10 Things Your Parents Put Up With at Work in the ’80s

The workplace our parents knew in the 1980s looked very different from the offices many of us recognize today. Bosses often made decisions on instinct, handled conflicts however they saw fit, and operated with far less oversight. Some managers could be generous, flexible, and quick to reward good work without waiting for layers of approval.

That freedom also had a darker side. With fewer formal policies and weaker protections, employees were often expected to tolerate behavior that would trigger an HR investigation today. From inappropriate comments and unfair hiring practices to unpredictable rules and blurred professional boundaries, these are 10 things bosses got away with in the ’80s that would never fly in a modern workplace.

If the manager liked you during the interview, the job was yours. No questions asked, no background investigation, no job offer letter, and no three-week onboarding process with mandatory e-learning modules.

Today, the same manager would have to defend his choice and deal with policies concerning equal opportunity hiring and the need for proper documentation. Spontaneous hiring may still take place once in a while, but the red tape is there. Some companies now run background checks that take longer than the entire 1980s interview process.

This one was never acceptable. It was still common, nonetheless. Interviewers viewed it as business planning instead of recognizing it for what it was: a way of screening out women who might need maternity leave. The question was often asked casually, as if it were no different from asking about availability or travel preferences.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 had already made it unlawful to enquire about this for any employer having 15 or more employees, but compliance was far from universal, and many hiring managers simply did not know or did not care. Nowadays, that same behaviour is immediate grounds for dismissal, and one of the first questions you’ll learn never to ask in any good HR training program.

A profitable quarter or a successful deal were all acceptable reasons for the manager to take the group out to lunch at noon, all expenses put on the company card. When it happened, no one would return until mid-afternoon. There would be no receipts itemized, no preapproval, no spending cap on the outing, nothing.

Today's expense policies ensure that this kind of flexibility doesn’t happen without a paper trail and a justification memo. The generosity is still there in some workplaces, but it has to be scheduled and approved before anyone picks up a menu.

It was usually the older manager who had known the business before you were born, and he didn’t mean anything by it except warmth. It wasn't discriminatory, at least intentionally. Some people loved it, but others really hated it.

Human Resources offices in modern companies would jump all over that at the very first report, and it is understandable. Intent doesn't matter when it comes to workplace rules, and the terms land differently depending on who is saying them and who is hearing them.
Managers who still do it either learn pretty quickly, usually in a meeting they were not expecting, or are simply too senior to care.

An employee stays late to finish a proposal, saves a client relationship, closes a deal no one ever imagined possible, and the boss reaches into his wallet and hands over a few hundred dollars before the person even gets back to their desk. No forms, no approval chain. Just immediate recognition and a nice wad of cash to go along with it. It was generous and direct in a way that formal bonus programs could never be. Now it raises payroll tax issues and discrimination claims. The spirit of the gesture has not aged out, but the execution had to.

This one wasn’t cute or “harmless” like other entries on this list. What got passed off as workplace banter or harmless ribbing was often a daily reminder to certain employees that they were tolerated rather than respected. It was, however, just the way things were in some places. That doesn’t make it any less bad.

Nowadays, it’s considered a hostile work environment and grounds for dismissal, and rightly so. If it survived as long as it did, it was only because the people who were on the receiving end rarely had a safe place where they could raise the issue, and the few who tried often found that the channel led nowhere useful.

The regional manager performs admirably during a presentation, and the boss just goes ahead and promotes him right there and then. Done. Effective immediately. No application process, no waiting for the next review cycle.

The same decision now demands compensation band approval, an equity review to check for pay discrimination, a formal offer letter, and final approval by HR before it is ever communicated to the staff. Now, the boss may want to promote someone on the spot, just like he did before. He just can’t do it before going through all the hoops.

Fridays at the bar down the street were not optional. RSVPs were not expected because they were not needed. You went. Period. It was a way of declaring commitment and showing team spirit. But it created an unfair situation for those who had commitments outside of work, whether related to religion, being a caregiver, maintaining their sobriety, or whatever other million things that could be going on in the employee’s life.

Skipping too often would get you quietly added to a list, without anyone ever saying anything about the list existing. But it put employees in a position where their personal life became a professional liability. Today, the same attitude would get the manager a complaint with HR within the week. But in those days, the complaint had nowhere obvious to go.

"Jim's going to be out for a while, because he has some heart problems." Stated at a Monday morning meeting, without any hint that Jim had consented to any of it being divulged. The boss believed he was being open and upfront about his employee.

By the 1990s, the Americans with Disabilities Act and increasing laws on confidentiality on the state level were beginning to clearly define boundaries of employee medical information. Now, disclosing the reason behind an employee's absence without their consent can subject a company to charges of discrimination and other legal liabilities.

The boss making that announcement was not trying to expose the employee, but now that we look back on it, it makes sense that some information should stay out of the workplace.

The back-slapping, the arm around the shoulder. Physical touch was just how some managers conveyed their excitement. Nobody thought to ask first.

Consent and physical boundaries at work have become much more defined. That’s definitely for the better. But there is a generation of workers who remember that arm around the shoulder as the moment they knew the boss had noticed and that someone senior enough to matter thought they had done something right.