Let’s face it things have changed at work haven’t they?

Those my age or older have faced a completely different work environment than the newbies just entering the workplace. I’m not going to say that it was better back then – let’s just say, it was different.

Much like what the workplace/working from home is like nowadays.

For much of my work life, I worked in a corporate (and about 11 years of that was in the military – plus 10 years in the Reserves) environment.

It was a time where we had minimal – if any – virtual meetings or online training (only in the very later years of my working life).

Today, as I looked upon the young people in my office, I thought about how the workplace was in my time versus what they’re facing and experiencing today.

Here’s what I’m thankful to have experienced in a physical workplace which makes up some great memories that I take with me through the years:

• Being inducted personally (ie in person) by an organisation and going through a full induction program with others as a cohort
• Having consistent regular performance reviews and feedback sessions where you could chat with the boss one-on-one
• Opportunity to be coached through different projects in person and get feedback to progressively improve
• Sick bay rooms you could hide out in and have a bit of siesta when things got a bit too much or to hide away
• Starting a ‘Line Book” that was about taking photos, capturing quotes, stories of the team and then printing it into a book that was presented to each team member at the end of the year as a memory of working in that team
• Going on training courses, conferences and events off site which were always looked forward to
• Sniffing Flipchart markers because they smelled of fruits (orange, strawberry etc)
• Sniffing the alcohol based permanent markers
• Whiteboard markers that never worked and you had to use them all only to see that nothing works so you throw your hands in the air and just talk your point with your hands
• Whiteboards with intricate designs and someone wrote “Please Leave!!!!” on it; fearing if anyone erased their idea, they’d erase the perfect Learning & Development Strategy framework in the world
• Leaving the permanent markers on the whiteboards and watching people use them on the whiteboard then try to erase their writing from the board
• Photocopying tonnes of paper to make presentations for the executives who wanted everything in black and white, then in colour when colour printing came out, then over time, back to black and white to save ink costs, then black and white printing on both sides to save paper (but don’t try to make 4 pages into 1 because they’d look over their glasses at you and mutter, “we’re not all young like you. My eyesight isn’t as strong as it used to be. I want at least 12pt”
• Going into the office late at night to pick up your bag and making scary “woo hoo”noises then rushing outta there because it was a spooky place
• International Roast coffee or massive orange tins of Caterers Blend
• Checking our coffee cups to see who’s the most disgusting for not washing it the longest (I could last only a day)
• People putting IOU notes in the confectionary box
• Confectionery or chocolate drives and in later years, fruit boxes (which weren’t that popular) and book drives (popular with me as I bought heaps of books this way) or women selling Avon.
• Cubicle envy; window/view envy; office envy
• Discarded pens everywhere – on tables, conference rooms and on whiteboard trays
• Laughter, jokes and chatter in the workplace (sometimes a footy thrown across the room) because the office was bustling
• People “spinning warries” (in Navy); telling stories (corporate)
• Getting your photograph done for your pass/lanyard
• Coming into work every morning, opening the door and then walking to your desk saying “Morning” to everyone in their cubicles. Repeat the same inthe afternoon “bye! Bye! See ya!”
• Electronic whiteboards that were never used to print anything
• Scrambling to get a car parking spot downstairs or booking the company car
• Having to peruse through stationery cupboards and getting a new pen or paper pad (oh what joy!)
• Conference room telephone systems that no one knew how to use (or scared to use)
• Scrunching up papers then trying to lob them into each other’s bins (high fiving when it went into the bin)
• Valentines Day in the office to see who got flower deliveries
• Using those machines with the plastic spiral to bind manuals (I LOVED using those).
• Having someone (usually the Admin Assistant) do all our travel requisitions and organise travel and can charges
• Staff cafeterias (the BEST)
• Working the overhead projector (and knowing how to change its light bulb)

