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Working Life: Better in the ’80s and ’90s than today?

Updated: Apr 3






Oliver (Host)

Hello and welcome to English and Beyond: Intermediate English Podcast. I'm Oliver. I'm your English teacher for the next 10 minutes or so. In this episode, we're going to talk about how working life has changed, especially if we compare today's job market and office culture to what things were like in the '80s or '90s. If If you need a transcript or want to practise the job-related vocabulary from today's episode, that's available at www.morethanalanguage.com. We're going to talk about dress codes, work hours, job stability, and, of course, technology. Now, I know some of you listening might actually remember those decades much better than I do. I was technically alive in the '80s, but I wasn't exactly pulling all night shifts in the office, so I won't pretend to be an expert. But I am very curious; I'd love to know, what was it really like? Do you recognise any of the things that I'm going to talk about today? Let's start by imagining a typical office in the late '80s or early '90s. From what I've read and from stories people have told me, offices back then were really quite formal: people wore suits, ties, polished shoes.


Oliver (Host)

In some industries, women had to wear heels and business suits every day. Even Casual Friday didn't really mean casual. Maybe it just meant no tie. You You worked from 9: 00 to 5: 00, if you were lucky, you physically went to the office every day. If you were late, people noticed, and you probably had to formally apologise. If you wanted to talk to a colleague, you picked up the office phone, or, shock horror, you walked to their desk. And that phone was a proper desk phone, often with a long cord. There were fax machines, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and plenty of paper. Smoking inside workplaces was only made illegal in the UK in 2007, although many offices had already incorporated glamorous smoking rooms from the '80s, and many, if not most people, stayed in the same job for years, even decades. If you worked long enough, you might get a cake when you retired or even a gold watch if you were very lucky. Was that your experience? Let me know in the Spotify poll or leave a comment if you're watching on Spotify or YouTube. If you want to send me an email saying, "No, no, no, Oliver, it was nothing like that," you can email me at oliver@morethanalanguage.com.


Oliver (Host)

So, as I've already said, I wasn't around in the '80s or early '90s. I only really started working in an office job in 2012. But I was a lawyer working in London, and the legal world is often a bit behind the times, a bit more conservative when it comes to workplace culture. In some ways, I think I experienced a mixture of the old and the new. I wore every day a suit and tie. We did have casual Fridays, but casual still meant proper trousers. You basically just took your tie off. We had plenty of bundles of paper everywhere since they still had to be signed. Yes, physical signatures with pens! But at the same time, I had a Blackberry. Do you remember those? Mine had a little flashing red light every time I got a message. I even changed the colours so that it would beep with a different colour of the rainbow with every email, just in an effort to make the constant notifications slightly less stressful. This was especially the case when I was trying to enjoy dinner in a restaurant and the little red light wouldn't stop blinking at me. So although it was 2014, it still felt a little bit like the '90s.


Oliver (Host)

But fast forward to today and offices, at least in many industries, look very different. You might not even go into an office at all. Many people now work remotely, from home, a coffee shop, or even a different country like me. Especially after the pandemic, this has become the new normal, and the dress code is also significantly more relaxed. In some jobs, especially in tech, people wear jeans, T-shirts, trainers, even pyjamas if they're on a video call and nobody can see. Instead of phone calls or printed memos, people use Slack, email, WhatsApp, shared Google Docs, and even emojis. You can now officially reply to a work message with a thumbs up. And job security? Well, that's changed too. It's more common now to change jobs every few years. Some people work freelance or have multiple jobs, and others have a side hustle, a small project or business that they on the side. So today's work culture is more flexible, but maybe also more stressful. There's freedom, but there's less certainty. How do you feel about that? Let's look at a few small but telling differences between then and now. In the past, if you wanted a new job, you looked in the newspaper classifieds, you circled the ads with a pen, and then you phoned or posted a letter to apply, waiting ages for any sort of response. Now, you scroll online, you click "Apply", and you move on to the next tab. In the old office, your boss had a private office and a secretary. But today, your boss might be 27, wearing crocs and sending messages like, "Heyyyyy, quick question!"


Oliver (Host)

In the past, if you left work at 5: 00, your workday was done. No more emails, no more calls. Now, your phone is always buzzing. Messages at night, notifications on weekends, work never really ends. We've replaced fax machines with Google Docs and office gossip with Slack threads. I'm not sure that that's progress, But it's definitely different. So, the big question is: which version of working life is better? The answer is, I don't know. I really don't. I guess it depends who you ask. Some people miss the structure, the routine, and the clear separation between work and life. You didn't have to learn new software every six months, and you didn't get three different messages just to schedule a meeting. But others love the freedom of working from home, the chance to travel, or the ability to change careers later in life.


Oliver (Host)

There are pros and cons to both. And no matter when you started working, you've probably had to adapt to new tools, new expectations, new norms. Working life is always changing. It reflects the world around us, our values, our technologies, our lifestyles. But underneath all the change, I think the main goal has stayed the same. We want to feel useful. We want some balance. We want to spend time doing things that matter, at least a little.


Oliver (Host)

Speaking of which, I hope you found this episode useful. Thank you so much for listening, for letting me be your English teacher for these 10 minutes. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone you know who's lived through these changes or is currently navigating them. So, again, I'd love to know what has your experience been like. Leave me a comment or send me an email and tell me which system worked better for you. I'm Oliver. This was English and Beyond Intermediate English podcast. Goodbye, thank you, and see you next time.

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