but my first uni tutorial for a subsidiary subject. I went along in fear and trembling, in case he said my essay was shite.

He was mid 20s, with a mid-Atlantic accent, and evidently fancied himself rotten.
’Your essay was fine - I’ve given you a B. Now, how’s your sex life?’

Ordering and hand delivering lunches for the partners, there was two “office juniors” - me and a male, but only I had to do lunches.

Being a 16 year old female in a law firm and basically the source of entertainment for all the (dirty fuckers) men, every time I walked through the office I was cat called - grim

There is a lot of stuff mentioned on here that has indeed disappeared from the workplace over the years however I think most of it went in the 90s. I have worked in the City since 1984 and a lot of the really bad behaviour went in the early 90s...

Smoking at your desk went very early 90s and followed by the presence of a staff smoking room but reckon smoking had gone full stop by mid 90s

It was fairly de rigeur to go to the pub for 3 or 4 pints on a Friday (more if you were a bond broker or Lloyds underwriter) - the advent of American corporate culture and the recession of the early 90s put a stop to that

Early 90s also saw the demise of the stripagram either on office premises or at the pub when someone was having leaving drinks.

Finally there seem to be a lot less office liaisons these days whether they be a casual shag after an event, affairs or proper relationships. Maybe I'm older so don't hear so much about this stuff but its definitely on the wane - think that one did start in the noughties.

Oh and the ban on women wearing trousers went just after I started so sometime in mid 80s. Even then though the restrictions on what men could wear was much more draconian than women - had to be a suit and tie. 'the ladies had the benefit of dressing for the weather particularly in summer.

When I started though blokes wore brown suits, knitted ties with a flat end - all sorts of things that would get you laughed out of the room these days. There was even a period in the 90s when a dark green suit was considered cutting edge by some of the younger lads - particularly if they were from Essex

I really would love to have a go at this.

edit: autocorrect

What are we like eh? Get us daring to be offended, ruining their sexist fun. Should I tell my current boss that if he wants to put his hand on my leg with his fingers between my thighs it’s ok as I thought it was unacceptable when it happened when I was 24 in 1995 but it turns out I’m not fun and I was just being easily offended and sensible. Silly me, what was I thinking?

I started working in 1989 and we couldn’t wear trousers until the mid 1990s.

I'm a primary school teacher now. We have a bottle of champagne before work the day after Ofsted has been and gone! Admittedly, it's one bottle between about 25 people so a tiny drop each but it still feels rather naughty!

They said ‘despite’ I don’t think they were saying that sexualised behaviour in the workplace is OK.

I was in a professional firm and it was relaxed in 1986 but take the point it didn't happen everywhere at the same time.

Still my overall point that a lot of bizarre things went away in the 90s gels with your experience.

Even the short time it was in place after I started work it seemed a bizarre rule to me and the girls I worked with hated it

Dress code for female staff that not only banned trousers but also stated that hemlines had to be ABOVE the knee! End of year “awards” given out for things like “best legs” etc. I won “best tits” several times.

The only reason why it was the dress code was because the branch manager said so, the Monday after he retired on the Friday women were wearing trousers.

I'm guessing he wore brown polysters suits and a flashers mac

Fax machines being regularly used.

Private offices for the bosses

Senior people expecting you to stand (in their private office) when you talked to them, whilst they were seated. Weird power play shit.

Raucous office parties at Christmas with shenanigans in the lifts, cleaners' cupboards, on desks, in the bosses private offices. People getting fired for being caught having sex in the lift.

Having pot plants in the office that we brought in from home, and looked after. They are all provided now as part of office decor.

Retirement parties. Proper ones where we all had a whip round, had a bit of a party, a speech from a senior person. A proper send-off after 40/50 years loyal service in THE SAME office.

Long-service awards.

Taking a flask in as there was only a tea trolley twice a day and no staff kitchen.

Actually taking a lunch break without people tutting or silently judging.

Recording annual leave on a paper form and being trusted to do that. Actually taking all of your holiday entitlement.

Roles being filled with new people when someone left - not like now where the work just gets spread around everyone left.

Using surnames and 'mrs' 'mr' quite regularly in the office.

Re page 3: I worked in a civil service office and a couple of the men had topless calendars. Me, a stroppy 18 year old feminist asked them to take them down, they laughed. I complained to my boss, got ignored. I went out and bought a 'Chippendale' style saucy semi-naked men's calendar and put it up. Absolute mayhem. The women loved it, the men were incensed and asked me to take it down as it was offensive. I said I would when they took theirs down, they didn't but decided to deface mine overnight. I complained to boss. Again. Was told to stop stirring up trouble. Bought another calendar. 😬. It went on for a few more days and then I won. No more calendars. A proud moment 😊😂