Oh my goodness!  I remember all of these things - the telex machine, the manual typewriter, carbon paper, typewriter rubbers  that just made a horrible mess(!!), etc etc.  We also had 'messengers' for each department who spent the whole day taking memos, mail and messages around the whole building.  My first proper job was as an invoice typist working a 37 hour week for the sum of £14 - slave labour!!!   It was a very large engineering company that I worked for which employed hundreds of men and relatively few women.  The one thing that sticks in my mind is that on Wednesdays and Fridays the women got an extra 15 minute lunch break so that they could go to the market to do their shopping!!!  

All this was way back in 1974 and although it sounds very archaic, but it was what was the 'norm' at the time and I loved it!  No e-mails, no mobile phones, and you actually had a life outside work!  These days we're contactable 24/7 so there's no 'switching off'.

I wonder what will have changed and what memories people willhave of the workplace when they look back in another 40 years.   

Seeing those last posts tickled me.  I just remembered my first HR position working for a tour operator in London.  The Director phoned me in Scotland and said we have an HR admin post in London, but it starts on Monday can you use a computer?  I said yes, (well I had 6 years earlier at college -the cobolt, hole punch thing) and that I would relocate over the weekend.  It was my inroad to HR, what I'd wanted for a few years.

I did relocate to Bucks and on my first day was faced with WP5.1 - what a shock.  Thankfully one of the interviewers had switched it on for me (it had booted up) and I was able to type letters. (Fortunately I had my own office.)  

I had no idea how to set margins, so was measuring the screen etc.  Not only that, I had no idea how to print, save or close down.  By accident I found out how to print, so printed everything, but saved nothing.  Every night to shut down I unplugged it, becuase I didn't know how to shut down. 

I was getting so distressed by the whole process that by the Friday morning I'd resigned myself to coming in and owning up to the Director.  She wasn't in till 10 am.  However, I had an epiphany that morning and by good fortune and some inspirational logic I suddenly discovered the secrets of saving, file directories etc.  I was saved!  I did tell the Director a month later - by which stage I was indespensable.  She was highly amused but congratulated me on my courage and cheek.

However, I can still feel the horrible dread of having to come clean about my computer experience being from the Ark.

Back in 1993 I decided I wanted to become a secretary and had to learn on a manual typewriter.  In 1994 though the college got a number of electric typewriters and computers, using Word Perfect 5.1 ...ahh... the comfort of a blue and white screen!  We also had to use carbon paper, tippex and/or eraser pens.  I was also taught shorthand and audio typing - I don't think I've used either of these for at least 15 years.

 I got my first proper job at a local university at the end of 1994 on their secretarial bank.  I remember my complete panic when faced with a 'posting' to the security department who were the only ones to use Microsft windows.  It took me ages to work out how to use it!

I had a job typing telexes. Remember them? 

I remember when the office got email. It came in to one special computer and twice a day someone would go, print out any emails and hand deliver them to the appropriate person.

 I also remember couriering floppy disks of data to and from clients before we could email large files. 

 Sigh....  

I'm just remembering my most embarrasing moment after starting my first office job at 17 in the late 80's, working for a construction company. I'd taken a tray of teas into the board room, when I went back to collect the empty cups, the manager said to me "can we have quieter cups next time please?"  I'm still not sure whether I was shaking due to nerves or struggling to walk on my excessively high white stilletto heels !

Thinking about tippex, I remember having a full range of colours to match the carbon copy pages of the invoice pad...... and using white to touch up marks on my heels!!

I remember my first job doing a paper round, you came in marked the papers up, and left the shop at 7am.  I did the longest route going furthest from the shop.  Nobody worrried about a 13 year old girl cycling round in the dark wearing no helmet.  I wonder if that would be allowed now?

When I was 16 I 'upgraded' to getting saturday job in a shop whilst I was doing my A Levels.  There was a old, small, very tall stockroom and I would spend most of the day running up and down very rickety tall step ladders with no training.  The manager of the shop proudly told me that he was the first store manager to be known by his first name rather than Mr such and such.   After work we all went down the pub! 

During the school/university holidays I would work as many hours and days as possible to earn money, there was no working time regulations then.

I also remember the manager telling me that how ridiculous that it was that everyone was now entitled to maternity pay even 'saturday girls'.

 This was in the 90's so it wasn't that long ago!

@ Tony, I also worked for the local authority and had to use a gestetner!!!

I started on a YTS scheme in 1985 and one of my first worries was that I had to use the telephone, we didn't have one at home!!! I worked in the post room which was run the the most scariest of women (I still shudder when I think of her!), we used to have a tea break every morning and afternoon and woe betide anyone who interupted us, all sat round the big sorting desk.  All the bosses were called Mr & Mrs, we wern't allowed to use paper clips, the opening of the envelope had to be on the right hand side as you looked at the address, all letters had to go through the typing pool and people smoked at their desks. Even though it now seems archaic it did give me a good grounding.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these threads.

