In Britain at the turn of the century the nature of office work was changing, in line with large-scale social and economic developments. These included the increasing size and influence of the service sector of the economy, the growing use of bureaucratic procedures in administrative organisations, the changing conceptions of success for individuals in a maturing industrial economy and the creation of an entirely new field of women'e(tm)s work. Taking for its location Glasgow, the 'e~second city of the British Empire'e(tm), this book explores the physical and technological changes which occurred in the growing bureaucracies of big-business and of government as well as in the small and mid-size business of the city. The study of these changes provides a context within which to set the complementary experiences of the men and women who chose to seek a living in the wide array of constantly changing office jobs.
Disillusionment or New Opportunities? : The Changing Nature of Work in Offices, Glasgow 1880-1914