15 Vintage Workplace Photos That Would Give HR a Heart Attack Today
Imagine showing up for your first day at work and discovering that your desk is a steel beam hundreds of feet above the street. Or that you’re expected to operate heavy machinery before you’re old enough to drive. Old workplace photographs are full of situations that would send a modern HR department into an emergency meeting. Some jobs involved terrifying heights, others meant spending long hours around industrial equipment, and a few had working conditions that are hard to believe today. Photographers documented these scenes in remarkable detail, leaving behind a record of what earning a paycheck once involved. Here are 15 vintage workplace photos that would make today’s safety officers extremely nervous.
One Wrong Step
A construction worker sits on the exposed steel framework of the Empire State Building in 1930, with New York City’s buildings far below.
The Night Shift Starts Young
Young boys working at a glass factory in Alexandria, Virginia, were photographed during the night shift in 1911.
Smoking Next to an Oil Well
One worker smokes a pipe while another pours material into a large piece of equipment at an oil well in Brazoria County, Texas, in 1940.
Window Cleaning Was an Extreme Sport
Window washers work outside a New York City building in 1958, standing on narrow exterior ledges with dozens of windows still waiting to be cleaned.
The Training Program Had No Ground Floor
Telephone electrician trainees climb several tall wooden poles during a practical training session at the University of Michigan around 1918.
The Coal Mine Had a Kid on Staff
A young boy shovels coal beside an adult operating drilling equipment at the Laura Mine in West Virginia in 1908.
The Shift Started at 3 A.M.
Children and adults working at the Dunbar Cannery pose in front of a massive pile of oyster shells in 1911, during shifts that reportedly lasted from 3 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Your Desk Is Somewhere Up There
A lineman works among a dense web of telephone wires high above an intersection in Pratt, Kansas, in 1911.
The Elevator Is Already Full
Coal miners crowd onto a mine elevator after finishing their shifts in Belgium during the 1920s, packed closely together for the trip back up.
Even Job Hunting Came With Cigarettes
An old photograph shared on Reddit shows a man smoking indoors at an employment office, back when job centers still permitted cigarettes inside.
The Paint Comes With Radiation
Women working for the U.S. Radium Corporation paint watch dials with radioactive material in 1922, using small brushes for the delicate work.
Leaving Work Required an X-Ray
A diamond miner in South Africa undergoes an X-ray examination in 1954, part of a workplace practice intended to prevent employees from smuggling diamonds out of the mines.
Asbestos Was Literally the Job
A woman poses with asbestos material inside a factory in 1944, handling a substance that would later become notorious for its serious health risks.
Even the Babies Needed Gas Masks
Nurses at an English hospital test protective gas-mask equipment designed for babies during a World War II air-raid drill in 1940.
Lunch Break, 800 Feet Up
Eleven construction workers eat lunch while sitting on a steel beam high above Manhattan during the construction of Rockefeller Center in 1932.