Odd work practices

[GaryMG4]

Whilst answering the Tomato Energy thread some memories from when I started working for one of the regional gas companies back in the late 1970s. I went there as a senior programmer, grade SO 5 or 6,grades were so important then. On my start day I was introduced to what I can only describe as the stationery monitor. This man's job was to sit in his office, about the size of an average bathroom and hand out stationery as required. So I was duly issued with my coding pad, a spiral bound notepad a couple of pencils, a ruler, a red biro and a blue biro. I was told I had to take my empty biro back to have it replaced, I can't remember what happened about the rest. I think this man retired not long after I joined and it was then just a stationery cupboard.
They did have a tea trolly from which you could buy a tea or coffee and in the morning they often had crusty rolls with either a slice of ham or slab of cheese, so not all bad.
Anyone else have memories of like this?

 

[Ian Key]

I remember at school we used to have a "rough book" in which to write notes about homework and memory aids that didn't need to be written in the lesson book for that subject.

When it was full you had to take it to the deputy heads office at 12 o'clock to get a replacement and he used to examine every page to make sure it was full. If he found even a quarter of a page unused somewhere in the middle you were told to go away and come back when it was full. Which was fine but you could never find those notes again.

It was his way of exerting power over teenagers as he was 5 foot nothing and most of us were nearly 6 foot

 

[GaryMG4]

'Little man' syndrome. As an IT contractor I came across a few people like that over the years. Mostly it was just hostility because we were contractors and outsiders but occasionally they were people who had absolute control over their tiny empire and needed everyone to know it.

 

[EvTek23]

Yep, I remember back in the 80's the tea trolley. 10.30 in the morning you'd hear the cry "Trolley trolley trolley" and there would be Pearl waiting to serve you. The tea and coffee was free, but rolls and snacks had to be bought. A great time to catch up with people who would otherwise be buried away in their departments. It was a great leveller of peoples jobs and skills,, engineers, managers, secretary's all there for a common purpose and a chin wag!
We also had a technical stores, and stores catalogue with a specific pad to write out what you wanted. A ring on the counter bell and Charles would appear and scuttle off to get the bits in your list. After several trips having bought out the wrong component you'd get the right bits in the end and off you'd go to put them in whatever you were working on.
Great days of organisation, now all gone, a pantry and coffee machine replacing the trolley, and a much depleted stores within each department resulting in things having to be ordered for each job.

 

[T1 Terry]

Whilst answering the Tomato Energy thread some memories from when I started working for one of the regional gas companies back in the late 1970s. I went there as a senior programmer, grade SO 5 or 6,grades were so important then. On my start day I was introduced to what I can only describe as the stationery monitor. This man's job was to sit in his office, about the size of an average bathroom and hand out stationery as required. So I was duly issued with my coding pad, a spiral bound notepad a couple of pencils, a ruler, a red biro and a blue biro. I was told I had to take my empty biro back to have it replaced, I can't remember what happened about the rest. I think this man retired not long after I joined and it was then just a stationery cupboard.
They did have a tea trolly from which you could buy a tea or coffee and in the morning they often had crusty rolls with either a slice of ham or slab of cheese, so not all bad.
Anyone else have memories of like this?

What about pepper and salt on the tomato?

T1 Terry

Yep, I remember back in the 80's the tea trolley. 10.30 in the morning you'd hear the cry "Trolley trolley trolley" and there would be Pearl waiting to serve you. The tea and coffee was free, but rolls and snacks had to be bought. A great time to catch up with people who would otherwise be buried away in their departments. It was a great leveller of peoples jobs and skills,, engineers, managers, secretary's all there for a common purpose and a chin wag!
We also had a technical stores, and stores catalogue with a specific pad to write out what you wanted. A ring on the counter bell and Charles would appear and scuttle off to get the bits in your list. After several trips having bought out the wrong component you'd get the right bits in the end and off you'd go to put them in whatever you were working on.
Great days of organisation, now all gone, a pantry and coffee machine replacing the trolley, and a much depleted stores within each department resulting in things having to be ordered for each job.

I worked as a contract hydraulic fitter at a major crane construction company. When I first started there, they had two people in the store and you had to bring back the broken drill bit or empty tin of thread cutting compound, or the pieces of the broken thread tap ..... like you can get the broken pieces out when it breaks The fitters dept had a store cupboard with various pieces of broken drill and tap so you had the required buts to get a replacement ..... discovered afterwards that the cleaner would collect the tray of broken bits and put them in the fitters store cupboard in exchange for getting things fixed rather than having to go through the painful process of submitting a repair request and explanation of how the item broke to the in house maintenance dept When I was employed to work as a fitter in the maintenance dept, I would call through the fitters area and pick up anything that needed repairing for the cleaner that kept me in good with the fitters and I'd get a lot more work in their dept that way, maintenance couldn't take anyone from the production side, but we were free game for the fitters dept ... until I proved that I could work on my own without screwing up ...... then I was contacted directly by phone the afternoon before to see if I was available to work for a mth or so because they needed to catch up on their backlog .... never lasted longer than 6 weeks because I'd have caught up the backlog by being given the complete build of the powerplant and hydraulics on the next crane in the build program ...... never twigged that the problem was I worked too fast
The full time fitters initially resented me, but later I was "the man" because I'd take the pressure off so they could do all their "foreigner" jobs during work time Later discovered I was paid more that twice as much as the full time fitters, can't blame them for not working hard, they just stayed there because they had access to some really good equipment to manufacture their "foreigner orders" which is where they made the real money ......
Loved that job, even if it was 125kms each way to work each day and meant leaving the house by 3:15 am and not getting home until 11pm .....

T1 Terry