# Who here has had a job that doesn't exist anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 23, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574 "2015-10-23T20:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/81 "2015-10-25T23:00:41Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > It was just about done when I started in the 1970s, but I worked in a few print shops and set type by hand, Monotype, and Linotype. And worked in instant print shops, running A.B. Dick presses (I’ve heard all the jokes, thanks) and pasted up newspapers using hot wax to stick the print in place. Dug a moat by hand, but that’s because the original house plan didn’t have a moat and when the morons decided to add one, we couldn’t use backhoes or Bobcats. I did that! Paste-up work for (among others) the Lane Bryant and associated catalogs. Did mechanical drawings for ads, and lots of other magazine-related stuff that’s obsolete now. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/82 "2015-10-25T23:03:03Z")
> [@sunstone](#): > > While in college, I worked as an automobile turnip specialist. Points, setting spark plug gaps, adjusting carburetors, setting timing, and so forth. Other than a strobe light, I used hand tools and my eyes and hearing to get the smoothest idle. I really enjoyed getting customer’s cars to run as well as possible. > > Now it is all electronic ignition and fuel injection; repairs are usually diagnosed with a computer, and parts are simply pulled and replaced rather than “fixed” and reinstalled. Of course cars are much better today than in the 50’s to 70’s models that I worked on. I did that, well into the 90’s. As a hobby, though, not a job. Harley-Davidsons are primitive beasts. . . ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/83 "2015-10-26T23:42:27Z")
In 1994 I worked at Voter News Service, a company that tabulated exit poll data to get results to news organizations. They were a victim of the 2000 election. Which is probably just as well, because their office was in the World Trade Center, and the next year the NYC mayoral primary was scheduled for the second Tuesday in September. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/84 "2015-10-27T07:15:40Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I used to be a milkman; door to door delivery. I did the same thing for bakery company. Horny housewives and all. > > I was a carburetor re builder for a while; I also sort of specialized in distributor repair and set up. > > My mother was a switchboard operator for years. My Father in law was a milkman. Funny thing his daughter married the dairy farmer’s son. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/85 "2015-10-27T14:44:44Z")
It took me a while to think of this because it wasn’t a job that I actually had, but more of a near miss: Grew up in a semi-rural, sleepy little community in California. By late high school, there was some new industry in town, overflow from being somewhat near Silicon Valley. One of which was an IC assembly plant, another was a circuit board assembly plant. I had no ambition for college or career, so in my senior year I got enrolled in a class hosted by the circuit board plant to learn how to assemble boards. It was an interesting class: several Vietnamese immigrants, a few Mexicans, a couple whites; most over 25 and only a couple of us under 20. We had to memorize the stripe code on the components, learn how to read circuit diagrams enough to do assembly, and learn and practice soldering. We all “graduated” from the class and threw a party. When I went to the assembly plant for what I thought was a job interview, I was surprised when I was shown to a work table and told work hours, lunch time, and other work policies. Then I was disappointed when I told them that I could only work part time because I was still in high school, and they walked me to the door because they were only hiring full time people. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/86 "2015-10-27T18:37:41Z")
In the early 1980s, I was a telephone operator at the IBM plant. The plant’s gone, and I assume almost any IBM now has had an automated operator and voicemail/email for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/87 "2015-10-28T02:05:59Z")
I spent eight years as a Stocking Inspector for the Rockettes, at Radio City Music Hall. They have a machine for that now. ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/88 "2015-10-28T11:58:24Z")
In the late eighties I worked for a specialist computer networking company. I would demonstrate and sell a dedicated, standalone network monitor (no, not a Sniffer - that was a brand name which came later). We had other products including a terminal server - a bank of ten RS-232 ports which you could hook up to the thick yellow cable via a bee-sting (aka vampire tap) transceiver. I remember just the transceivers were £300 each. We also did network installation services. I would go and do a site survey to install the aforementioned thick yellow ethernet cable in a building. You had to stick to maximum segment lengths, when to use repeaters, minimum bend radius - all the rules. I remember when the first “make before break” connectors came in - what a thing! Now everyone just takes it for granted that buildings come pre-fitted with flood wiring - no need to design and install networks. Also, in my teens I worked in a record shop that only sold ex-juke box seven inch singles. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/89 "2015-10-28T12:51:26Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I spent eight years as a Stocking Inspector for the Rockettes, at Radio City Music Hall. > > They have a machine for that now. Details, please. Where were the stockings when you inspected them? I have a mental picture of you crawling down the stage in front of the costumed chorus line…but that’s probably not right. