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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:
CornishGem1975 · 03/12/2023 13:32

Handovertothetedcross · 03/12/2023 12:54

I started work in the 1980's, I'd say 95% of the stuff on this thread took place in the 1990's and before, not the noughties which were 2000 onwards. My offices had stopped smoking, companies provided plants etc, maybe still down the pub on a Friday but only for lunch and a swift half by 2000. Things have changed so massively.

I last saw smoking in an office, in about 1996 and then it was Council offices. Never ever saw it anywhere else. A drink down the pub on Friday lunchtime was a thing until mid-noughties and we definitely still used the fax machine until about 2005 and then it slowly died out.

The use of email was nuts, we all used our work email for private use which looking back is bonkers. I would never ever send a private email from my work account now.

Agree with @Hastae that probably until late-noughties casual homophobia, and racism to some extent was common place. As was making awful sexist comments about women.

SheerLucks · 03/12/2023 13:35

In the offices I worked in from 2004 to 2009 there was a small dedicated smoking room. I didn't smoke but had to go in there once to find someone for an important call.

It was like a horror film - yellow walls etc...

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 03/12/2023 13:37

Handovertothetedcross · 03/12/2023 12:54

I started work in the 1980's, I'd say 95% of the stuff on this thread took place in the 1990's and before, not the noughties which were 2000 onwards. My offices had stopped smoking, companies provided plants etc, maybe still down the pub on a Friday but only for lunch and a swift half by 2000. Things have changed so massively.

Just because it didn't happen to you doesn't mean it didn't happen. I didn't start working in London until the noughties so my recollections are correct.
I remember - heavy boozing, affairs, smoking in offices, coke use, paid for nights out to strip clubs and loads more including a computer being thrown at a secretary by her manager. Where I worked was actually pretty square as it was law; where some of my friends and my DH worked (in banking) were 100 times worse.

Pippu · 03/12/2023 13:47

I remember the 90s as being much more sedate than the 70s.
In my first job my line manager smoked a pipe at his desk and had an afternoon nap at his desk.
We were public facing civil servants but there was no dress code, I used to rock up in ripped jeans. The Christmas parties were a riot. There was a pantomime and everyone got drunk, all on the premises.

Handovertothetedcross · 03/12/2023 13:54

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 03/12/2023 13:37

Just because it didn't happen to you doesn't mean it didn't happen. I didn't start working in London until the noughties so my recollections are correct.
I remember - heavy boozing, affairs, smoking in offices, coke use, paid for nights out to strip clubs and loads more including a computer being thrown at a secretary by her manager. Where I worked was actually pretty square as it was law; where some of my friends and my DH worked (in banking) were 100 times worse.

Show quote history

Yes you are quite right actually

roodulfrein · 03/12/2023 14:03

Namechanged for this.

Solicitor working in an old fashioned firm. We still (even now) go to the pub one lunchtime a week. Ladies day one day a week and gentleman another day. We can drink whatever we like and then go back to work!

GellerYeller · 03/12/2023 14:07

I remember our boss phasing out drinking alcohol on shift when they closed the on-site bar at head office. People continued to sneak wine and lager in.
Some bigwigs were due to visit from one of the Baltic states and he was adamant that only tea and coffee should be served. A colleague who had lived out there was insisting it was considered culturally very offensive not to offer vodka but he was having none of it.

Wheeeeee · 03/12/2023 14:13

Some male colleagues used to leave sex toys on the desk of a female coworker who they considered to be too uptight. This was 2005 and was shrugged off with a 'boys will be boys' kind of attitude.

Early 2000s I had a lecturer who would smoke during supervisions.

AInightingale · 03/12/2023 16:31

Yes I also remember a lot of homophobia as well. Gay people were in the closet, and if they did disclose their sexuality, it was gossiped about. Remember my older line manager handing me something one day and saying 'can you bring that down to what's his name, you know, that pouf down the stairs.' There was a solid core of males (incl the boss) in my office who made disparaging remarks about gay men non-stop.

Aurora2023 · 03/12/2023 16:39

In my first job in a very highly corporate Mayfair office :
Tea lady
Not being allowed to wear trousers or bare arms - and tights must be worn at all times.

Men were always referred to as Mr. Even junior post room staff. Ladies were not allowed to use men's first names.