Being much older than most of those posting, I started my first job in 1974 at the local brewery as an invoice clerk. 

I started at 9am but had to be there at 8.45am (unpaid) to ensure that the seam of the paper bin in the Manager's office lined up exactly with the corner.  I also had to ensure that the rug, in front of the coal fire, was absolutely central.  Taking a ruler and measuring the same amount of rug either side of the fender.

The paid working day ended at 5pm and at 5.01pm exactly we had to assembly in the Manager's office to recap the day.  We usually managed to leave the building at 5.15pm and my bus left at 5.10pm!  The next one didn't arrive for another 30 minutes hence my addiction to lemon & lime ice cream floats in the Wimpey Bar.

Those were the days.

@ Elaine Robertson, you made me smile because I had *exactly* the same experience as you with the computer whilst working on the bank at Whitechapel Hospital - no idea how to turn on, save, print or close down and the only training I had was trial and error!

I think I might have been wrongly promoted from filing to secretarial because my only aptitude test at interview stage was having to recite the alphabet (which of course I could only do to the rhythm of the alphabet song!).  

 

I too remember the Gestetner Stencil Duplicating machines and using the pink fluid to correct mistakes.  Also returning the carriage on the manual typewriter and seeing the first IBM electronic memory typewriter.  I also remember using sheets of carbon paper to make copies. Making photocopies and posting in pigeon holes.  Having to dial every number - before the invention of speed dial (at least them I could remember the numbers that I used regularly).

Ah the memories .....

My first proper job was with Tesco - started December 1984.  There were two vacancies for Technical Writers in the HR & Training Department - I got one and a lad the same age as me got the other.  I was paid £5,000 a year and he got £6,000 because he was male !  

We had to handwrite the distance learning training manuals and the typing pool would type up my scribbles using a Wang word processor.  The text would print out on that paper with holes down the side.  We had a graphics department who would cut and stick the text onto artwork and a photographic department who would take the photos, which were printed in our own darkroom and then also stuck onto the artwork.

We had a fabulous canteen, we took morning and afternoon breaks, and everyone spent two hours in the pub next door on a friday.

I used to roam the country visiting stores in my company car, and spent many a day stuck in traffic on the motorways and unable to let anyone know where I was because no one had a mobile phone. 

When email arrived, many years later, it was white out of a green screen, and we had two or three terminals for a department of about 40 people. 

Ah those were the days !

In my first job as Secretary in a firm of Consulting Engineers in 1976 I had a manual typewriter.  I then got an electric typewriter where the characters took up different amounts of space so if you made a mistake and had to use the Tippex sheet you had to try and re-position the paper in the exact spot (an "m" took up 5 spaces, an "l" 2).  When preparing reports for clients you typed up the first draft  and any amendments, for example inserting a new paragraph or moving paragraphs around, had to be done with scissors and magic tape.  When the report was photocopied you (hopefully) couldn't see the joins!

When working in an accountants office in 1986 we worked in a bank of four desks put together.  One woman smoked and had an ashtray (usually filled) on her desk in amongst all the files and paperwork.  No-one dared to complain about the smell, smoke or potential fire hazard!

 

My very first job after leaving University was working in a Ship Chandlers export office.  We had to type all the export paperwork on manual machines using carbons and I wasn't allowed to make a mistake.  All the older staff were called Mr or Mrs but the junior staff were all first names.  I wasn't allowed to wear trousers to work as this was not deemed as appropriate dress - the MD didn't like girls in trousers (I think that's why I wear them all the time now).  The days were very rigid - you started at 9 and finished at 5.30 - breaks were timed and you were never late.  All my breaks were taking in the canteen - we would never have thought about going out for lunch.  It was a strict enviroment but sometimes I pass the disused builiding where I worked and I think about my days there as happy ones!!

Ah yes, Clare, those were the days - when the shop workers got reasonable time off on Thursday afternoons and Sundays, and you had to find imaginative things to do with your leisure time instead of trekking round the shops...

We actually worked less hard in those pre-computer days than we do now. on average. (I'm talking about the seventies here, when I was in my first proper job).  Although one thing I don't miss is using Gestetner duplicating machines with stencils and utterly indelibly printer ink that unfailingly found its way onto your white shirt cuffs even if you rolled your sleeves up. And that red correcting fluid with a smell that blew your mind...

Before Tippex or photocopiers we had long, pre-prepared stencil sheets that you corrected with some evil smelling flourescent pink stuff.   As I remember it (which is probably pretty iffy), you had to somehow attach the stencil to a machine and then crank a handle to get the copies.  And the stencil always used to fall off, or rip.  I can't remember what this system was called, though, which is another thing that has changed dramatically since I started work in the late 1970s.  Back then I could remember whole telephone directories of information and now my memory ... sorry, what was this thread about, again???