Gransnet forums

Chat

Old office equipment

(28 Posts)
peaceatlast Sun 21-Aug-16 15:47:21

I was just thinking about how laborious the office tasks used to be in the 60s and 70s. Who remembers Gestetner machines and having to clean off your typewriter keys before you could type on a stencil?Not to mention the red fluid you had to paint on to cover a mistake. Then there were Banda machines, telex machines, the weekly cleaning of typewriter rollers with meths to keep them clean. Office work must be so much easier once you've mastered the computer. No faxing through documents or last minute trips to post an important letter. The franking machine too. I wonder if some of that still goes on. I used the Kalamazoo system every week to do the wages then wrote cheques or paid by cash into little buff envelopes and staff would line up for their wages. Sometimes luncheon vouchers too - 15p a day in 1972.
I don't know what made me think of that today but I had a little trip down memory lane.

grandma60 Mon 22-Aug-16 18:18:26

Oh Grannyknot I know exactly what you mean. I am retiring in a couple of months and can't wait. We have the hot desk nonsense as well as the clear desk policy , and

several ridiculous incentive schemes, which involve thinking up ideas to improve processes. This results in pointless changes for the sake of it as staff are penalized if they do not take part. Add this to the team building exercises and the writing of pages of nonsense for the annual review and I will go insane if I stay much longer. I often wonder what my old bosses would have made of it all.(Of course the bosses these days are several years younger than my children!)

wot Tue 23-Aug-16 14:27:20

The Xerox machine was our meeting place for a good gossip break!