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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

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  • Ah yes, Clare....the hole in the paper.  And the brush thing at the end of those pencil erasers.   And did you have to do that thing in exams where, if the document you were typing had a table in it, you typed your horizontal lines then you had to take the paper out of the typewrite, turn it round 90 degrees, line it up correctly so you could type your vertical lines.....with no space between where the lines joined.  Cheats way (when not in exam situation) was to type the horizontal lines and then do the vertical lines with black biro and ruler :)  And as for having to retype the whole document if your boss changed his (unlikely her) mind re perhaps one sentence.....grrrr

    On a serious note, guess we can all see now that the typing pool was a waste of money when peeps can do their own typing, but I guess also there was some anti-feeling at the time, doing people out of their jobs etc.  We have similar today- online banking has resulted in a reduction of workforce (can't remember when I  last spoke to someone over the counter in a bank) and as for self-checkout in the supermarkets....still a long way to go with that, but it will be the norm in the future, and people will still groan about technology doing people out of jobs.  But where would we be without technology?   Any Luddites out there?

    (Steve...are you aiming for a record high of posts on a thread?  Think you might achive on this.)

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  • Ah yes, Clare....the hole in the paper.  And the brush thing at the end of those pencil erasers.   And did you have to do that thing in exams where, if the document you were typing had a table in it, you typed your horizontal lines then you had to take the paper out of the typewrite, turn it round 90 degrees, line it up correctly so you could type your vertical lines.....with no space between where the lines joined.  Cheats way (when not in exam situation) was to type the horizontal lines and then do the vertical lines with black biro and ruler :)  And as for having to retype the whole document if your boss changed his (unlikely her) mind re perhaps one sentence.....grrrr

    On a serious note, guess we can all see now that the typing pool was a waste of money when peeps can do their own typing, but I guess also there was some anti-feeling at the time, doing people out of their jobs etc.  We have similar today- online banking has resulted in a reduction of workforce (can't remember when I  last spoke to someone over the counter in a bank) and as for self-checkout in the supermarkets....still a long way to go with that, but it will be the norm in the future, and people will still groan about technology doing people out of jobs.  But where would we be without technology?   Any Luddites out there?

    (Steve...are you aiming for a record high of posts on a thread?  Think you might achive on this.)

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