My dad’s view of offices is that they were an unfortunate necessity but should be avoided where possible.
When we built the first building at Green lane it was the workshop and office block which were joined to each other but because of the fall of the land the offices were upstairs to the workshop, although level at the front. The offices consisted of a reception area as you went through the front door with the ladies toilet located in the same area. To the right was the general office , where at first 5 were accommodated and worked and to the left was my dad’s and my office which was very large with window looking out onto the front and a window looking out onto the side viewing where the vehicles were parked.
Straight through from the reception area was a long large room which had a desk at the window looking over the parking area and the side door that led up from the workshop level into it. At the far end was the gent’s toilet. This large area served as the transport office and drivers rest area which served as the point where dad tended to b located.
The workshop staff had their own toilets and washing area downstairs below this office and connected to the workshop so as to save them needing to leave the workshop area bringing oil and dirt with them.
We soon outgrew these arrangements and built a new drivers rest room and traffic office downstairs and partly below the original. Dad insisted that the traffic office where he would sit if there was anyone absent and space for him, was built surrounded in windows so you could see everything. Dad then was usually sat in the driver’s area so he could see drivers as they came back and talk with them finding out how they went on. It gave him great pleasure in hearing of how drivers dealt with troubles caused by delays in unloading and totally agreed with and would defend a driver who lost his temper and told staff where they were waiting to unload that if they didn’t start unloading him shortly he would unload himself and fill their warehouse and their office. My dad had been there and seen it and he would not stand or allow that our drivers got messed about by what he would consider pen pushers.Dad had a gift that he could relate well with the drivers, who he thought were the most precious asset of the business. They felt they could talk with him and often if they had troubles he would help them.
The new men’s toilet block was built and the existing male toilet converted to female with a largish area for them to put on makeup etc. The original female toilet was then converted to male for male office staff. The old drivers/traffic area was converted to more general office and a counter put at the top of the stairs for drivers to come to collect their wages or to discuss any other matters with office staff.
The original general office was altered so that the receptionist/ telephonist was now located in the reception area and sub divided to allow a small office for our full time qualified accountant.
Our office remained as it was until we employed Andrew Scott, (who I will come onto at a later time) who took over Dad’s desk and shared the office with me. Dad then didn’t bother with a desk but only came in the office to meet people and sat where we had a conversation area with three piece and coffee table.
With the advent of mail order the containerised removals were moved into a twenty thousand square feet warehouse, which was high enough to stack the containers four high, in the old Courtaulds site which we rented. Phil Reilly had a small office in there and also handled the local north east deliveries from there.
The warehouse was then used purely as a sorting area for the national mail order operation and vans and trailers were then loaded from there for the various depots. Office space was then created in there by partitioning an area about ten feet wide down the left-hand side making about 750 square foot which was mainly used as offices for the staff that sorted and loaded the items for the depots.
We then had bought a static caravan which was located outside the warehouse just past the new toilet block. We stripped it apart from the kitchen and toilets and in there were staff who received the mail order delivery notes back from the depots after delivery and checked and filed them to be ready for the constant demands for proof of delivery from the mail order companies They of course were fully computerised and expected replies within minutes with signed delivery notes faxed to them. In our case everything had to be manually found and it was a very difficult task
