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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:
theduchessofspork · 03/12/2023 18:07

Crushed23 · 02/12/2023 22:46

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.

Show quote history

I would love love to ban the endless use of the word passionate from the workplace

And I work in a creative industry these days, where people genuinely enjoy what they do

But it’s such bullshit

Blaupunkt · 03/12/2023 18:08

Mid nineties, being asked in a job interview if my husband minded me working nightshifts.

BlueFlowers5 · 03/12/2023 18:12

One boss went to the pub at lunchtime and came back to the office around 3.30pm to 4pm.

EveryOtherNameTaken · 03/12/2023 18:14

Smoking room being in the kitchen
Never having appraisals
Boozy lunches
Overt sexual comments

UnfriendMe · 03/12/2023 18:15

Teeheehee1579 · 02/12/2023 19:37

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

I was a child in the 90s but when I wasn't working remotely and lived in London we had pub lunch every Friday, and that was 2019.

Zone2NorthLondon · 03/12/2023 18:16

Worked in hospital where whole work place was related to each other,either family or by marriage. Layers of inbreeding,intermarriages,and gripes. You really had to tippy toe about and not cast any aspersions. It was banjo country

Tribblesarelovely · 03/12/2023 18:17

Working on the wards Christmas Day . There was always a trolley with nibbles and bottles of wine, we were allowed to partake of the goodies all day. Nobody was concerned so long as we weren’t actually falling over.

Gwenhwyfar · 03/12/2023 18:17

I'm glad I live on the continent. Having a small glass of wine with food at lunchtime is still OK. Why shouldn't it be unless you're a driver or a surgeon or something?

Baublewarble · 03/12/2023 18:18

Boss took us to a lunchtime strip club in a pub and asked two of us (women) to have a private dance with him. He was actually a really nice guy and this was considered pretty normal.

crapatmaths · 03/12/2023 18:18

Smoking at my desk. Boozy lunchtimes. Company I worked for stipulated that women weren't permitted to wear trousers, only skirts or dresses! I spent a bloody fortune on tights.

Gwenhwyfar · 03/12/2023 18:18

BlueFlowers5 · 03/12/2023 18:12

One boss went to the pub at lunchtime and came back to the office around 3.30pm to 4pm.

I had a boss like that once too. He also didn't arrive at work until 10.30, but he was elected by the member organisations so a bit different to someone appointed by a board.

BlueFlowers5 · 03/12/2023 18:19

In the early 90s, a Secret Santa that some used to send sex toys or frilly knickers. Dreadful.

Baublewarble · 03/12/2023 18:21

Oh and doing coke at the table in the pub, paid for by boss, on our team night out.

i didn’t start work till 2002 so this definitely was not the 90’s! @Handovertothetedcross

Gwenhwyfar · 03/12/2023 18:21

EveryOtherNameTaken · 03/12/2023 18:14

Smoking room being in the kitchen
Never having appraisals
Boozy lunches
Overt sexual comments

Never having appraisals is a good thing!
I made it to the age of 40 without an appraisal.
Then when I was about 41 I did a job where I had to have a 'one-to-one' practically every month so I guess I got punished for it.

dalecooper · 03/12/2023 18:22

Staff getting off with each other at parties…. even if they had boyfriend/girlfriends or were married. Not just at parties actually, after the pub on a Friday too.

Being asked if you were planning on having children soon before being offered a job or promotion.

Constant innuendo and just smiling at it.

daffodilandtulip · 03/12/2023 18:25

At the start of each shift, there was a designated "kitchen bitch" who had to make the drinks all shift.

And yes, smoking rooms in hospitals that you had to sit with people in (mental health).

Zone2NorthLondon · 03/12/2023 18:27

DIdnt see the 90s bit My experience was the 2000s as a new grad
Worked in hospital where whole work place was related to each other,either family or by marriage. Layers of inbreeding,intermarriages,and gripes. You really had to tippy toe about and not cast any aspersions. It was banjo country

ALightOverThere · 03/12/2023 18:27

Last day of a temp placement, got back from lunch to find that my three male colleagues had papered my workspace with hardcore porn “for a laugh as it’s your last day”.

SoSo99 · 03/12/2023 18:30

After I had an interview for a PhD, the two profs apparently said to their research group: should we go for the one with the nice legs or nice tits (which I heard about after I'd taken the role.... FYI I wasn't the candidate with the 'nice tits'). Actually, the profs were nice supportive blokes who really tried their best, but that kind of banter was accecptable at the time. In fact, it was only during that time that I realised the limitations of being female in the workplace...at school and during my undergraduate degree, I hadn't realised that being female would mean that you were going to be treated any different.

MaggieBroonofGlebeSt · 03/12/2023 18:33

Gwenhwyfar · 03/12/2023 18:21

Never having appraisals is a good thing!
I made it to the age of 40 without an appraisal.
Then when I was about 41 I did a job where I had to have a 'one-to-one' practically every month so I guess I got punished for it.

Show quote history

My office is talking about bringing in the horror of 360 appraisals.
I have pointed out what I always do, that people who don't manage you, aren't in your team and don't understand your priorities giving anonymous feedback is ridiculous. It's a form of bullying imo.

SellFridges · 03/12/2023 18:36

I worked in the City in the mid noughties. It was normal to go to the pub on Fridays, where I would be bought a bottle of wine by my boss. We’d only go back when the first senior person did, unless he gave us permission to stay. We also went to the pub at lunch if it was anyone’s birthday which seemed to be at least once a week. Thursday nights were big as well.

When recruiting for my replacement, the men in the office held up voting panels out of ten for each one.

I was back in the area for a meeting a few weeks ago and I noticed that the pub we frequented most often was still busy at lunch (on a Monday).

boohooloo · 03/12/2023 18:41

Phones on desks and ringing! Answering with company name and your name :)

Sexism and sexual harassment rife (Mid 00's not nineties!)

Thethruththewholetruth · 03/12/2023 18:41

I was in the military and quite frankly it was the best time of my life. Work was actually fun. You could joke and laugh without being scared of saying the wrong thing or getting the sack, or god forbid “offend” anyone. The boss smoked in the office, quite a bit of sexual innuendo but we gave as good as we got so it didn’t bother me in the slightest. The drinking and social aspect made life a lot of fun. I miss those days.

StoneTheCrone · 03/12/2023 18:42

It was 1999 and I was leaving a hellish job. The boss's daughter ordered a male strip-a-gram as it was my last day. Everyone had to troop down to the great hall and then stood around clapping and cheering as this sweaty muscleman stripped down to a thong, waved his arse in my face and grabbed my tits to the sound of 'I'm too Sexy' by Right Said Fred.

Mortifying.

PJsAndRainyDays · 03/12/2023 18:43

The whole office getting a lecture about cocaine usage after senior members of staff were giving it to graduates at parties.
Same senior members of staff coming on to junior members of staff and constant lewd jokes and comments.
Long boozy lunches every Friday afternoon in J Sheekys and trying not to puke in my bin once getting back to the office.
No one doing much work ever.
Working in advertising was fun in the 2000s.