Things that happened in the 90s work place that wouldn't happen now

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

Well it might have been just my very unprofessional one but anyway.
1.Smoking in the break room.No windows that opened and around and 6-8 people at a time smoking in a small room
2.Stripper.
Male stripper turned up to the office for a woman's birthday surprise.No music just him gyrating on her,there might have been a can of whipped cream involved.
3.No HR no nothing.Just a sadistic manager.

Anyone else have memories?

I remember going home from work (in bars and restaurants) stinking of smoke. My hair, my clothes....people would sit at the bar and smoke right at me. I never smoked and always thought it was disgusting. I was working in Ireland in a restaurant when they brought in the smoking ban (early 2004?) and I was absolutely thrilled about it.

I remember last minute rosters...being told on a Sunday when you're working for the week ahead. I hope it's not still like that in that industry as it was hard to plan things.

Burn holes in your new clothes for people walking past you with a lit cig in the pub/nightclub.Remember it well!

We would sit with patients on hospital wards (psychiatric) having a cigarette together and a chat.

Working in a shop as a 14 year old and being paid cash in hand.

Using a fax machine
Using a Minicom machine (text machine for the deaf).

Both replaced by email.

I worked in a therapeutic role in my early 20s and my manager in his 40s was someone I really looked up to. Anyway he declared he had feelings for me and that I could change supervisor if I wanted. He presented himself as this good guy doing the right thing. I was young and naive but at least I managed to challenge this saying he’d told me to see how I’d react. He got angry, insisting ‘I’m not a creep’. Ugh. I do hope that these men would be afraid of doing things like this now, probably sadly not.

I had a job as a secretary to a sales team. One day, during a team meeting where I was taking minutes, I got up from the desk to go and fetch biscuits for the team. When I put them on the table in the middle several of them made jokes about me bending over and then the boss grabbed me and pulled me onto his lap. 😳This was followed by laughing from the team and lots of 'wey heys' and all that kind of male bullshit.

All middle aged married men, and I was in my early 20's 🙄

That would NEVER happen today.

Fax machines! Omg yes

sitting on a switchboard in a tiny airless room for hours taking each and every call that came in.

then we moved to giving out direct dial numbers on correspondence.

now it’s pretty much emails only or we will call you back (from home or office they dont know our location).

The first few schools I worked in women weren't allowed to wear trousers.
I was in an infant school and I taught reception!

3 pints of beer at lunchtime.

Two large global companies that I worked for in the late ‘90s had staff social clubs with bars in the office. One of them also served wine and beer by the glass in the canteen…it was the last stop before the till!! But, the CEO of that business at the time was French…

Women had to wear skirts in my first office job in the mid to late 90s.

Yes we had to wear skirts in one secondary I taught in.
One teacher in her 20s got a bollocking for turning up in cords on a day when she’d struggled (but managed) to get in on really bad snow from 15 miles away!

These days, we’d not be in on the snow day.

Booze at lunchtime. Going back and being rightly accused by the manager of being half cut. Nothing else being said. Those were the days!

Smoking on flights

Smoking in staff room

Wine at work at lunch time, from a box

Everyone clapping you into a massive office if you were late.

people just getting on with their jobs

Ah the beauty of customer first, in customer service these days!

half a shandy at lunch time while working in a chicken factory
occasional drink at lunch time while working as a medical secretary. drink at the desk on a friday afternoon. smoking in my office, glass of wine and a cigarette in the clinic room with the consultant and the matron, after the clinic was over

people just getting on with their jobs

Ah yes, I forgot that one..

Creepy Mark. I used to work in a building society and it was well known that if you were in the office upstairs at the end of the day totalling the cheques (used to take it in turns) that Creepy Mark would find a reason to be in the room and creep up behind you and start massaging your shoulders or your neck. We just used to tell him to fuck off and shrug out of his grasp. The female manager knew all about it too and just used to laugh about it. Would definitely never happen today! Also when I started my first office job all the managers with their own office used to smoke in there. Bizarre when you think about it.

I had my first ever annual review at work in the local pub. We ran through the form and then had three pints and went back to work.
Fridays were the day we didn't come back from the pub after lunch (unless you left your coat in the office!).

Same for me in East London. We had to wear skirts and heels. Then there was a big influx of Bengali pupils and someone at the council came out and told female staff to wear longer skirts.
Eventually trousers were allowed in I think 98.

I was still using a fax machine for part of my job in 2012, which was bonkers.
They were a pita.

Worse things happened in the 70s/ early 80s TBH.

An hours break for lunch in a school where we went out for lunch and and a pint on fridays! Then headed back to teach lesson 5!