Old Jobs That Don’t Exist

[Niegs]

Who’d have guessed employee care back then!?

[Torquemada 1420]

Fascinating.

[Chilli]

A call center manager who is available to speak to.

[FalseBayFC]

I had a spinster aunt who was a typist for a building society. Not a secretary just a typist. Did it for 40 years.

[Biffer]

Fluffer

[bok_viking]

Switchboard Operators. I had an aunt who had this job and she absolutely loved it. She really did know most what when on in town in those days

[Guy Smiley]

My first paid job...slightly different cart to this, a squared holding tray with the crates 2 x 2. Early morning in the summer and afternoon in winter. Probably ran somewhere between 5-10km pushing those things every day at the age of 10 or so.

[Niegs]

I like this one... the lector. Reading to people while they work:

[lemonhead]

With those taches I'm struggling not to see a multiple photoshop.

[geordie_6]

Did some family history research recently which produced a number of people working in heavy industry/mining etc. Favourite job title to come out of it was "Puddler".

[Torquemada 1420]

Winston Churchill's bogey collector.

[Niegs]

Did some family history research recently which produced a number of people working in heavy industry/mining etc. Favourite job title to come out of it was "Puddler".

Mine's mostly 'farmer' / 'labourer' and 'dressmaker' (rare instances mention of a woman's profession), but there was one 'earthenware merchant' from Sheffield. Would have been fairly common then in that area, and not to today, I imagine? Another (his wife's father), a glass and china dealer from Stoke on Trent.

[geordie_6]

Did some family history research recently which produced a number of people working in heavy industry/mining etc. Favourite job title to come out of it was "Puddler".

Mine's mostly 'farmer' / 'labourer' and 'dressmaker' (rare instances mention of a woman's profession), but there was one 'earthenware merchant' from Sheffield. Would have been fairly common then in that area, and not to today, I imagine? Another (his wife's father), a glass and china dealer from Stoke on Trent.

Certainly makes sense, need something to eat off of if you're going to make all that cutlery!

[inactionman]

I vaguely recall the first office I worked in had a tealady who carted a trolley round.

[bogbunny]

Caulker/burners in a shipyard.

They had arms like Popeye and totally deaf.

[Blake]

Knocker-Upper



Interesting 99% Invisible episode about time and knocker uppers

[Glaston]

My Grandfather was a Ceylon Coffee planter.

That country having a great deal of renown for its Coffee

[Ovals]

I vaguely recall the first office I worked in had a tealady who carted a trolley round.

My 1st job was in the R&D Labs of a big Electronics factory - The tea trolley came around twice a day, 10.00 and 1500. Proper cup of tea and also served some delicious cakes. It was one of the highlights of the day - There were 8 'Bays' in the main factry and each had its own 'tea Lady' plus another one for the Admin Block - we had four (heavily subsidised) canteens - Staff, Senior Staff, Management, and Visitors. Approx 2500 employees on site when I started there.


There was also a very large 'typing pool' with about 30 ladies doing nothing but copy typing. You just put your copy in a large in-tray and picked it up the next day.

[Kiwias]

Winston Churchill's bogey collector.

[Kiwias]

My first paid job...slightly different cart to this, a squared holding tray with the crates 2 x 2. Early morning in the summer and afternoon in winter. Probably ran somewhere between 5-10km pushing those things every day at the age of 10 or so.

I started my run at 1AM and finished in time to get home to get change, have breakfast, then off to school.

[Niegs]

I vaguely recall the first office I worked in had a tealady who carted a trolley round.

My 1st job was in the R&D Labs of a big Electronics factory - The tea trolley came around twice a day, 10.00 and 1500. Proper cup of tea and also served some delicious cakes. It was one of the highlights of the day - There were 8 'Bays' in the main factry and each had its own 'tea Lady' plus another one for the Admin Block - we had four (heavily subsidised) canteens - Staff, Senior Staff, Management, and Visitors. Approx 2500 employees on site when I started there.


