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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:
sgtmajormum · 03/12/2023 21:32

Beer on Fridays. Someone would walk round the offices on a Friday at 4pm handing out cans if lager (we would all be driving home as the office was nowhere near public transport)
It was seen as totally normal.

KitchenDancefloor · 03/12/2023 21:36

Just being expected to do a job.

No induction, objectives, mentoring, training or decent management.

Somehow stuff got done!

MidnightMeltdown · 03/12/2023 21:41

I was still in school/full time education throughout the noughties but this sounds absolutely fucking horrendous.

I might have expected some of this stuff in the 80s but I can't believe that it was happening in the 2000s!

DiamandaTheGreat · 03/12/2023 21:43

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.

The great hall?! Where were you working, a Viking settlement? 😁

In all seriousness, this sounds horrific and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

DiamandaTheGreat · 03/12/2023 21:47

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.

Out of interest, does this thread make you wonder whether all the joking and laughing with no thought of causing offence, and all the sexual innuendo, might have adversely affected some colleagues?

KitchenDancefloor · 03/12/2023 21:48

I've just had a flashback to my male director asking to see my belly button piercing in front of the whole office.

I bloody did as well.

It's taken me 20 years to think 'well that's not very professional!'

It would be unthinkable with the male colleagues I have now. And no one wants to see what's underneath my clothes anymore Wink

user1471556818 · 03/12/2023 21:49

Wild parties in Dr's residences and nurses home in hospital grounds. Hungover in the mornings having a blast of oxygen and some medicines for nausea .Most people smoking in staff room

Cedar13 · 03/12/2023 21:57

I started work in 1998 in a big general hospital and there was a social club which had brown walls from all the smoke. There was also a few smoking rooms.
We would go to the social club for cheesy chips and a fag! Lots of people having a pint at lunchtime.

Teentrauma · 03/12/2023 22:00

Such a great thread!

For me, this was more 80s/90s, things had started changing by 2000, although I was working for a very corporate American company by then.

I remember:

Smoking in the office. I had a horrible manager with a disgusting yellow stained office who made me responsible for ensuring there was a spare pack of fags in his desk at all times. I forgot one day and he went ballistic. Once smoking was banned in the office, those who smoked would go outside on frequent fag breaks and many of us who didn't smoke would go with them! None of my colleagues smoke now.

Cracking open the wine on a Friday afternoon, or every afternoon in the run up to Christmas. Locking a manager in his office because he was so pissed and out of control.

Mucking about and playing practical jokes on each other when we were supposed to be working.

Lavish Christmas parties with lots of outrageous drunken behaviour and equally lavish staff gifts.

Sending memos through the internal post after photocopying them and highlighting each cc.

Computer print outs on that paper with green lines and holes on the side.

The frustration when the 65 page report you were trying to fax wouldn't go through.

The novelty of email and using it to email friends or send jokes around the office.

Electronic typewriters and booking time on The Word Processor for big reports and saving it on floppy discs.

I think the office I work in now is actually quite laid back by today's standards and we do have a laugh when we can, but nothing like the olden days!

ProfCee · 03/12/2023 22:03

96 hour long 'on call' rosters

BinkyBeaufort · 03/12/2023 22:08

An office full of young women - about 8 of us - all rushing to leave the room at the end of the day, knowing that whoever was last would get their bottom pinched, or worse, by our disgusting manager.
It never occurred to any of us to report him, as being predated on was just one of the many disadvantages of being female (along with being passed over for promotion by any hopeless male).
Needless to say there was no great sadness when he suddenly died.

WhatNoUsername · 03/12/2023 22:10

DungareesAndTrombones · 02/12/2023 20:29

I was one of 2 women in a workforce of about 150. We had a smoking cabin half way up the site and the men would kindly hide their porn mags when I went for a cigarette. We also used to go for a few pints at lunch!

Oooo what gentleman! 😂😂😂

whatevss · 03/12/2023 22:13

Toilet decoupaged with top shelf magazine pages. Every inch of the walls and ceiling. Must have taken a fecking age.

WhatNoUsername · 03/12/2023 22:26

Papyrophile · 02/12/2023 22:19

Most of you seem to remember life being more enjoyable then than it is now. Have we gone too puritanical?

Yes we absolutely have. I think a lot of joy/fun has gone out of life especially working life.

MrsLighthouse · 03/12/2023 22:48

Drinking at work …wine in mugs at desks. And warnings about the bosses to avoid being alone with as they were lecherous but nothing being done about it.

VK456 · 03/12/2023 22:50

There was a genuine phone extension in the pub nearest the hospital I worked in so that staff could answer their bleeps.

Elly46 · 03/12/2023 22:52

Kellioo · 02/12/2023 20:03

Tea lady with a trolley.
Being told to wear my shortest skirt at trade exhibitions.
Smoking rooms.
Nipple tassels for secret Santa.

I worked for an insurance replacement company. about 25 years ago. I was brought along to a trade exhibition as a kind of mascot I guess; to attract people to the stand. The outfit they wanted me to wear was indecent. I was 22. I went but didn’t wear the outfit, I wore fitted trousers and a top that was more revealing than I’d have liked. It makes me cross when I think how I got roped in to this and that they didn’t want me there for my work merits.

Chocoswirl · 03/12/2023 22:55

StSwithinsDay · 02/12/2023 19:38

Sitting next to colleagues who smoked at their desks all day.

This. Also getting edible underwear as a Secret Santa present. And having to eat it in front of everyone.

That could easily still happen at our work parties 😂

messiejessie · 03/12/2023 22:59

I was called ‘sex’ by the managing director, and “hot lips’ by the financial director. It was my first job after graduating and I wore an M&S trouser suit. I was taken aside by HR and told “In this office , we don’t wear trousers”.

threatmatrix · 03/12/2023 23:20

Reading all these reply’s just makes me remember how free we were.

Baublewarble · 03/12/2023 23:23

Reading all these reply’s just makes me remember how free we were.

correction. Men were. Assuming you’re a man

ErinBell01 · 03/12/2023 23:33

GodDammitCecil · 02/12/2023 22:21

Possibly.

But it’s also just us middle-agers, nostalgic about a time in our lives when we were young and carefree.

But I wonder what today's young things will remember fondly about their working life in 20 or 30 years' time?

TLDRfuckers · 03/12/2023 23:39

Having to share toilets with men who self ID as women and displaying my whimsical made-up pronouns on my email signature and zoom, oh wait, that madness is now. If only we knew back then…

fetchacloth · 03/12/2023 23:46

I attended a job interview in the early 90s and the interviewer spotted my wedding ring and enquired when I was expecting to start a family. I calmly replied that my husband and I hadn't even thought about it yet.
I reported this matter back to the recruitment agency that sent me for the interview.
I got the job offer though and accepted it 😊

These days it would be unthinkable.

JennySayQuoi · 03/12/2023 23:46

Mid-80s, you could smoke in the 6th form common room!