Work then / Work now

11 watchers
May 2022
9:47am, 19 May 2022
69,874 posts
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Diogenes
[I meant finish at 4]
May 2022
10:40am, 19 May 2022
2,626 posts
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cackleberry
1999- ish. Straight after finishing A-levels.
Animal Keeper.
08:30 - 17:00 in summer, earlier finish in winter due to it being dark and the animals asleep!!
1 hour for lunch, plus 2 short tea breaks. No overtime available, minimum wage.
Otherwise, on your feet all day. Heavy manual job.
Commute was a mix of lifts or cycling. Couldn't drive yet and no public transport. Can't remember how long it took, but it was only about 5 miles.

2017 - Current
Lab tech/Admin for private veterinary practice
08:30 - 17:00
30 mins for lunch, but can have tea/sandwiches whenever I want.
Desk based, unless a lot of lab work in. Very occasional field work (like once or twice a year!)
Commute is 28 mins door to door by car. No useful public transport!
Overtime when busy, WFH possible but not expected.

The two can't really compare!

I had part-time/after school jobs before 1999 and an assortment of different roles in between then and now.
May 2022
4:50pm, 19 May 2022
14,193 posts
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Ultracat
Interesting thread.

My first full time job was a long time ago, in 1971. I got the bus and worked as a junior clerk in a clothing factory. Worked 9-5 with an hour for lunch. I remember a few jokes being played on new folk including me. Being sent for “a long stand” for example. I had some lovely work mates but boss lady was a strict dragon. We worked with huge ledgers and everything written down. Accounts was pounds, shillings and pence, and then we had to learn decimal.

My last full time job was also a while ago and it was also in accounts with an energy company and I dealt directly with the public in person and on the phone. The person next to me smoked non-stop. I worked 9-5 and drove there and had an hour for lunch.

In between I worked in the care sector with shifts and sleepovers, working Christmas and so on. Got fed up with it and left for an easier life.

And last job was part time before retiring, hours were not set and was paid 20 hours a week, job needed to be full time. Stressful so again packed it in.
May 2022
10:30pm, 19 May 2022
26,720 posts
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Lizzie Whizz
I've pretty much gone full circle, but currently 5 hour days instead of 8!

1992
Up about 7, shower, breakfast, drive small & slightly battered car to GP surgery for 9. Morning: Reception desk, phones, paper appointment book, post, filing, making coffee etc. 1hr lunch: walk into town. Afternoon: entering data on dumb terminals. Go Home at 5.30.
2022
Entering data on PC 9.30-2.30.
May 2022
10:30pm, 19 May 2022
26,721 posts
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Lizzie Whizz
(Different surgery!)
May 2022
11:55pm, 19 May 2022
25,308 posts
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Rosehip
1983, lab assistant

Up at 6, train to victoria, two tube trains and then a 20 minute walk to work
One fume hood between 6 of us in the lab, chemistry on open benches. Think smoking in labs had been banned by then but not completely convinced, tea room down the corridor was smokey.
Tea served in china cups and cakes etc available to buy from a trolley.
Christmas experiment cooking a christmas pudding in the lab on a steam bath.
First female in department, swear box initiated first week I was there - but removed after they realised I was fined as often as anyone :)
One terminal in the lab between us, used to play Adventure as much as anything else.
Pilot plant scale involved carrying buckets of solvents, moving drums and huge sacks around. Everything operated manually

By 2009 - Often started work from home at 6.30 with a ‘sametime’ chat to counterpaart in Singapore, occasionally ended day in evening at home with chat tonother team in Carolina

During the day - all chemistry in own fume hood, spent half the day at a computer screen, gender mix about equal H&S rules somewhat more strict. Automated plant and technicians doing most of the production - all the fun went!
May 2022
11:50am, 20 May 2022
2,629 posts
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cackleberry
Rosehip - sounds like my days when I was QC chemist in a chemical factory c2001 - 2007. Manual and dangerous but a good laugh.

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About This Thread

Maintained by Sigh
I've started a thread with my colleagues where we compare our typical working day from around the time we first started work, to our typical working day now. It's been quite interesting to see how things have changed for folks; so I'm starting the same thread here, if it takes off - great. If not, it can join the archives of abandoned threads :-)

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