The last tea lady?

Warrigal

Warrigal

SF VIP
Location
Sydney, Australia
When I first started work there was a tea lady who came around and delivered cups of tea to the office staff.
Since then they have become a dying breed.

This one is probably the last of her kind.

'Passing of an era' as tea lady retires from Sydney law firm after 12 years' service

By Angela Lavoipierre





Across many industries, many people have lost jobs because of the digital revolution and automation. But one Sydney law firm has defiantly managed to hang on to its tea lady — until now. Today is Robyn Tuckwell's first day of retirement and her colleagues believe she is the last of her kind.
She has been the official tea lady at Spruson and Ferguson, a law firm in the CBD, for 12 years.

Ms Tuckwell has the morning and afternoon tea orders for about 180 people memorised, down to the last detail.

"Well, it's nice to have someone know what you drink, that cares how you like it and, I don't know, and a bit of banter with it," she said. Ms Tuckwell knows more about the people drinking her tea than just their orders.

"They've always got something to tell you; whether it be, 'don't tell anyone else, this is a secret', or keeping up with the news. And I'd say, 'oh, I hadn't heard that'," she said. I'm sure we're the last [firm with a tea lady], which is very sad. So from my view it's a real passing of an era.

After Ms Tuckwell decided to retire, the firm chose not to replace her.

"It's not a financial saving; it's just ... this is the modern way of life," David Griffith, chief executive of the firm's parent company IPH Limited, said.
"Robyn is the one commonality between all of us, I guess, who touches everybody twice a day."

One principal at the firm, Greg Turner, believes Robyn Tuckwell may well be the last office tea lady.

"We work with a lot of big companies around Sydney, Australia, internationally. Most of my big clients are northern hemisphere — New York, Chicago, Munich, London. And I visit these firms and I know not one has a tea lady," Mr Turner said. "And I'm sure we're the last, which is very sad. So from my view it's a real passing of an era."

Mr Turner would prefer the company employed a new tea lady, rather than abolishing the position.
"But the other principals are a lot younger than me; [in] their 30s and 40s and I'm in my mid-60s. And they're thinking, 'no, we don't need a tea lady'," he said. "It's just, times are different."

Ms Tuckwell plans to use the time gardening and caring for her six cats.
"I'm looking forward to a new challenge, but I know further down the track I'll miss the comradeship," she said.

Click to expand...

Does anyone else remember the tea lady?
 

I gather it must be a local phenomenon in your area. She looks like a very friendly lady who loves her job.

We did have coffee carts coming to one office I worked in with coffee/tea and pastries but that stopped as soon as coffee kiosks like Starbucks and Second Cup and Timothy's started popping up everywhere and going down to pick up coffee was preferable to being stuck at your desk.

Below: India's Chai Wallah's are very adept at the art of making tea in their little tea shops:

 
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We had a coffee cart that came around at about 10AM, at one of the bigger firms I worked at. That was almost thirty years ago. It never occurred to me that they might no longer exist. Our coffee lady was nice, but I'm sure not nearly as gracious as this lady appears to be. I know your an Aussie, but your traditions have English roots, and this is the kind of thing that they always excelled at. The world seems a sadder place when something like this happens, but its really just a different place. We might knock Starbucks and people being obsessed with their cell phones, but in forty or fifty years those people will be reminiscing just like we are about both.
 

Yes we had Tea ladies almost everywhere I've worked over the years ...Hubs has one where he works even now...but in my workplace we don't have one anymore. We have a Chinese Lady who comes in on a Tuesday to help out with some basic chores and she offers to make the tea for everyone while she's there ..but other than that we all make our own
 
Hollydolly, do you put cream or milk in your tea? We had an elderly English couple live across the street for several years till he died last year and she moved to LA to be by her kids. Anyway, when my husband would go over there to do something for them she would give him a cup of tea with milk in it. He said it was really good but we've never gotten around to doing it over here.
 
Always milk for me personally ...cream goes into coffee...although many people take it black as my mother did but I've never in my life heard of cream going into tea!!
 
Over here milk goes into tea and coffee and we call this white tea or white coffee. Coffee made on milk is called a flat white, as distinct from a cappuccino which is frothy. Tea without milk is either black tea if from Ceylon or green tea if from China. Coffee without milk is sometimes called short black (espresso) or simply black coffee.

Americans find this confusing and somewhat politically incorrect but Australians see no racial undertones in this use of the words black and white.

Cream is what we have on our scones, with jam.
 
Thank you ladies for the tea education. That's all good to know. I liked to listen to my neighbor's accent (she would call on the phone pretty often) and the way she'd say "tell John to come round for tea." I've never heard anyone say that instead of "come over". Anyway, I miss her sometimes. And I can't imagine anyone being offended by black coffee. I've near heard it called white coffee but I've heard, and have drank before, a white Russian. :)

A few months ago my daughter and her family took me out to a high tea at a old hotel in Pasadena. So for the first time in my life I got to try clotted cream on scones, it was great! That was my chance to put milk in my tea and I forgot to.
 
In Imperial India they had chai wallahs who were native Indians who sold tea on the street.
I suspect the tea lady was introduced because there were no staff lunch rooms for workers to go to for a break.
Refreshments came to the work station.
 
How nice this is/was, someone bringing tea! Husband and I joke about the full circle of office life. 1980 he had to bring a can of coffee to the office once a month, everyone took a time to bring in the can. Then in the boom there were treats, candy, water bottles, cookies and coffee everywhere in the building. Now, bring your own Pods and creamer. So full circle.
 
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