• Folders on office shelves that were never opened again after the course
• Getting your new business cards (joy!)
• Using the compactus trying to find that elusive file (while your colleague was in one section so you’d pretend to squash them)
• Meeting new people and clients and connecting with them in person over a drink
• Office magazines/circulars that go around to each cubicle and you had to cross off your name after you read them and leave them for the next person on the list
• The in and out tray on your desk
• Photo frames on your desk
• Office memos on the notice board
• Eating the left over morning or afternoon teas and lunches that were left on the communal area tables from nearby meetings
• ONE computer screen
• Executives who were “cool” (meant that they allowed us to get away with everything – usually they were in on all the social functions)
• Email that wasn’t out of control (in fact, if you sent an email, you were considered weird – “just walk to me if you have anything to say, don’t email it! I’m sitting right next to you!)
• Flirting with male colleagues
• Bitching with female colleagues
• Being able to shake hands and hug without someone saying that it’s inappropriate behaviour
• Getting dressed nicely for work – thinking about what you’re going to wear from the night before
• Getting to meet my colleagues’ families in person at different events
• Footy tipping competitions
• Christmas parties that were massive and all paid for by the company
• “Whip around” for goodbye cards, presents and lunches (plus always a heartfelt speech by managers always quick to say speeches)
• Birthday cake for everyone’s birthday
• Speeches by execs where we had to “gather around” (usually a cubicle of someone who was trying to work “can you all keep quiet, I’m on the phone!”)
• If you wanted to ask a question, you’d CALL people (on the telephone)
• No mobile phones (except the managers who had those Nokia blackberry things and they thought they were the bees knees)
• Social committees planning great events and they had budgets! – and in, later years they asked for our weekly contribution towards biscuits in the kitchen or our Christmas event
• Real/physical gigantic birthday or goodbye cards that go around to be signed
• Getting a Fax
• Going downstairs for a quick “durry” (or knowing people who would do this)
• Being able to decorate and design my cubicle in my own way – a stamp of personality that always started conversations
• Being able to do the ‘meerkat’ conversations with colleagues between teams
• Signs put up in communal areas in Comic Sans telling us “Clean Your Own Coffee Cups!” Or “We don’t have a maid! Clean up after yourself!”
• Female toilets being the place to go to “talk” (or cry)
• Travels interstate at the drop of a hat
• Client meetings on site
• Posters of how to sit and not sit (don’t squat!) on a toilet seat OR the company mission, vision and values on the back of the toilet door
• The office “rumour mill”
• Invited ‘upstairs’ to a fancy event by the senior leadership (usually on the top floor of corporate buildings with canapés and champagne which was a great pre-cursor to a night out about town afterwards)
• Going for daily coffees with my teammates at the downstairs cafe
• Friday afternoon drinks with colleagues – that became late events into the night at different bars around town
• All department or all company stock announcements in places like theatres (chance to check out everyone)
• No little spoons on the cutlery drawer just all knives.
• In person team meetings (especially if the team consisted of a team clown who’d say inappropriate things that we’d all keel over and laugh like idiots)
• Work restructures (the gossiping would go crazy and constant trips to cafes for chats wondering if our jobs were on the line…again)
• Trying out different lunch places near our work and finding the BEST lunch spots with the most good looking guys in them
• Chats in the stairwell (then getting stuck between floors because your pass doesn’t work to get back in
• Snooty Executive Assistants who didn’t give you the time of day or talk to you
• Fire alarm drills that always ended up in a nearby cafe (or if you didn’t, packing into the elevators like sardines and someone cracking a joke about farts)
• Monday morning chats with colleagues talking about what we got up to on the weekend
• Ad hoc, on the spur lunches – and if they were paid by the boss, even better
• Flip chart paper where we would draw fun or stupid things some sheets in so whoever was using it could get a nice surprise
• Team events and weekends away (eg ski trips, 70s nights, restaurant meals etc)
• Smelly foods in the fridge/microwave
• Watching the guy who came in to water the plants and wondering how you could get a job like that
• Getting annoyed at a flickering fluoro and putting a request in to have the electrician replace it (and watching them change it)
• Meetings that had agenda items and Minutes taken
• Making faces at window cleaners who were hanging outside and wondering why in earth would anyone have a job like that!
• Tea ladies who come around with a trolley full of cakes and a bit of a gossip
• Kitchens being left in a disgusting mess (and being assigned to clean it up)
• Having a collection of shoes under your desk
• People who would use the office equipment for personal use (Eg laminating their kids artworks; photocopying their house documents; using the guillotine to create nice frames for their kids artworks
• Noisy workplaces. People were talking to each other, in groups, on the phone and laughing.
• Sounds of phones (not ring tones) everywhere and all of the same tone
• Practical jokes: Eg a good one was changing the numerical keys of the phone horizontally to vertically. Watch people make phone calls but never be able to connect with anyone. Laughter galore.
• Going to the finance area (usually a window) in a non descript room to pick up your travel allowances before you travelled anywhere
• Inappropriate jokes being emailed around the office
• People accidentally emailing said inappropriate jokes to ENTIRE company distribution list (this was our discussion for DAYS later and stuff of corporate lore)
• Going downstairs to Registry to pick up a delivery that came for you and having a bit of a goss with the people there who had been working for years and know everyone by name.

When I think back to my working life when I’m old and grey, I’ll remember these times because not only did we do our best work, but we were in teams that were with people who came from different backgrounds and experiences and we bonded over our work and lives with story telling, chats and laughter. It’s unlikely I’ll remember anything of my time working from home or from a co-working space except that I worked in those two places.

It’s important not to forget creating experiences for people to connect in person now in these new spaces and places. After all, humans are social creatures.