Definition of elderly

As a junior clerical officer in the County Court, I addressed the Registrar [with own important office and best brand of biscuit] and Chief Clerk [own hatstand and square of carpet and second best biscuit] as Sir. Senior Clerk - [decent size desk, no mat and ordinary biscuit] was Mrs so and so. Other clerks [shared desks and rich tea bisc] Mr and Mrs. Typist by first name. She was a good friend. Baliffs? Well, we called each other all sorts of loveable/funny names. I was positioned nearest to the coke fire. It singed the legs of the desk and made ugly patterns on my near-side leg. It was I who was responsible for keeping the fire stoked.

Soop

In 1988 I was the first staff member where my new Boss used a first name he -always used Mrs or Miss. I asked him very nicely not call me Mrs. (surname) as that was my Mother-in-law. !! Now first names are common, however I will still call Clients Mrs or Mr etc until such time as they indicate differently.

My mother was in hospital recently and she was not happy with being called by her first name, in fact I had to point out to the staff that she may not answer to her first name as that was not what she is commonly called. Mum would have preferred to be called Mrs. (surname). I had to remind them a couple of times to call her P....y and not K.....en.

Hey SOOP I was a clerical officer in a County court too - from age 16-19.

I remember when I was taking a visiting judge his early morning tea. The chief clerk (awful man) told me I had to say "Your tea your honour". I flatly refused, being a bolshie little 16 year old. He followed me to make sure I did as I was told, but as it happened, the minute I saw the judge, all I could see in my mind's eye was an old man who looked like my Dad, suffering from the very cold Northern weather. I just said "Good morning sir, I've brought you some tea - you look frozen - why don't I nip across to the shop and fetch you a toasted sandwich"

The judge was grateful, the boss was furious, but I think I won!!

Did you do that course at Deans Yard Westminster?

Do you remember those rubber stamps "No goods worth seizing" "No such person at this address" etc etc.

One day I accidently wrote a warrant to send a debtor to Manchester (women's) jail when I should have put Leeds 'cos it was a man. The bailiffs went to arrest him at 5am, the only time they could catch him, only to read out the warrant and discover my blue......well, I was not the flavour of the week in the bailiff's office.

I used to love going up to the attic where we filed old stuff, and read those 19th century ledgers. The same surnames filled the ledgers. They would have to winkle me out from there, once they discovered I was missing. Always did love history.

Truth is, I was a square peg in a round hole, and left to go au pairing to Vienna in 1964.

Some great anecdotes!
My definition of "elderly" is simply anybody at least 20 years older than me.

Joan...didn't have to go on a course. I went in from school having the required O levels and having passed the entrance examination in front of a board of poe-faced Civil Servants. All dull as dishwater! We had a huge, cold, damp strong room, in which all the massive ledgers were safely locked at the end of the day. It was hours on end of entering ledger details in very best handwriting, and having to watch one particular member of staff ogle me over the top of his specs. He reeked of TCP. Chief Clerk smoked a very smelly pipe. It went out every five minutes and then had to be cajoled into action with countless matches...

I am seven years younger than Joan Collins, so I can't be old.

That is a good yardstick, Greatnan! I think we are about the same vintage, so it makes me quite young too.

SOOP I got the County Court job because of my O levels, but they'd just done away with the Civil Service exam, so I just had to pass an interview. I was supposed to go on the one week course straight away, but they delayed it for months. Once there, the lecturer talked about a smelly chief clerk who chain smoked and dripped ash all over, and was thoroughly objectionable in every way. I asked him when he'd visited my Court because he obviously know Mr G. He said no - he'd actually described every chief clerk in England!!

One day they reorganised the County Court office into sections, except I wasn't put in one. As junior I was to remain general dogsbody. It worked out that I had three times as much work, and they gave me a very small desk and piled the work on it. It was horrible, I was getting demonised for not getting through it fast enough........then I just snapped, tipped the desk up with a huge pile of praecipes (summonse applications) on it, kicked the pile of work, told them to keep their rotten job, and took off home.

When my Dad heard what I'd done he told me to go back to work the next day. He said I was a union member and they wouldn't have sacked me. I was sure they would have, but he was right. The work was done, I was allocated a proper desk in a nice position, put in a proper section, and given a date to go on that course. They said it wasn't because I'd thrown a wobbly! Ha!

