Work, Then and Now: How The Office Has Changed Over the Last 60 years

Dress code: The “man in the gray flannel suit” was so pervasive in midcentury American society that he became a cliché. Now, unless you work in a conservative sector such as finance, he has become the man (or woman) in khaki pants. “Casual Friday” dates back to 1966, when the Hawaiian Fashion Guild created “Aloha Friday,” encouraging businesses to allow employees to wear Hawaiian shirts on a few Fridays each year. That gimmick eventually caught on in California, then slowly spread across the country. Add big marketing pushes from The Gap and Levi’s (which makes Dockers), and casual Friday had become a daily reality by the late ’90s.  

Vending machines:

• 1956: Tiny cartons of milk, cigarettes, Zagnut bars, Mallo Cups, Coca-Cola (in glass bottles), and coffee (from a drop-down dispenser)
• 2016: AMP Energy, Monster Energy (Green), bottled water, chocolate bars, trail mix, beef jerky

Office romance: As with dress codes, attitudes about office romances have changed over time. Yet many HR departments still have policies forbidding them—in fact, one recent study found policies had grown even stricter during the 2000s.

Work perks of the past:

• Pensions
• Automatic cost-of-living raises
• 60-minute lunch hours
• Coffee breaks
• Smoking breaks
• Drink carts
• No-questions-asked expense accounts
• Steak and lobster at company parties
• Health insurance coverage for retirees
• The legendary “three-martini lunch”