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?

Having your annual appraisal interview in the pub.

In my first job I was asked if I minded working with black people!

Ha, I did that with one of my team last year. It was s posh hotel bar to be fair...

NHS: we used to go to the hospital social club, get drunk, probably finish about 2am, then start work at 8am.

Oh I remember the computers taking up a whole room. That was the only room with aircon.

I would love it if we still had a tea lady.

My first job, mid90s.

First task of the day was to open all the post and date-stamp everything so you knew when it has been received. Some letters went straight into files. The ones for action had to be written down in a big ledger - who they were from and date received - then put into people's in-tray.

Phone calls throughout the day; again, take the details and write it into a big book so that the appropriate person could action.

There was a whole room in our relatively small offices completely given over to paper files on every wall (it also had no windows and was grim but two people had their desks there).

Second job we were writing code on an ISO9001 project but long boozy lunches were not uncommon. Then back to your desk to write code.

I was a teacher - my first 2 schools had smoking staff rooms. That was 1998 - 2003ish

Smoking in work, offices, break rooms etc
Working in an office in the middle of a factory, walking through in sandals, no hard hat. Going out on the yards to collect paperwork again in normal clothes, no safety shoes etc.
Lots of page 3 pin ups and calendars around the place, lots of banter and fun with the guys in the factory, hugs etc.
My manager being really annoyed when I got pregnant and telling me she had a department to run and don’t think about having a second too soon afterwards
Coming back to work after the baby on a lower hourly wage as I’d gone slightly part time. Same job but she felt I wasn’t as committed so reduced my wage.

Gosh so many. These are in different offices through out the 90s:

Stripper during a board meeting
Ashtrays at desks
A senior director giving a junior member of staff a bunny girl outfit as a gift (during woo week, those in ad agencies might remember that)
Drinking at lunchtime, sometimes smoking grass on the roof of the building
The ‘while you’re down there’ comments from men if you bent to pick something up
An office league of best bums of the women in the company
A bar in the office and beers wheeled round at 5pm (in fairness I think that still happens in some places)
Walking in my boss’s office and finding him passed out drunk on the floor at 5pm. Called in a colleague, who just gave him a light kick with the comment ‘he’ll sleep it off’. (Not the same office as the one with a bar)

Just remembered this was 1994 when I started, the medical form on joining asked whether I’d had any issues with my periods that may mean I could miss work 🤨

Toilets that were clear cut and not a source of constant angst. Ones for people born with a vagina and ones for people born with a penis, and if you were lucky one for people who had a disability, no matter what bits and bobs they were born with. Was a simple system.

Oh gosh we also used to have a big meeting every couple of months with all the big cheeses from the company. Two days would be blocked out in my diary to

• assemble all of the pages for the agenda pack, usually 100+ pages
• make over 100 photocopies of the pack (at this point they'd be stacked all around the office in mini piles of 10)
• use the horrible binding machine to punch and comb-bind each pack so that everyone got a fat booklet of agenda items.

We would then envelope these and post them out in advance to every attendee using the franking machine, and fax copies of relevant stuff to colleagues on other offices around the country.

In our place (major UK insurance company), if the boss hung back and let you go to the bar first to get the drinks, you were OK. If they went first, you were being prepared for bad news.

A manager from another department wandering through saying "hello girls, thanks for the great work on xxxxx," and giving each of us a few Wethers Originals (and not giving any to the guys).

Searching the entire floor for the big hole puncher and the electric stapler

The first paragraph is true for about 80% of our workforce. There are a few departments who hot desk and a some who have public facing roles. Even our buildings maintenance staff have personal lockers.

Getting told as a new recruit to always keep a desk between me and the male boss and to keep his office door open.

It was advice I passed onto the next recruit.

One of us girls would wait outside his office ready to interrupt if we thought the boss with his long arms was getting too handsy.

Funnily enough it made all the "girls" have something in common with one another and made us gel as a team.

I'm the 80s everyone smoked at their desks in the office I worked in.

There was no such thing as HR; just a woman in a back office with the door shut who did the wages & salaries, and the boss's PA would deal with personnel, hiring and firing paperwork etc.

Female staff of all ages were routinely described as 'the girls in the office' and were still praised if they wore short skirts and high heels.

A woman as a company director? You have got to be joking.

lots of hospitals in Ireland still use fax machines to place their orders for medicine. they are converted to emails whe come into our system.

Place I worked in part of 80s-90s had a day in the summer months when summer day trips took place. If you went on one of the trips annual leave didn't need to be used. The building was still open for a few grumps who wanted to come in. If you wanted to stay at home, you had to take leave. There were 2 or 3 trips depending on interest. One was always a boozy trip to the seaside, the others somewhere for shopping, historic house/NT property/gardens, theme park.

Luncheon vouchers as part of your wages!

lots of booze as previously mentioned on Friday lunchtimes and after work

This reminded me about the pre-employment medical I had for a job I was offered in 1995. It was a very comprehensive medical and it ended up with me being referred to a gynaecologist because they thought I had “an excessively large ovary”. The job was for internal audit in a bank so not sure how my ovaries would impact my role!!

(Actually, the gynaecologist diagnosed my PCOS so it was very helpful for me)

A male colleague discovered he had a heart murmur during his pre-employment medical.

Early 90s office job - many of my colleagues smoked at their desks. Late 90s - I was in charge of producing a load of written materials on paper.

I started my first job in the civil service in 1995. When I started they had only stopped using Mr, Mrs, Miss X for all colleagues a year before.

We had individual phones but no voicemail- if we didn’t answer, another colleague would transfer it so they could answer instead, which was embarrassing if it was my DM or other personal call (no email or mobiles so it was the only way to get hold of me).

We got email about six months after I started - until then you either rang colleagues or typed out a memo, printed it, folded it in half and stapled it shut, put it in a tray and a guy trundled round a couple of times a day with a trolley, picked it up and delivered it to another department, who did the same in reverse to reply - a total faff basically.

Senior colleagues with their own offices could smoke there, and the staff Christmas party, held in the offices, was WILD (to a 20 yo!) with everyone hammered and a lot of snogging and general drama. Happy times

Getting fired for being pregnant was a particular highlight for me.