There was also a very large 'typing pool' with about 30 ladies doing nothing but copy typing. You just put your copy in a large in-tray and picked it up the next day.

Reminds me of hearing of wartime and post-war services for employees that seemed to disappear and are only just returning under the new 'wellness' focus. One was an elderly woman saying she worked in a big factory that had swimming for employees and even supplied a bathing costume and towel to poor people like her who couldn't afford.

There's an old factory in a town near where I was last year that also had a pool, really nice building across the street that still stands. But the pool has been removed and the building houses offices now.

It is still located across the street from the Beatty Brothers Ltd. factory, which was influential in the development of Fergus as early as 1874. Owners George and Matthew Beatty began manufacturing farm equipment at the factory, and were leading employers in the community. When a drowning occurred in the local Grand River, the Beatty family supported the construction of a community pool, built by their employees, as a safer alternative. Its doors opened on July 7, 1930 and provided generations of Fergus residents with a place to swim and develop their skills. Steam from the Beatty factory heated the pool during the winter months.

[Guy Smiley]

I started my run at 1AM and finished in time to get home to get change, have breakfast, then off to school.

Holy shit that's hard core. We had 3 of us running and one boy on the sidestep of the truck. They'd do a run that way and restock us at certain points. I think we started around 5am from memory, took us about 2 hours.

[Enzedder]

Knocker-Upper



Interesting 99% Invisible episode about time and knocker uppers

Hmmmm. I would put my hand up to be a knock her upper

[Kiwias]

I started my run at 1AM and finished in time to get home to get change, have breakfast, then off to school.

Holy shit that's hard core. We had 3 of us running and one boy on the sidestep of the truck. They'd do a run that way and restock us at certain points. I think we started around 5am from memory, took us about 2 hours.

It was just the two of us, the guy driving the truck who also jumped down and made deliveries to the door and me, on the cart. It was in central ChCh either side of Bealey Ave. I did it 3-4 days a week while at high school and used to finish at about 5:30AM. Toward the end, I used to drive the truck when the guv wanted a day off and actually sat my heavy duty license test with this truck after I had finished the run that day. It was still packed to the gills with crates and empty bottles, so the instructor was forced to take me on the easiest possible course.

[MungoMan]

My Grandfather was a Ceylon Coffee planter.

That country having a great deal of renown for its Coffee

To my shame, I did not know Sri Lanka was once a significant coffee producer until I visited there.

[Guy Smiley]

I started my run at 1AM and finished in time to get home to get change, have breakfast, then off to school.

Holy shit that's hard core. We had 3 of us running and one boy on the sidestep of the truck. They'd do a run that way and restock us at certain points. I think we started around 5am from memory, took us about 2 hours.

It was just the two of us, the guy driving the truck who also jumped down and made deliveries to the door and me, on the cart. It was in central ChCh either side of Bealey Ave. I did it 3-4 days a week while at high school and used to finish at about 5:30AM. Toward the end, I used to drive the truck when the gov wanted a day off and actually sat my heavy duty license test with this truck after I had finished the run that day. It was still packed to the gills with crates and empty bottles, so the instructor was forced to take me on the easiest possible course.

I'm guessing early to mid 70s?

A magical time

[Jb1981]

Holy shit that's hard core. We had 3 of us running and one boy on the sidestep of the truck. They'd do a run that way and restock us at certain points. I think we started around 5am from memory, took us about 2 hours.

It was just the two of us, the guy driving the truck who also jumped down and made deliveries to the door and me, on the cart. It was in central ChCh either side of Bealey Ave. I did it 3-4 days a week while at high school and used to finish at about 5:30AM. Toward the end, I used to drive the truck when the gov wanted a day off and actually sat my heavy duty license test with this truck after I had finished the run that day. It was still packed to the gills with crates and empty bottles, so the instructor was forced to take me on the easiest possible course.

I'm guessing early to mid 70s?

