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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

  • 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 !

Reply

  • 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 !

Children
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