Things that used to be commonplace in the workplace

[Gloster]

In teaching, when I started in 1982, we had this thing called what sounded like ‘the Bander’. I have never seen it written down. It looked a bit like a small washing machine tub with a handle that you turned. You made a master sheet and it duplicated things like line maps and diagrams you had drawn in colour (or indeed just ordinary writing) and I think it smelt of alcohol. Unless that was the technician you had to ask to do your duplicating for you.

Seriously, can anyone else remember this, and was it just used in schools?

EDIT: and this has made me remember ‘The Gestetner’, which may have been a similar beast for typewritten things.

I have a feeling that we had a similar machine at my prep school in the early 1970s, although ours may have been a Roneo. Masters would type scripts out on special sheets, which then had to be carefully attached to a drum and a handle was wound to print out damp copies. The papers had to be carefully handled as they were liable to tear and it was easy to get ink everywhere, but the masters shrewdly gave the work to senior boarders, in the belief that they would take a certain immature pride in not making a mess.

 

[johnnychips]

See Wikipedia;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator

Banda, there's a video here - after the ads;

Thank you so much. This brings back so many memories, and I can smell it in my head now. And at last I know how to spell it. It is interesting that the narrator mentions it being used in schools, and also mentions a ‘Gestetner’: so that wasn’t a figment of my imagination either.

Edit: and thanks to @Peter Mugridge and @Gloster for your contributions: I just couldn’t wait to see the video.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Is that the one that smelt of meths?

 

[swt_passenger]

Thank you so much. This brings back so many memories, and I can smell it in my head now. And at last I know how to spell it. It is interesting that the narrator mentions it being used in schools, and also mentions a ‘Gestetner’: so that wasn’t a figment of my imagination either.

The Gestetner process was slightly different, and IIRC would do far more reliable copies from one master. I seem to remember referring to the Gestetner master copies as “skins“ - does that ring any bells? Could a Gestetner master be typed on?

 

[Ediswan]

Is that the one that smelt of meths?

Yes. The less organised the teachers were, the more likely they were to arrive with 'not quite dry' worksheets smelling of meths.

I have a feeling that we had a similar machine at my prep school in the early 1970s, although ours may have been a Roneo. Masters would type scripts out on special sheets, which then had to be carefully attached to a drum and a handle was wound to print out damp copies. The papers had to be carefully handled as they were liable to tear and it was easy to get ink everywhere, but the masters shrewdly gave the work to senior boarders, in the belief that they would take a certain immature pride in not making a mess.

If you had access to the right equipment, you could include photos. A photo was converted into a halftone stencil using a gadget I never saw. This stencil was then physically cut-n-pasted into a blank space left in the typed master sheet, using a special pink liquid as the adhesive. The pink liquid was also used as correcting fluid for typing errors.

 

[John Webb]

The Gestetner process was slightly different, and IIRC would do far more reliable copies from one master. I seem to remember referring to the Gestetner master copies as “skins“ - does that ring any bells? Could a Gestetner master be typed on?

Gestetner masters were typed on - not clear how it worked but the 'stencil' as I heard them referred to would then let the ink through the typed words. There was also a 'scanner' which could put photos on to a stencil, albeit of limited quality. My local church used to produce its church magazine this way - now we do it on a laptop, connected by USB or Ethernet to our 'multi-function printer' and get stapled and folded copies in full colour and of high quality in a matter of a few tens of seconds!

 

[yorksrob]

I was being a bit provocative there...when I first started, the tea lady's deputy (in her absence) was one of the male filing clerks. Yes, my governemnt office had blind typists, filing clerks and porters with mental and physical impairments, epileptics and thalidomide affected people in different roles and one of the chief officers in a wheelchair.

I remember in my office we all signed a petition to the management to keep our tea lady (to no avail sadly).

 

[philthetube]

To get away from offices how about gear levers on buses.

 

[pdq]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

Largely a thing of the past, at least in my experience. It still happens in call centres, but at least here, the culture is very much 'just get the job done' and no-one particularly pays any attention to breaks.

It works both ways: I once worked 16 hours flat out on a Thursday with only breaks to go to the toilet and to make coffee. When I finished the job, I sent an e-mail to the boss saying 'see you on Monday' and that was that.

