What was it like going to work in the 60s, 70s and 80s?

[CaliforniaMan]

Another sea story and a peek at a dark side of that era.

My first trip we drove a ton and a half stake truck full or oceanographic gear from San Diego to Puget Sound, must have been around 1968, three of us, me, a first year graduate student (who later became a director) and a high school student under some study program, who never told anyone until we were well underway that he had never driven a stick shift, much less a ton and a half truck, loaded to the gills with heavy equipment.

My first oceanographic cruise, a young man of 20 living his dream. I think it was in the summer of 1968.

On the trip out of Puget Sound the captain and crew were telling jokes. While at that age I enjoyed the "farmers daughter" jokes, when it got around to the racist ones I spoke my mind no matter who I was talking to, as a foolish 20 year old often does. It got into quite a heated argument between me and the captain, raised voices, and the captains bulging blood vessels, and only me arguing my side.

Finally the chief scientist, who had graciously invited me to participate in the cruise, took me aside and told me there was a time and a place for everything, now was not the time or place to argue with the captain of the ship. He was the captain! He realized as I didn't, how important good relations with the captain were to a successful outcome. He agreed with my positions but not my hot headed techniques.

I remember one thing the captain said, "wait till you start paying taxes, then you will understand." I guess he thought somehow paying taxes would make me see the light and become racist like him and the crew. It is an example of how outwardly racist society was during that period. You were the odd ball if you were not racist.

As with computers, office equipment, women in the workplace and race, it was a time of change and transition from the old world, old ways of thinking, old ways of doing things, to more like the environment we have today.

It was an interesting time to be a part of.

 

[marko]

Finally the chief scientist, who had graciously invited me to participate in the cruise, took me aside and told me there was a time and a place for everything, now was not the time or place to argue with the captain of the ship. He was the captain! He realized as I didn't, how important good relations with the captain were to a successful outcome. He agreed with my positions but not my hot headed techniques.
.

Had a similar blessing from our kindly, older COO who took me aside when I was 24 and 'fighting the dragons'. He told me to: "Fight the battles you think you can win; don't take on every cause".

He didn't have to do that for me... I was just a young punk in my first supervisory role, but it did set me on a better course.

Bless him.

 

[CaliforniaMan]

Had a similar blessing from our kindly, older COO who took me aside when I was 24 and 'fighting the dragons'. He told me to: "Fight the battles you think you can win; don't take on every cause".

He didn't have to do that for me... I was just a young punk in my first supervisory role, but it did set me on a better course.

Bless him.

Yes, bless those that helped us along the way. I find myself having those same kind of talks with my mid-20s son that your COO had with you. Somehow that apple did not fall far from the tree.

I remember years later talking to the guy I had worked for, and who was chief scientist on that cruise and telling him that I had someone really good working for me but couldn't always get him to do what I told him to do. He said something like, "Well you never did what I told you to do either. Just hire the best people and let them do their work." It kind of floored me.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Ah yes, the pink WYWO message pads. One place I worked got the newfangled voicemail but the PHB decided it was unprofessional to have a machine take a message except after hours. So phones continued to be forwarded to the Secretary who would take a message. Twice a day, at lunch and quitting time, she'd take the pile of slips and put them in the employees' mailboxes. So there was at least a half-day delay in receiving messages.

Wow! They still make those things.

 

[aja8888]

Ah yes, the pink WYWO message pads. One place I worked got the newfangled voicemail but the PHB decided it was unprofessional to have a machine take a message except after hours. So phones continued to be forwarded to the Secretary who would take a message. Twice a day, at lunch and quitting time, she'd take the pile of slips and put them in the employees' mailboxes. So there was at least a half-day delay in receiving messages.

Wow! They still make those things.

Office Supplies,Printer Ink,Toner,Computers,Printers&Office Furniture|Staples®

Our office still uses them.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Thankfully during my w*rking days, I didn't spend too much time in an actual office setting. One thing I *hated* when I first joined the AF was the prolific smoking. When I was an aircraft maintenance guy, the techs were shuttled from plane to plane in a 'bread truck'. When it was cold outside, the doors would be closed and 10 of the 12 guys on the truck would chain smoke for the entire shift. It was a miserable experience but thankfully that only lasted about a year before smoking on the truck was banned.