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/90 "2015-10-28T14:26:26Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My summer job in college was as an elevator operator and doorman on Park Avenue in New York. The elevators in most of the buildings were manually operated. There can’t be many of those left any more. There is an old-timey elevator like that in a building at the corner of Yonge & Carleton in Toronto that is still in use. If you ask nicely the operator will take you up in it and tell you the history. Apparently it’s been used for film shoots too. When I was a teenager (probably 1989) I lasted 3 days being one of those annoying people in the mall who stop you and ask you to do a survey. “Would you say you were a. totally satisfied… b. somewhat satisfied… c. somewhat not satisfied…d. not at all satisfied?” I haven’t seen those since, and of course surveys are all done online now. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/91 "2015-10-28T15:16:30Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I spent eight years as a Stocking Inspector for the Rockettes, at Radio City Music Hall. > > They have a machine for that now. My Nana and my Mom both worked in a factory inspecting stockings. They had to pull each one over a form and take a look. I would get homemade stuffed animals stuffed with scrapped stockings from the factory. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/92 "2015-10-28T15:40:15Z")
In 1998 and 1999, my primary responsibility at a very large company was tracking which servers and workstations had been upgraded to be Y2K compliant and which still needed the patch. I’m guessing no one does that today. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/93 "2015-10-28T15:45:08Z")
I was the darkroom guy at a newspaper. I did the developing, printing and such. I was also a sign printer. So I had to set and proof the sign backward and upside down before it could be run. I would also do the actual printing. I was a copy boy and would run the copy at the newspaper first to the editor and then to the composing room. I also did paste up for papers for awhile. I was a headline writer and had to know how to “count heads.” Which was a talent and a half before computers took over and could change font sizes at the whim of a copy editor. Newspapers would have serious competitions as to who had the best person at the job. Before the advent of the calculator I worked in a London department store where it was my job to change the measurements on all cloth coming in from the continent from meters to yards and visa versa for that going out. I screwed up on that so, so many times. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/94 "2015-10-28T18:54:56Z")
Not my job, but a cow-orkers. We had to keep track of each and every diskette that employees used. They would come to us, write down their name and pick up a diskette, AFTER we had recorded the diskette’s serial number. Mind you, these were 8" diskettes and were probably pretty expensive in 1980, but I’m sure no one has that job anymore… ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/95 "2015-10-28T19:40:19Z")
My dad was a hospital orderly back in the day. Those got phased out in the 90’s, around here anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/96 "2015-10-28T20:33:38Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > In 1998 and 1999, my primary responsibility at a very large company was tracking which servers and workstations had been upgraded to be Y2K compliant and which still needed the patch. I’m guessing no one does that today. It’s not too soon to get started on Y10K compliance! If you start now, you could get in on the ground floor and get rich! ---
**Author:** ![dasmili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@dasmili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmili)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/97 "2015-10-28T20:40:42Z")
Like a couple others here, I also worked in a photo lab once. Although I didn’t do much work, since our machine was always breaking down. (We were never trained on the proper day-to-day maintenance, and I wasn’t paid well enough to really care.) I also worked in front of a grocery store, loading bags in people’s cars. Nowadays pretty much everyone just pushes their carts to their cars. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/98 "2015-10-28T20:58:35Z")
My first legal job was bag boy at a supermarket. In addition to putting groceries in bags we restocked the dairy section and items that were on special. In our free time we fronted shelves (how I hated fronting). I had to wear a clip-on bow tie and a name tag which depicted some sort of hick. We couldn’t run cash registers or restock the feminine products because those were “girl jobs”, and we couldn’t restock anything else because that was a “man’s job” done by the surly night stock crew. I think they phased out bag boys sometime in the late 90s. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/99 "2015-10-29T01:06:35Z")
I don’t know if bag boys have been phased out totally.There are a few at Albertson’s and they sometimes help put the groceries in the car too. I don’t see this at Wally World, however. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574/100 "2015-10-29T12:39:05Z")
The “bag boy” as a youngster on sorta casual employment is pretty well gone. But baggers who put the groceries in bags and will, depending on the store, wheel them to your car then load the car are pretty common around here. They’re all adults now. In fact many are post-retirement age. But that may just reflect the overage of elderly & shortage of teens where I live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-had-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/735574.md?page=6)