 

[ChrisC]

In teaching, when I started in 1982, we had this thing called what sounded like ‘the Bander’. I have never seen it written down. It looked a bit like a small washing machine tub with a handle that you turned. You made a master sheet and it duplicated things like line maps and diagrams you had drawn in colour (or indeed just ordinary writing) and I think it smelt of alcohol. Unless that was the technician you had to ask to do your duplicating for you.

Seriously, can anyone else remember this, and was it just used in schools?

EDIT: and this has made me remember ‘The Gestetner’, which may have been a similar beast for typewritten things.

The Banda machine. That brings back memories. I can remember hand writing worksheets and printing them on the Banda. I remember the smell of the spirit and how it stained things purple. Before the days of computers very few people would have any typing skills and most teachers would hand write sheets for the Banda. I remember the BBC producing books of Banda worksheets to go with some of their tv and radio schools broadcasts which looked a bit more professional than the home produced ones. I used to order them and use them with my class for the Look and Read series. There were no technicians or teaching assistants in primary schools in those days so the teacher had to make and print all worksheets. That’s probably why the Banda sheets were often damp and smelly as they had been printed quickly during the lunch break.

 

[pdeaves]

Forms. Hundreds of forms. A form to request this, a form to write the letter to get typed, a form to take project notes, a form for anything you can possibly imagine.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

I haven't ever experienced office work with fixed breaks even back then. I suspect certain industries were perhaps more drawn to that approach, though.

I did contract for Nestle in Vevey in 2010-2012, and they still had a tea (well, Nescafe) lady! That did drive when people would have a break. But increasingly staff bought Nespresso machines and capsules at a heavy employee discount, so it was dying off and I don't believe they do it any more.

 

[route101]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

I find the case now is people quite often just eat their lunch at their desk. My previous job when WFH I took the whole hour quite often. In my new job in the office most people are scoffing down their lunch while they are working.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I find the case now is people quite often just eat their lunch at their desk. My previous job when WFH I took the whole hour quite often. In my new job in the office most people are scoffing down their lunch while they are working.

My employer's policy prohibits eating at desks other than small snacks e.g. a chocolate bar or piece of fruit. I wonder how many others do?

 

[gswindale]

My employer's policy prohibits eating at desks other than small snacks e.g. a chocolate bar or piece of fruit. I wonder how many others do?

It was frowned upon in our old office, but since we relocated post covid, it seems to be more common again.

I'm in 2 minds about it - it was nice to have a break, but it's also nice to work through and then leave the office earlier to beat the traffic.

I'm also unsure as to whether the disappearance of our "comfy" chairs from the kitchen area has had an impact!

 

[birchesgreen]

I find the case now is people quite often just eat their lunch at their desk. My previous job when WFH I took the whole hour quite often. In my new job in the office most people are scoffing down their lunch while they are working.

I eat my lunch at the desk about 11:50, then go out for "lunch" for an hour.

I've always done this though since i started work in 1995.

 

[John Webb]

My employer's policy prohibits eating at desks other than small snacks e.g. a chocolate bar or piece of fruit. I wonder how many others do?

I worked at Plessey's in Ilford 1967-69 and there was a complete ban in my department on eating fruit of any sort - we handled components using very fine wires and there was concern that acidic fruit juices might get onto the wires and cause long-term damage!

 

[Andyh82]

Post - we used to get no end of promotional material, trade magazines etc often addressed to either someone who had left, or people who still worked here either with old job titles, job titles they never had or pre-married names

They’d always be delivered from the post room who’d put all the post individually in internal envelopes.

 

[dgl]

I worked at Plessey's in Ilford 1967-69 and there was a complete ban in my department on eating fruit of any sort - we handled components using very fine wires and there was concern that acidic fruit juices might get onto the wires and cause long-term damage!

There were reports that I've heard from back in the day where that specific issue came up where it turned out that the women doing assembly (of valves?) had also been doing fruit picking as a side job and they found out that what they were assembling was failing prematurely.

One thing we have pretty much eliminated at work is the use of training DVD's, it's now all done online using Cornerstone and I believe only the extra Norovirus cleanup training requires watching a video.

 

[317 forever]

Maybe now I have turned 62 I rarely see in the office people younger than me!

 

[birchesgreen]

Maybe now I have turned 62 I rarely see in the office people younger than me!

