I have been retired for several years now. During my various careers I have noticed a disturbing change. The social events organised or sponsored by employers has dwindled to virtual non existence. Working for a Further Education college, our social events started out with a Christmas Bash (supported by the college), a Bowling Challenge in summer and a trip to the pub every Friday lunchtime. By the time I left, eighteen years later, all of these had ceased to exist.
These events had a powerful influence on the way the staff interacted and reinforced a camaraderie and group ethos. I am sure they helped to increase productivity in the long run.
Contrast this with Percy Brothers. On the top floor was a canteen. Toast and snacks came round every morning on a trolley pushed by Edna whose strident voice could surely wake the dead. The canteen housed a small snooker table and a table tennis table. Eventually, due to the hard work of the Social Committee, we were able to purchase a full size snooker table.
Every year a competition was organised by a hard working monotype operator, Frank Godber, assisted by an equally efficient deputy, Alf Buswell. The competition was department based and consisted of darts, snooker and cribbage. There was an entrance fee which was used to purchase equipment and the winners received a cup, returned every year at the start of the next contest. Playing darts as a young shy lad of 16 against the ladies of the bindery is an experience never to be forgotten. Their abilities in ‘psyching out’ our nervousness was revealing to say the least. Feminine wiles include powerful perfumes, shy smiles and generally turning us into quivering jellies with the inevitable result that they frequently won.
There was also a yearly trip to Blackpool on a Friday night to see the illuminations and occasionally a trip to Pickmere Lake, a beauty spot in the Cheshire country side. I never went on one of these but I was told that the shenanigans were legendary. Certainly they were responsible for the breakup of at least one relationship that I knew about.
So the next time you pass the Percy Brothers building on Whitworth Street West (providing it hasn’t yet been pulled down) have a thought for the richness of the life that took place all those years ago…