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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

  • In my first 'proper' job, I had to run back-ups on the computer system each night. The computer was a giant grey box, at least a metre cubed in size, and the reserve computer to which I had to back up was the same size - the 'comms room' was VERY crowded. The backups were done using giant cassette tapes. If you wanted to print something off it was done on that stripey green and white paper with holes down each side, and the printer would wobble frantically from side to side as it printed stuff off.


    When I started work for my present company, as a call centre agent, we used a DOS based system (black screen with green writing) and nobody had a mouse - all the commands involved control key-strokes.


    And email?? What was that??? And I remember sitting in a management meeting when we pondered whether or not this weird 'internet' thing would ever take off ...


    Ah - memories! Fab thread - thanks for brightening my afternoon!


    A


     


     

  • At the age of 13, I worked two evenings a week in a launderette for 25p an hour plus tips!  It became a teenage drop in centre, and always warm, very popular and lots of fun .

    First proper job memories - special loos for the directors which even then I protested about, a lovely pie beautifully cooked at the canteen every lunchtime, my first golfball typewriter (oh bliss), and forty quid a week.   Oh, and Friday lunchtimes where work stopped and the weekend started.


  • My first job was in a bank and there was no such thing as MS Word and there was no Wordperfect either! Just DOS and a typewriter!

  • What a great thread!


    My first real job I walked onto a womens surgical ward and was asked to accompany a doctors round - we visited a woman and they removed her wound dressing to examine progress.  It exposed underlying organs (I'll say no more for the squeemish) I fainted and they had to drag me out beneath the curtains to revive me. 


    What a first impression.  Clearly I toughened up because surgery is definately my preference.


    How did I get into HR again?

  • @Cheryl - you'd make a good moderator. Fancy a sabbatical ;)

  • Any one remember Gestetner Stencil duplicting machines? - What a pain they were.


    In my first local authority we had a Chief Admin Officer who was a Major in the TA and had an office of his own with a huge leather topped desk, the rest of us were in an adjoining office with all desks lined up as at school facing his office door!   All senior managers were addressed as Mr or Mrs.


    When desk top computers arrived I remember one colleague placing the mouse on the screen and, moving it about, exclaiming "well this doesn't work".

  • We currently have a photocopier which will only accept 1 piece of paper at a time and no feeder.  Our accounts are still largely paid to our suppliers by cheque and all post coming onto site is still opened by a Director or Company Secretary.......!!
  • Nicola - we also still use the dymo tape for our swipe cards lol

  • Good thread!


    One of my first jobs was on a building site (2000), 17 years young. I was asked to fetch a long weight from the tool store. Being far too intelligent for that old joke the foreman and 4 others put me in a brick layers bath of wet cement and let me walk home in slowly stiffening clothes.


    I should of taken the long weight ; ) 

  • Steve, FABULOUS thread!  :-)  Reading the posts which mention food, loos and the hierarchy has just reminded me of one employer I joined in 1989 which had two canteens, one for the plebs and a smaller one with waitress service for the toffs.  When the site underwent a reorg the 'luxury' dining room was one of the casualties .....  Bless!