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I remember typing pools...

Steve Bridger

I remember my first day at work. The summer of 1981. County Hall. The smell of polished corridors and trolleys laden three-feet high with leaver arch files and buff folders. I opened a door and there it was: The Typing Pool. Page 3 of The Sun were always plastered on the walls of the printing unit whenever I was asked to make errands. We still had a few discussion threads on that topic in the early days here - in 2004!


And I've seen Made in Dagenham, the movie!


I only mention this as the CIPD published a report called Work Audit today, a fascinating look at how the world of work has changed
in Britain since 1952.


I thought we could share our own compelling vignettes of social history comparing changes in the way we work.


What do you reckon?


Steve

Parents

  • My first job was an admin position using a manual typewriter, carbon paper and those funny bits of tippex paper that Gemma mentions.  The company was a food stores firm run by a family (Budgens if anyone remembers them) and lots of circulars, paperwork and other similar stuff were sent to the stores so there was always a last minute flurry with stuffing papers into pigeon holes.

    As for email: during my first training role in 1994 my employer at that time was rolling out Lotus ccMail and everyone started to grapple with the concept of a message mysteriously disappearing into the ether before appearing on someone's screen.  One employee was totally unconvinced about the whole thing and told me she would still print out a copy of the message and pop it into the internal mail ...  Aaaaaaaaarrgh!

    And one other thing which has changed altho' I'm deviating slightly - the nuisance factor of shops closing early on Wednesdays and NEVER being open on Sundays!  How did we cope?????  :-D

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  • My first job was an admin position using a manual typewriter, carbon paper and those funny bits of tippex paper that Gemma mentions.  The company was a food stores firm run by a family (Budgens if anyone remembers them) and lots of circulars, paperwork and other similar stuff were sent to the stores so there was always a last minute flurry with stuffing papers into pigeon holes.

    As for email: during my first training role in 1994 my employer at that time was rolling out Lotus ccMail and everyone started to grapple with the concept of a message mysteriously disappearing into the ether before appearing on someone's screen.  One employee was totally unconvinced about the whole thing and told me she would still print out a copy of the message and pop it into the internal mail ...  Aaaaaaaaarrgh!

    And one other thing which has changed altho' I'm deviating slightly - the nuisance factor of shops closing early on Wednesdays and NEVER being open on Sundays!  How did we cope?????  :-D

Children
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