Men had to put their jackets on if they left their offices (even to the loo)
Smoking in the office. Everyone smoked.

The pub MOST lunchtimes !
Shorthand and manual typewriters, and carbon paper. We did have a computer. An IBM. It was in a room and you had to book it a week in advance if you wanted to do a big report. It was called "The Machine" and boss men used to say "you'll have to book The Machine to do this report"

Oh. And Jimmy Savile coming to visit one of our Deputy Chairman one day. Confused

Aurora2023 · 03/12/2023 16:41

This was the 80's btw !! I now feel old.

Chrispackhamspoodle · 03/12/2023 16:50

I was a nurse then .Smoking room downstairs but at nights we used to smoke on the balcony of the ward.We also used to have 1-2 hour breaks on nights and sleep in one of the spare hospital beds.The whole hospital did this.As a student nurse on another ward there the ward sister gave us a bottle of champagne to crack open at midnight to share between 3 of us on the new year's eve nightshift...whilst caring for incredibly sick children.

Chrispackhamspoodle · 03/12/2023 16:53

Actually the champagne incident was 1997.

Bernardmanning · 03/12/2023 17:03

Apparently the men in my office used to all go to a strip joint for a pint on a Friday!

About 15 years ago, when ever a chap retired, he would often be gifted a dirty old man walking stick (with a mirror attached to the bottom) as a joke, along with a long handled implement to wipe their arse. I doubt that anyone would dare do that now.

fetchacloth · 03/12/2023 17:37

Teeheehee1579 · 02/12/2023 19:37

I miss the pub at lunchtimes. Every Friday without fail we would all go. Happy times!

Same here, haven't done that in a long time😐

clarissa1975 · 03/12/2023 17:45

Smoking in the office! Gross

PoshHorseyBird · 03/12/2023 17:46

Working at a yard in the early 90's we were all aged 16/17. The guy who delivered the hay was easily mid 50's and would insist we climbed up on the huge hay delivery to throw it down for him to stack in the barn. He would always grab your arse saying he was 'helping' you up. He didn't do it so much the day my best friend 'accidentally ' kicked him in the face as she was climbing up. Sadly it was just seen as normal, if you were a horsey girl, to be leered at and perved on. Now you'd be reporting him to the police!

Cottagewitch · 03/12/2023 17:46

I went on work experience while at school in early 2000s to a graphic design place. It was all men. In the room with the big giant printers there’s was page three girls plastered on the walls and they just sort of laughed and said ‘sorry about those, don’t look at them’

RachyKF · 03/12/2023 17:48

Going to the pub on a Friday for lunch and a few drinks, then going back to work in the afternoon. We were primary school teachers!

user1485851222 · 03/12/2023 17:51

Sexual harassment, dropping their trousers in front of you, groping, trapping you against a wall, I could go on....

ChezzaH71 · 03/12/2023 17:56

Glass of wine in the office every Friday afternoon!

touchscreen · 03/12/2023 18:01

management sharing photos of weird/shocking porn to the whole company
email list

Gowlett · 03/12/2023 18:03

Men in my office always enjoyed a look (I did wear short skirts) & felt free to say something, but they’d always go in for a feel too, at parties or drinks. I wasn’t the only one, it was normal.

Lostincyberspace · 03/12/2023 18:04

I had to do the office tea run..my male colleagues didn't have to...I refused and got hauled into the Head Typist and told that's what happens here.

Townlife · 03/12/2023 18:07

Bullying. Being mocked for my quiet personality in front of the other 5 or 6 members of our team, by a colleague. It was a normal afternoon, all getting on with our admin, when a colleague started on me without warning -
'Why are you so quiet? Don't you ever lose your rag? If someone was really nasty to you, how would you react?' Etc, etc. The others laughed along and I finished the day feeling mortified! 🤔

Another colleague made a point of hysterically laughing whenever my partner (now dh!) came up to see me, he worked on another floor.

Making fun of my voice when dealing with a difficult customer on the phone. The list goes on!

I WAS quiet, my natural personality. But I was always friendly, sociable and worked as part of the team. I was in my 20's then, now recently turned 50 and I don't see any of this behaviour where I work now. I don't think it would be tolerated, and looking back I probably had grounds for complaint!