A magical time

My dad tells some good stories from the milk round in eastern Christchurch in what I would guess would be the late 60s/early 70s. Stories of flooded streets and chasing a guy through Bromley Cemetery after finding him harassing a young lady - that type of thing.

Bring back milk tokens, glass bottles and vigilante milkmen I say.

[Kiwias]

Holy shit that's hard core. We had 3 of us running and one boy on the sidestep of the truck. They'd do a run that way and restock us at certain points. I think we started around 5am from memory, took us about 2 hours.

It was just the two of us, the guy driving the truck who also jumped down and made deliveries to the door and me, on the cart. It was in central ChCh either side of Bealey Ave. I did it 3-4 days a week while at high school and used to finish at about 5:30AM. Toward the end, I used to drive the truck when the gov wanted a day off and actually sat my heavy duty license test with this truck after I had finished the run that day. It was still packed to the gills with crates and empty bottles, so the instructor was forced to take me on the easiest possible course.

I'm guessing early to mid 70s?

A magical time

69~72. Everything was so totally relaxed and easy back in them good ol' days

[Guy Smiley]

Bring back milk tokens, glass bottles and vigilante milkmen I say.

[Kiwias]

Bring back milk tokens, glass bottles and vigilante milkmen I say.

[Slick]

Did some family history research recently which produced a number of people working in heavy industry/mining etc. Favourite job title to come out of it was "Puddler".

Mine's mostly 'farmer' / 'labourer' and 'dressmaker' (rare instances mention of a woman's profession), but there was one 'earthenware merchant' from Sheffield. Would have been fairly common then in that area, and not to today, I imagine? Another (his wife's father), a glass and china dealer from Stoke on Trent.

We have had an interesting one come up that we are trying to do more research into.

On my family tree there is a female relative who worked as a domestic servant in the 1800's in a large house on Candlemaker Row in Edinburgh. On my wife's side one of her relatives owned a large house on Candlemaker Row in exactly the same period. Candlemaker Row is not a big street at all so a decent chance she worked for or they knew each other which is a bit mental.

[C69]

Ethics advisor to the Tory Party.

[hlvp]

[inactionman]

My relatives on my dad's side are mostly east end of London, mainly Stevedores. I checked the 1901 census and one of my distant relatives in Whitechapel had the job title of 'Horse Renderer'.

Breaking your back lugging sacks out of ships or burning your lungs out making glue - pretty glad my grandad became a factory worker.

[Thor Sedan]

What countries still have petrol pump attendants?

NZ used to have them - but no more. Last time I went to SA they were still in operation.

[Guy Smiley]

What countries still have petrol pump attendants?

NZ used to have them - but no more. Last time I went to SA they were still in operation.

I pulled into an all night fuel stop 4 hours north of Bangkok at 3am the other night and it was staffed by two girls.

[ASMO]

What countries still have petrol pump attendants?

NZ used to have them - but no more. Last time I went to SA they were still in operation.

I pulled into an all night fuel stop 4 hours north of Bangkok at 3am the other night and it was staffed by two girls.

Q1 - You sure thy were girls?

Q2 Did they not offer to "clean your windscreen" for you?

[Guy Smiley]

What countries still have petrol pump attendants?

NZ used to have them - but no more. Last time I went to SA they were still in operation.

I pulled into an all night fuel stop 4 hours north of Bangkok at 3am the other night and it was staffed by two girls.

Q1 - You sure thy were girls?

Q2 Did they not offer to "clean your windscreen" for you?

I dunno how that would have gone down with the wife and FiL

[average joe]

Yes we still have petrol pump attendants, cashiers and baggers at grocery stores. With an unemployment rate of 34.9% I doubt we'll ever drop some outdated vocations.

[Niegs]

What countries still have petrol pump attendants?

NZ used to have them - but no more. Last time I went to SA they were still in operation.

I'm not sure if Covid would have done away with that here in Canada, but I have still had people pump gas in privately owned stations in recent years. First Nations reserves, especially, giving an extra person a job, it seems... and that's after things opened up, so is still going on in small pockets here.