ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights something of the fabric and texture of work in offices at the turn of the century in order not only to provide a context against which the social changes among office workers may be played out but also to question assumptions about the divide between mental and manual labour, blue and white collars, and skilled and unskilled work. Women are expected to spend their adult lives at paid employment almost to the same extent as men. The expansion of the scale of offices and the narrowing focus of individual office jobs required new ways of organising people for clerical work. Office jobs were undoubtedly some of the best jobs on offer to women at the time but the question arises whether or not women actually found these jobs satisfying work or were content with them because they assumed they would find their own satisfaction in their home lives.