I then realised that they'd being doing the wrong thing by me all along, and if they hadn't started to treat me right they'd have been found out and the union would have had a field day.

That was a lesson that stood me in good stead for ever. Never put up with bullshit.

Good for you, Joan - and what a good job your dad was so savvy!
At the moment, with the threat of redundancy looming over so many people, it must be very difficult to stand up to bullying bosses.
It was so easy in the 1950's when I started work - if you didn't like one job you could walk straight into another. I feel so much sympathy for people under threat - it must be so worrying.
I was interested to read that the people who suffer most stress at work are not the top bosses, who have control of much of their work, but the people at the bottom who have virtually no control.

I agree gracesmum, anyone much older than me maybe be called elderly but I don't want to be labelled yet!
However would we be put into a Geriatric ward if admitted to hospital? Scary thought. Even my MIL (89) and her friends talk about really old people as if they don't yet fit that category!
In my mind and yours no doubt we still see ourselves as "youthful"?

There's a good moral in your story, Joan. It concerns me that nowadays union membership has dropped, except in the public service. When a CAB client comes to me with an employment problem, my first question is 'Are you a union member?' Mostly they aren't which makes things much more difficult.

Joan I was subject to sexual harassment from THREE members of staff - all in superior positions. I was 17 and, as you say, the "dogsbody". Although I mentioned the unsavoury aspects of what was going on to a female senior clerk, I was told in no uncertain terms that I mustn't tell tales...

Oh no SOOP that was terrible. I bet like me, you never thought of going to the union for help. The reason I didn't, was that the union rep was the staff clerk ie 2 iC who was one of my tormentors. Nothing sexual happened to me - it was all psychological nastiness - denigrating my character and abilities. Once I got really sick with a gyno problem: it turned out I had a retroverted uterus and a cyst on my cervix resulting in a lot of pain and severe anaemia. Anyway, I went into hospital and had a D&C, but rumours circulated that I'd been pregnant. I wasn't. All this was apparently standard behaviour against juniors. I made sure they didn't do it to the next junior. But in the end I just left.

What a culture eh? Glad we both got out.

Just remembered another nastiness. On my first court clerk day - I was still 16 - I sat there in front of the judge, with the big ledger, pencilling in the payment orders he made. Right at the very last minute before court started the chief clerk told me I had to write down the initials of the attending solicitors in each case. Then he took off just as the judge sat down, not telling me the names of the solicitors.

So I invented a quick code: RW for red whiskers, SF for spotty face, and TTS for tall thin and snobby...... When the court was over and they saw my 'initials' I explained about not knowing their names. You should have heard the carry-on, but as I pointed out, they know exactly who I meant in each case.

Joan!

Joan love your sense of humour

Ditto!

Just come on to the computer to see whats going on and when I was at work ( mobile instore promotons and tastings ) our regional manager was the most objectionable man ever, he was very religious (although thats got nothing to do with the price of fish) but he terrified us all, we had to do exactly as he said as his favourite words were " P45 ! " he had no TV in in house but played " tickling ", games with his children and their friends, he worked away from home alot and when he came home his poor wife always got pregnant, so all the ladies at head office and us lot out in the " Field " had a nickname for him, it was "SPERM" he would have been furious had he known that he was the butt of their jokes, but one day he was sacked within the hour as he was found out to be on the fiddle, I would love to have told him about his nickname but I needed my job as my hubby was ill and I was the breadwinner, had some good laughs at work though, but it was that job that cost me my health as we had to lift quite heavy portable ovens ( baby bellings ) it eventually did my back in ( no health and safety then ) it only came in after I was dismissed through ill health, can you just imagine some abominable man who thought he was Gods gift finding out he was known as Srem

Sorry I misspelt the last word , should have been SPERM and not srem, ( its a case of fingers not doing what the brain is thinking or vice versa, but most definately not cos I might be Elderly ( perish the thought ) like some one said the other day I am too young to be this old, anyway age is just a number

Never mind the nickname, specialmo (which is funny!), my mind's boggling at the thought of his 'tickling games'

Yes Anagram we thought it was not quite right either, a God loving man even to the point of calling his children Daniel, Nathaniel, Caleb, and David, there has been in the past stories about these sort of men but one has to add that we cant tar them all with the same brush, but I strongly suspect this man was a wrong un