Following on from the long-running and now locked thread on things that used to be commonplace in the home at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/things-that-used-to-be-common-place-in-people’s-homes.212936/ I thought how about a similar thread on things (facilities, pieces of equipment, items of furniture, practices and even types of job) that used to be commonplace in the workplace but that have now largely or completely died out or are less common than they once were.
This can include examples from offices, factories or any other type of workplace.
Here are a few to start you off:
Manual typewriters.
Duplicators for duplicating documents (e.g. Gestetner duplicators).
Telex machines.
Fax machines - they are still around but are used much less now than in the 1990s and early 2000s and are slowly dying out (see also this thread on whether the fax machine will ever disappear completely: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/will-the-fax-machine-ever-disappear-completely.224255/)
Audio cassette recorders for recording letters to be typed by secretaries/typists, who would then listen to them with earphones and type the letter as they heard it on the tape.
Modern technology has also meant that secretaries themselves are now much less common, and where they still exist they are often called Personal Assistants instead.
Microfiche readers - not sure if they are still used today. They were still being used at my university library when I was a student in the 1990s. You could use them to read archive copies of old newspapers, for example.
Manual date stamps for stamping documents (and for stamping the due back date in library books). Post Offices still use manual date stamps.
Ashtrays in the days when office workers could freely light up at their desks (which I think was allowed in most offices until about the late 1980s/early '90s).
Indoor smoking rooms in the 1990s and early 2000s.
This can include examples from offices, factories or any other type of workplace.
Here are a few to start you off:
Manual typewriters.
Duplicators for duplicating documents (e.g. Gestetner duplicators).
Telex machines.
Fax machines - they are still around but are used much less now than in the 1990s and early 2000s and are slowly dying out (see also this thread on whether the fax machine will ever disappear completely: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/will-the-fax-machine-ever-disappear-completely.224255/)
Audio cassette recorders for recording letters to be typed by secretaries/typists, who would then listen to them with earphones and type the letter as they heard it on the tape.
Modern technology has also meant that secretaries themselves are now much less common, and where they still exist they are often called Personal Assistants instead.
Microfiche readers - not sure if they are still used today. They were still being used at my university library when I was a student in the 1990s. You could use them to read archive copies of old newspapers, for example.
Manual date stamps for stamping documents (and for stamping the due back date in library books). Post Offices still use manual date stamps.
Ashtrays in the days when office workers could freely light up at their desks (which I think was allowed in most offices until about the late 1980s/early '90s).
Indoor smoking rooms in the 1990s and early 2000s.
) had a male wheeling the tea trolley in their Housing Department offices in the early/mid 1970s: he was someone who had suffered 'shell shock' while in the Army during the Second World War, and it was then a legal requirement for large organisations and firms to employ a certain percentage of workers who had impairments. He was a very pleasant, placid man and we all made sure he was treated well: anyone who didn't soon got the message very publically from the formidable boss.
