Where I used to work...

Capt Lightning

Capt Lightning

Well-known Member
Location
Historic Buchan, Scotland
Looking through some old photos of where I used to work... This was the IBM plant in Havant, England. The building to the left was the IT block, and the single storey block to the right was the manufacturing area.

Havant was on the south coast and a short walk from the plant was the Royal Oak pub where we would sometimes go on Friday lunchtime. The Royal Oak was one of the most painted scenes in the area. I have an oil colour painting of it hanging in my hall.

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OneEyedDiva said:
The building where you worked makes me think of a military base or a prison. The pub area is indeed very scenic. Do you remember what you used to order for lunch?
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The photo doesn't do it justice - it was brilliant white in my day. The IT block had offices for the software staff upstairs. The lower floor housed the in-house computer systems. This was an air conditioned secure unit. Behind the IT block was the Admin block. It had an internal courtyard with garden and pond. Hardly a prison!!

Lunch at the pub - probably a burger and a pint of the local ale.
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Capt Lightning said:
The photo doesn't do it justice - it was brilliant white in my day. The IT block had offices for the software staff upstairs. The lower floor housed the in-house computer systems. This was an air conditioned secure unit. Behind the IT block was the Admin block. It had an internal courtyard with garden and pond. Hardly a prison!!

Lunch at the pub - probably a burger and a pint of the local ale.
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Yes...this view of the building is nice. Modern, clean lines like I like. Classic lunch choice. :)
 
Thinking about the "prison".... One year two ducks took up residence in the pond in the courtyard of the Office block and raised a large brood of ducklings. The maintenance staff looked after them, feeding them and even building a shelter and little ramps for the ducklings. This was OK until it was time to fly the nest, but the ducklings were trapped, unable to fly out over the building. It was decided to get the animal rescue people to remove them and release them outside. The ducklings were having none of this, and the sight of grown men with nets splashing trying to catch them soon caught the attention of everyone in the offices. Just about the entire workforce in the office block was watching and there was a great round of applause when the ducklings were finally rounded up.
 
Capt Lightning said:
Looking through some old photos of where I used to work... This was the IBM plant in Havant, England.
Click to expand...

I was an "IBMer" too, for almost 35 years. I started out fixing "punch card" equipment, and followed the technology through the "370" years. It was a great company to work for. When the big water cooled mainframes began to give way to "super PC's", I moved over to the high speed laser printers for my final 5 or 6 years....to avoid the mainframe "layoffs". Then, in 2001, they offered an early buy out, about 18 months before I was planning to retire, so I took it. IBM gave us an excellent retirement and health care package which has served us well. I have nothing but good words for IBM and the way they treated their employees.
 
IBM in the UK used to be a great company, but over the years the conditions of employment were cut back. When I joined in the 70's all my re-location expenses were paid and in those days, it was a job for life. I started off in final test engineering on the mainframes, but moved to software development, eventually working for customers all round the UK and Europe (with a few trips to the US). Oh how that all changed. There was a big reorganisation and people like myself in their 50's (and who occasionally rocked the boat) were very much on the radar. I jumped ship in 2003 with a modest payout and pension, upped sticks and moved back north to Scotland. I'm grateful for the chance they gave me, the travel and the friends I made, but I resented the way the company had become.

The manufacturing plants in Greenock (Scotland) and Havant(England) have been re-purposed by other organisations, as was the plant in Mainz (Germany) where I worked for a while. Any Idea about IBM Rochester Mn? I worked there for a short time on the 'Lightning' file, which is where I got my forum name from.
 
The company began to change in the early/mid 1990's, as the transition away from the big water cooled mainframes began. That's when I moved over to the laser printers....my coworkers thought I was nuts by going to something that would get my hands dirty...but when the layoffs began, they saw the wisdom of my choice. I put in enough years to get the full retirement benefits.
 

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