Over the past century, society has evolved significantly, reshaping social norms and interpersonal interactions. Fortunately, many of these changes have positively impacted workplaces, fostering healthier environments. To illustrate this shift, we’ve compiled a list of “normal” behaviors in the workplace that are now considered unacceptable.
Unscheduled Meetings
These days, if you need to speak to a colleague, it’s generally to organize a formal meeting, even if it’s only for five minutes, which is considered more beneficial, formal, and organized for everyone involved. This was never the case, though, in the past; in fact, employees would once freely wander between each other’s desks to discuss such things, which, to be fair, did lead to some additional productivity.
Inappropriate Jokes
We no longer have to deal with inappropriate humor in the workspace concerning sexual, racial, or any other type of discrimination. If you do come across it, a quick talk with your boss will ensure that the offending person will be fired, something that never would have happened in the past. Back then, we were just expected to ‘lighten up,’ so we’re quite relieved how things have changed.
Public Displays of Affection
Nowadays, it’s not seen as appropriate to show public displays of affection in the workspace, such as kissing or hugging. They’re often viewed as unprofessional and inappropriate in the workplace, to be saved for when business hours are over. Meanwhile, these were once seen as completely harmless at work, which is crazy to look back on.
Smoking Indoors
If someone from the past could see today’s workspaces, the first thing they’d notice is that nobody is smoking. While people still smoke, smoking is almost never allowed within professional workspaces, with the NIH explaining these rules came about in the late ‘90 and early ‘00s. Meanwhile, if you traveled back in time just 20 years ago, the whole office would smell like an ashtray.
Inappropriate Dress Codes
These days, many offices have rather relaxed approaches when it comes to dress codes, but this doesn’t mean you can wear whatever you want. Inappropriate clothing, such as overly casual or revealing items, is generally frowned upon. Meanwhile, women were often subject to sexist dress codes in the past, such as being forbidden to wear trousers, representing how much positive change there has been.
Gender-Specific Roles
In the past, task delegation depended greatly on the gender of staff members, with women only ever being given insignificant roles whilst the men took charge. Thankfully, such unequal practices are considered discriminatory and unprofessional these days, and anyone, regardless of their gender, can strive to grow within the workplace. Sadly, workplace sexism does still exist, though.
Personal Phone Calls
If you receive a personal phone call at work these days, that’s seen as unprofessional and disruptive, so you should only take it during your lunch break or wait until you’re home. This is very different from how things once were; the boundaries between work and personal life were practically non-existent at one point, with it being totally acceptable to take personal calls in the office.
Office Gossip
If you went back a couple of decades ago, you would find that office gossip was just a part of everyday workplace culture, and it wasn’t always pleasant. Thankfully, this gradually became more taboo until we reached the point today where workplace gossip is just unprofessional, and everyone knows that it will only harm team dynamics and stunt productivity.
Accepting Gifts
One thing that we missed from workspaces of the past was our ability to accept gifts from clients or colleagues, which was once a common practice. Today, a lot of organizations have policies against accepting gifts to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure professional integrity. We can understand why, but this does feel a little excessive.
Excessive Personalization of Workspaces
If you had your own office space in the ‘90s, you would have personalized decor, special notepads, pens… everything was customized to suit your own style. Sadly, this isn’t the case in modern workplaces, where such customization is generally seen as taboo and unprofessional. Again, we can sort of see why, but life is a lot more boring this way.
Interrupting Meetings
If you have ever walked in on a meeting that has already started, you’ll know how incredibly embarrassing that can be, as you may be considered rude and disruptive. This never used to be the case, though; at one point, employees would come and go as they pleased during meetings, with disruptions not only being accepted but expected.
Overworking
One of the most positive changes we have seen in workforces over the last few decades is changes in tolerance to overworking. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, overworking wasn’t just common; it was expected and actively praised, making workplace burnout a common phenomenon. Thankfully, we have more common sense now, knowing that overworking will only lead to less productivity in the long run.
Physical Touch
Any employee or employer that casually touches another staff member, such as by patting them on the back, could be reported for inappropriate or invasive behavior these days. This would completely shock employees of old-school offices, where such physical touch was very common.
Loud Conversations
If you were working in a busy office in New York during the ‘90s, the average volume would have been staggeringly loud. You’d go home with shouting staff ringing through your ears, a wildly different situation from modern working environments. These days, everyone tries to keep their conversations to a low volume, respecting the peace and quiet of others to prevent burnout and exhaustion.
Eating at Desks
These days, most people have the consideration to not eat food at their desks, at least not hot food that is bound to stink out of the office. This was never the case in the past when everyone would bring in meals that were cooked at home and heat them up in the communal kitchen. Ultimately, this would leave the workspace smelling like a potluck barbeque at times.
Sharing Personal Opinions
It’s generally a good idea to keep your personal opinions to yourself when you’re at work these days, preventing you from causing any division between you and your colleagues. This was never so in old-school workspaces, where politics, religion, and other controversial topics were discussed on the regular, much to the detriment of the office’s productivity.
Bringing Pets to Work
Young workers today could never imagine being allowed to bring their pets to work, but believe it or not, this was once a thing. Dogs and cats would commonly be allowed to wander freely around a workspace, a situation that, unsurprisingly, was quickly put to a stop once employees started to get seriously distracted by their furry friends, not to mention the allergies.
Sending Personal Emails
Just like with phone calls, using a work email address for personal correspondence was once pretty commonplace, but these days, it’s considered unprofessional to do so. Ultimately, it’s a misuse of company resources; instead, employees are encouraged to use their personal email accounts for non-work-related communication and only on their lunch breaks.
Office Pranks
While there’s no denying that work would be a lot more fun if office pranks made a comeback, they were incredibly distracting at the time and were often unfair, too. It would encourage bullying in the workplace, with certain staff members getting picked on by others, so frankly, we think it’s probably for the best that there are rules against office pranks nowadays.
Loud Music
If you’re lucky, your boss might be comfortable with you playing music through your headphones whilst working but playing loud music at one’s desk would be out of the question. In contrast, this was actually pretty normal in the past; employees would usually take turns choosing the music, and as you can imagine, this was rather a fan, albeit incredibly distracting for everyone.