Changing workplaces over the years

My great Aunty Katie lived until she was 106, three centuries, and two millennia – can you imagine the changes she saw in her lifetime?  Horse drawn carriages to space travel!

In my first year of high school, we received a new state-of-the-art science textbook, provided by the school because they were too expensive for the majority of parents to buy, about fifty pounds each, more than most men earned in 1961, let alone women!  We read “Man has not conquered space” but he did.  On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin was launched into outer space, orbited the earth once and our very expensive text books were out of date.

Moving right along and armed with my Leaving Certificate, in 1966 I started work at the Commonwealth Bank in Stock and Share Department, whilst studying accountancy at night. I was a Stock and Share clerk and I loved it. Quickly passed my probation and then won my first grading, giving me an increase in salary of about $5 per fortnight!  But then someone realised I had not passed my typing test! Horror of horrors, I was a girl and I couldn’t type!  Off to the typing pool and type 40 words per minute or lose your grading and your five dollars!  I tried to argue that the boys doing my job didn’t have to type, but repeat after me “women officers have to pass a typing test at 40 words per minute”.

Well typing was not for me, the machines were manual and took some pretty heavy finger strength, plus I was not cutting my lovely manicured nails for anyone! Bye bye five dollars and bye bye Commonwealth Bank! Off I went to greener fields where the accountancy students weren’t required to type!

There I was in my own little cubicle, with my own filing cabinet, no typewriter and my own adding machine, manual of course! My office even had its own telephone and its own ashtray. That’s right, in those days we smoked at our desks. Morning tea was delivered by the tea lady, who also provided a single plain biscuit. If you required coffee you purchased it yourself. I remember conducting an external audit and receiving an invitation to join the Managing Director for morning tea in his office. I was offered a biscuit and before I could answer, the MD said “Two chocolate biscuits please” – apparently that established my status in his company.

Partners and senior members of the firm were addressed by as Mr., Mrs. or Miss and no-one dared use their first name.  Nothing was automated; you hand wrote cash books, journals and ledgers. You prepared trial balances, in pencil, on huge preprinted pads with headings Assets, Liabilities Income Expenses. When finally prepared the Income Tax Returns, complete with the Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statements and all other applicable attachments, were taken to Comptometer operators who checked all calculations. The returns were typed and finally, lodged with the Tax Department! Can you imagine? All of this with no calculators, no electric typewriters and NO computers!

I left these hallowed halls for a position as Office Manager of a Transport Company.  Here I was introduced to the joys of the telephone switchboard, the Accounting Machine and the “Girlie Calendar”, not in the office, but in the freight area. There was even a rule which effectively meant women were banned from the freight area so we wouldn’t embarrass the men by noticing their wall hangings! I don’t remember any female truck/van drivers in the early 1970s.

Travelling on, my career passed through a number of commercial and professional offices and many changes in the machines we used.  The manual typewriter was electrified, given a golf ball, then wonder of wonders, a whisperdisk – you could change typefaces! The manual adding machine was replaced by the calculator and it was small enough to carry in your purse; the comptometer and the IBM accounting machine went the way of the dinosaurs replaced by punch card machines and computers. What gargantuan monsters these were; the often inhabited a full floor, had millions of whirling bits and pieces and required their own, very cold, air conditioning unit.

Fast forward to more politically correct times and I even learned to type! It was inevitable; the power of the computer with its own floor was now on my desk. In fact the one I used was the most powerful computer in our office. It had been purchased for the MD, but as he wasn’t interested in using it, we swapped so I could prepare his PowerPoint presentations.

The Girlie Calendars disappeared from the walls, Miss and Mrs. were replaced by Ms and our Chairperson was one of the few people not addressed by his first name.  Political correctness meant Secretaries were now Personal Assistants, or Executive Assistant and we were never called girls, we were women.  Importantly for our status, and our salaries, men were invading the ranks of the EA. Walking into a Boardroom full of men, I overheard “I’ll have my girl contact yours”, followed by silence as they realised I was in the room. I couldn’t allow the embarrassment to continue so told the Director that at my age, it was a compliment to be called a girl and asked if I came back, would he please call me a girl again.

Fast forward again to 2014 and my mobile phone has more power than the “most powerful computer in our office”. It has replaced my home phone, my diary and even carries a number of books! On it I can “Hangout” and talk to like minded people, attend a conference, search for information, find a telephone number or use any of millions of “apps”.  If I want a bigger screen I open my laptop; I use Skype to speak to and see family and friends interstate and overseas; I’m even doing a university based literature course! I’m retired for now (second time), but I could return to work in a different state via “telecommuting” and without leaving my comfortable armchair. I have another 41 years to catch up to Aunty Katie, what will I see next?

What was your first workplace like? Were you allowed to smoke at your desk? How did your boss treat you? Share your working memories in the comments below…