Thats odd, i'm 51 and there is only 1 person in the entire company older than me! I'm older than most of my direct colleagues' fathers.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

I always take an hour for "downtime" unless I've got an appointment necessitating half an hour's lunch. An hour is much better for the mind and soul.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I always take an hour for "downtime" unless I've got an appointment necessitating half an hour's lunch. An hour is much better for the mind and soul.

I totally agree, I would rather work an hour late than lose my lunch. But it might be at 12:15 or it might be at 1:25, it depends how it best fits in that day.

 

[Cloud Strife]

I totally agree, I would rather work an hour late than lose my lunch. But it might be at 12:15 or it might be at 1:25, it depends how it best fits in that day.

I'm rather the opposite: I prefer frequent breaks throughout the day. I don't need an hour for lunch, but I need time for simply doing nothing.

One thing that surprised me recently was having a meeting with one very experienced (and now retired) businessman who was consulting with us on a project. He turned up in a suit, which was very surprising and left me feeling rather considerably underdressed: the norm here is very much 'business casual' and I don't remember when I last wore a suit for work purposes.

He picked up on this quickly though, and explained that it was 50 years of habit.

 

[High Dyke]

Someone mentioned Windows NT. I'm not certain whether TRUST still operates on that system anymore, but I believe it was set-up on that.

My first job was training on a Government slave scheme, I meant Youth Training Scheme (YTS). The local scheme agent was armaments manufacturer BMarco. The tea trolley, on the shop floor, had a male attendant.

To get away from offices how about gear levers on buses.

Good call. If it doesn't have a gear stick, it's not a proper bus.

 

[PG]

Are fixed break times still a 'thing', especially in offices? I temped in an office in the mid 2000s and found it incredible that everyone took their breaks at the same time, whether they were ready for a break or not.

Hospitals still have the concept of first/second break - illogically timed to be when they were busiest so you'd find yourself having a break then running around like a blue ar**d fly trying to catch up with half the staff or vice versa.

Forms. Hundreds of forms. A form to request this, a form to write the letter to get typed, a form to take project notes, a form for anything you can possibly imagine.

Plenty still in the NHS though some are now online and emailed to the relevant department. They are still coming up with new ones! Older forms are often copies of copies, as the master one has vanished, and so barely legible. Often called by some obscure/random name bearing little or no relation to their purpose.

 

[Roger1973]

When I started office based work round the end of the 1980s, set hours were still quite common - everyone started at this time, the office closed for a lunch hour, and everyone finished at that time. (I think there was some arrangement for covering the reception desk and telephone switchboard but can't remember what this was.)

With a move towards more flexi-time in offices, the expectation came that the office wouldn't close for lunch, and people would either sort it out among themselves or be on a more formal system so that there would always be someone in the office from X time to Y time, and start / lunch / finish times would be staggered.

There was still a telex machine, but all but one or two customers / suppliers had moved to fax by then.

Someone has referred to the boss being 'Mr Smith' - the first job I had, the boss was 'Mr John' rather than 'Mr Smith' (names changed) - as being a family firm, there had (until not that long before) been another Mr Smith (his older brother) there as well. I understand this wasn't uncommon at one time in family firms where there were either brothers, or father and son/s in the business. Not sure just how common it was even then.

This firm was a bit of a time warp in other respects as well, one branch in inner south London and another near Whitechapel, and not a single non-white employee in either, which I believe was not just by chance. And one accounts clerk there decorated the wall near his desk with 'page three' pictures which I expect isn't seen very often in workplaces now.

Smoking in the office and a liquid (or semi liquid) lunch was then still quite common.

Where I was in the early 90s, the place had one or two mobile phones for use if you for anyone who was going out and about - for emergency use only, and you had to account for any calls made - they were about handbag sized and had a shoulder strap to carry them.

 

[Pinza-C55]

I started work in an electronics factory at 16 and I would have to use Acetone and a solvent called Xylene to clean machine parts. Probably due to inhaling the fumes I suffered a number of blackouts in my teens.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I totally agree, I would rather work an hour late than lose my lunch. But it might be at 12:15 or it might be at 1:25, it depends how it best fits in that day.

I did just half an hour's lunch today because I need an early finish (made up the time gradually over the week) and I saw just why I need an hour 99% of the time. Fine for today as it's a shorter shift.