Oh and who remembers this as a kid?

 

[aja8888]

Oh and who remembers this as a kid?

Sniffing the mimeograph paper ink?

 

[SJ1_]

My job is more difficult than other folks jobs.
Nobody could do my job as well as I do my job.
I could do most other jobs better than those people do.

Three common beliefs about our jobs and other jobs.

I have observed a few jobs where the bell rings and the folks are out the door. Bargaining unit jobs, some government jobs, some lower jobs at the university. But those jobs are not stress free either.

For some reason, most jobs have to pay people to get them to show up.

+1

I was in IT 31 yrs. and looked a number of times at changing and never did.
Found that IT was not that bad after all compared to most other professions.

 

[athena53]

Well... I remember getting a pay envelope that was so heavy with silver coins (before the clad base metal coins where minted) that it ripped a hole in my suit pocket.
Just kidding.

My Dad said that at the steel plant where he was a manager, there was a huge pushback when they switched from pay envelopes with cash, to paychecks. A lot of the guys kept their wives ignorant about what they made and just gave them grocery money. (Mom did the finances in our house so it wasn't a problem for Dad.)

I was never paid in cash and my first job out of college was at a very early adapter (1975) of direct deposit. The holding company also owned a bank and you had to open an account there so your check could be deposited. One coworker said it annoyed her husband that her name HAD to be on top since she was the one who worked there. If you were a chronic check-bouncer they'd cut you down to writing two checks a month (that's how often we were paid).

When I first joined Prudential in 1985 they were still paying weekly. They took a long time switching to biweekly.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Sniffing the mimeograph paper ink?

Yep. I didn't say it was smartest thing to do.

 

[manerac]

Ah, yes, the overhead projector... Replaced now by Powerpoint presentations, but still as painful...

"No job is finished until there's a Powerpoint presentation..."

I still slip up sometimes and call my PP slides "viewgraphs".

 

[Amethyst]

As a young new supervisor, I put an Air Force enlisted guy in for an end-of-tour medal which he richly deserved, seeing that he was pulling the weight for the other 3 uniformed pikers on my little team. I got a senior NCO's advice on filling out the forms and did everything 100% according to Hoyle. The fellow never got his medal; the request was "lost" somewhere and nobody knew what happened. Later, I learned that my star employee had had to leave the military because he'd been outed as gay.

Amethyst

A It is an example of how outwardly racist society was during that period. You were the odd ball if you were not racist.

.

 

[Walt34]

Yes, we had those still when I started. Occasionally we would use them for pranks.

We had the pink message pads too, and the pranks were many and often. I can't post what they were or I'd get moderated. Let your imagination run with it.

 

[Scubamax]

In the 1980's I worked at an insurance company which had a big office in Chicago. It was an oppressive sort of place full of people who did not like their jobs. Totally open plan except for 3 offices in the corner, so the noise level was considerable, let alone the smoke. Three dumb terminals which linked into the Home Office system, and had a very crude e-mail message system but once a message was read and you logged off it was automatically deleted.

Also had a PC in the corner that was used to run one report every month.

You were not allowed to leave the floor except at lunch (strictly 45 minutes in length, and only could be taken at the pre-authorized time). The only exception was payday, when you got 20 minutes that morning to go off site to the bank to deposit your check. I always looked forward to that escape.

The cheapness factor was really extreme. Every employee was allowed 2 pens, 2 pencils, and 2 pads of paper. If you ran out of one of these items, you would go to the person in charge of supplies and they would require in the case of a new pencil the old one back first, which would have to have less than 2 inches remaining on it. Pens would have to be non functional or out of ink, and if you wanted a new legal pad of paper you had to return that cardboard backing in order to get a fresh pad.

If you lost or misplaced any of these office supplies you were out of luck!

Oh, yeah, post-it notes were not deemed necessary by the boss so were not tolerated!

 

[jon-nyc]

What a nightmare.

