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?

Why would working in 30 degree heat with no aircon or blinds cause everyone to get ill - I did it for decades with no ill effects? However no-one was expected to wear tights in summer, although one girl I worked with wore black opaque tights all year round by choice.

I can't believe some of these things are from the 90s. There were certainly no strippers anywhere I worked - in any decade.

Good grief! I wore trousers in my office job in the 70s (I don't know why as in more recent times I hated the thought of wearing them to work).

We even had Playboy come round offering $500 for a topless (tits out) photo at my librarian job on campus in the 1990s for their annual sexy college girls edition. It was all approved by the President of the college and they went round soliciting at all the campus buildings.

I have seen strippers at some after parties on business trips that involved wining and dining VIPs. Which is how the whole fine line of dress smart and attractively but not too sexy otherwise you won’t be taken seriously still exists in women’s business wear because back in the 90s you’d be mistaken for entertainment instead of a colleague or even their superior on the corporate ladder.

I remember pigeonholes, memos and the internal post. At my first job we regularly sent documents to clients by motorbike courier - the company spent a fortune on these bikers who zoomed all over London delivering things that would just be shared via email now.

We also spent a lot of time typing up letters to clients on our one shared office computer and sending them out by post. I loved the franking machine 😆

When I started working in the media in the late 90s, other than the ‘any excuse for a piss up’ culture already mentioned, there was rampant sexual harassment and sexism that went unchecked. A day didn’t go by without some bloke commenting on my clothes, figure, level of attractiveness etc, Senior men leched over junior women constantly, asked them out for drinks, propositioned them regularly. My 50 year old, married boss pestered me (22, very junior) constantly to ‘go out for a drink’ with him, and when I told my senior female colleague, she told me not to talk about it to anyone again or I wouldn’t last long at the organisation 😳

In my induction meeting with my new boss on my first day, a 17 year old straight out of school me was told that, in addition to being my new boss, he was also the sexual harassment officer, and if I wasn’t getting enough sexual harassment I should come to him.

I remember seeing lots of calendars with topless women everywhere. Companies would send out calendars to advertise their tool businesses with topless or fully naked women too. I work in a very male centered industry and going to different workshops and there being boobs on the walls everywhere made it very awkward especially as a teenager when I started my career. I would draw bras on some of them when they were put up on the wall at my work too. I always found it really weird and cringey.
also much older men casually patting you on the bottom and commenting on my body. Disgusting! I was only 16 when I started in my industry and it was completely gross. I remember going on nights out round the town and would feel many men grabbing my bottom just walking to the bar through a crowd. Then one day a popular coronation street actor was cancelled for doing it to a woman and at first I thought that’s really extreme him losing his job for just grabbing a bottom as it was so normalised to me back then but now I’m so glad attitudes have shifted slightly. I know it’s not perfect but at least men do sometimes get called out for it now.

No wonder millenials are looking younger 😂 seems everyone was covered in cigarette smoke and drinking all day

I was told this at the end of the 1990s that I was very lucky women were now permitted to wear trousers to work at my very male dominated workplace. I fired back that as a female surveyor (thin on the ground in those days) I would have difficulty performing site visits and donning overalls while wearing a skirt!

Do you mean all of the women were on term time only contracts by default?

If not, lots of women still work these hours - including me!

My aging memory must be giving up. Most of the things I'm reading here were nowhere to be seen in the 90s anywhere I worked or had cause to visit. The 70s maybe.

I did work experience in the 90s when I was 14. I was paired with a creepy man in his 50s who kept trying to pull me onto his lap and wanted me to sit on his desk when I answered the phone. I told my mum how horrified I was, but she thought he was 'sweet'! Thankfully, where I work now that sort of behaviour wouldn't be tolerated.

Anyone remember the old Telex machine where you had to type the message on a keyboard and the machine created a 'tape' of perforated dots to represent the letters? It was painfully slow to create the tape, but once you had dialled up the recipient, it absolutely flew through the machine as it transmitted!

We had an arrangement with a local hotel who used to give us PAs shopping vouchers in exchange for booking rooms at the hotel for our customers and clients. I made a fortune from that - bought perfume,make-up, handbags, clothes, food, homeware, etc. Pretty sure it must have been illegal!

Yes, I have no recollection of women not being able to wear trousers or having to wear heels. I worked for Penguin the publishers in the late 80s and wore trousers then, as did my 2 female bosses. I tended to wear low-heeled boots. I wore trousers all through the 90s as I'm not a fan of skirts. It must be industry-dependent. Also, I can't remember having to call anyone Mr or Mrs at work. All first names.

I guess that just shows that not all work places are/were the same.

I started a job in late 80s and trousers weren't allowed and I don't recall any women wearing them when I left 10 years later.

Men were also not meant to wear brown suits although I dont think that was much of an issue

What industry was that please? I'm genuinely surprised to hear about these clothing restrictions and what you were supposed to call people at work.

An incident I remember when I was a pupil at primary school in 1990 was that when I was ill, the "dinner lady" on first aid duty flatly refused to call my dad at his office, because he would "be too busy at work". (Maybe she'd had a bad experience with calling other fathers at work!) Even I knew, at the age of nine, that he was much easier to contact than my mum, who was a secondary school teacher, but my voice on this was not heard. This dinner lady also noted that by my mum's contact details, she had written "with great difficulty - explain it is an emergency". I had to stay in school all day.

I was 19 in 1990, I worked in an office attached to a warehouse (delivery company).

topless calendars in the staff room, we had to take breaks one at a time so you’d be there on your own with lots of men.
they would put the calendars or magazines with topless women on them in my face and ask me if mine were like that
Having my bum felt up and being told I had no sense of humour for not liking it
All the women in the office having a crush on the guy that delivered boxes of paper multiple times a week

I have obviously led a very dull life - none of this would have been remotely likely in my working days (70s - 2020) 😂

Yes, I never wore heels to work in my entire working life. I did call my bosses Mr at work, but only in the 70s, after that it was first names.