 

[athena53]

The cheapness factor was really extreme. Every employee was allowed 2 pens, 2 pencils, and 2 pads of paper. If you ran out of one of these items, you would go to the person in charge of supplies and they would require in the case of a new pencil the old one back first, which would have to have less than 2 inches remaining on it. Pens would have to be non functional or out of ink, and if you wanted a new legal pad of paper you had to return that cardboard backing in order to get a fresh pad.

If you lost or misplaced any of these office supplies you were out of luck!

A coworker once told me that the way a company handled supplies told you everything about what it was like to work there!

I worked in Cincinnati a few years after graduation and one large employer was a life insurance company. They had bells that went off when you were supposed to be at your desk, when you could leave for lunch, etc. I was also at an insurer but it was far more liberal. A few people defected to the life insurance company but I would have lasted about 3 days there.

 

[JoeWras]

Geeez. Some of you basically worked under prison conditions! Wow.

 

[aja8888]

Geeez. Some of you basically worked under prison conditions! Wow.

If you were in a Fed prison, you probably had it better.

 

[marko]

Geeez. Some of you basically worked under prison conditions! Wow.

And yet, I keep being told that terrible working conditions, cheap bosses, greedy corporations and abused workers are a new and recent phenomenon.

 

[MRG]

My first job in IT (early 80s) was really eye opening. In mills there were very few women in the office.

My first IT job our director was a woman and the workplace was 40% female. I enjoyed those early years, not much for politics at my level so it was enjoyable and I was learning a tremendous amout of useful skills.

I did work with a gal that was friendly we did several enjoyable projects together. Our female director had transfered out to be replaced by a rude crude man, that happened to be the guy that placed me at Megacorp. My female cow*rker asked me to attend a meeting with the new pervy director, that really had nothing to do with me. I said sure but I'm confused what my role was. She got a little red in the face and blurted out "that pervert plays pocket pool with himself whenever I'm alone with him. I don't know how to handle it". We laughed, and I volunteered to be present. What a perv, sexual harassment was next to impossible to prove back then.

Went through periods of the office supply nazi, suppies available 4 hours a week. Then the chair nazi took over, all chairs has to be pushed in at just the right height, facing the exact same direction. Failure to do so would generate a nasty voice mail to you and your manager.

I later w*rked on a team that was led by a former USMC, he never said no to any impossible task. I recall one he volunteered for, seemed like there was no way it could ever happen. I gave him crap for volunteering and how did he think this would ever work. True to form he looked at me said I knew you wanted to help. How are WE going to make this work. We did made it work(lot of late nights) and he gave me a fair share of credit.

 

[HFWR]

I've punched a time clock, had 30-min lunch, and breaks that happened when the "break guy/gal" reached your machine. Most "foremen" were promoted because they were the biggest a-hole in the department.

In the meantime, you stamped out metal parts over and over and over...

 

[marko]

She got a little red in the face and blurted out "that pervert plays pocket pool with himself whenever I'm alone with him. I don't know how to handle it". We laughed, and I volunteered to be present. What a perv, sexual harassment was next to impossible to prove back then.
.

Yeah, my very first admin would have guys drop over to chat during the day. There was one guy...she just said to me one day: "whenever he comes over here DON"T LEAVE THE AREA!" It was kind of a command.

 

[ERD50]

And yet, I keep being told that terrible working conditions, cheap bosses, greedy corporations and abused workers are a new and recent phenomenon.

Excellent point! We've had a few posters that I've accused of revisionist history - they'd make all these claims about how much better things used to be. And it was not to be questioned!

-ERD50

 

[Meadbh]

Excellent point! We've had a few posters that I've accused of revisionist history - they'd make all these claims about how much better things used to be. And it was not to be questioned!

-ERD50

Not being questioned was a feature of working in those times. The culture was much more hierarchical.

 

[marko]

Excellent point! We've had a few posters that I've accused of revisionist history - they'd make all these claims about how much better things used to be. And it was not to be questioned!

-ERD50

Maybe there's this general equilibrium of things over time.

Some bad things get replaced by good things and some good things get replaced by bad things. Net zero.

But...off topic.