The Secret Life of the Office - Remastered
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- This is the final Episode of 1The secret Life of Machines' to be launched in the Remastered format.
This episode was an experiment -more social history than technology.
I've been in my workshop making things ever since, and the covid lockdown was the perfect time to make some new videos, trying to pass on some of what I've learnt. So if you're interested do try my new 'Secret Life of Components'
These old films were remastered and upscaled by Norman Margolus from a 1987 PAL tape made directly from the 16mm print, using machine learning software from Topaz labs. Commentary added in Feb 2021.
View all 18 episodes of the series and read about their background on my website:
www.timhunkin....
The videos are also here @ / timhunkin1
16:18 - "I am saying this of my own free will and in no way reading a prepared script. It is wonderful how any thinking I might have needed to apply to my job has been automated away".
Yeah, that whole sequence was a bit terrifying, she looked like she'd been drugged or had a gun to her head or something...
Actually I thought she was stoned out of her ever loving mind.
16:20
it's kinda strange how they are talking about how they improved old and worn out machines, and that they are having a hard time catching up with technology, when their employees look like the condition of their previous equipment: Decrepit, tired and looking completely run down and in need of urgent need of rest.
BTW, I mean, look at her. She looks like Micheal Jackson after he went through the wire. 17:08
@@SomeMorganSomewhere Her children were being held at gunpoint. One wrong word - BANG!
I cannot thank you enough for uploading the series. So many happy memories. I hope you continue to produce content such as your new "Components" episodes. Thanks again.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I can only hope Tim reads these comments of appreciation and gratitude so he may know how many lives his work has influenced for the better.
Seeing how many other people love this series is great. I thought I liked a really niche forgotten thing. Seems to only be getting more popular.
I don’t think you realise how important that specific episode was, it encapsulated all the other episodes on how everything worked and gave insight, understanding and coherence to the whole particular season. I wish you’d done something similar with the appliance seasons and had one about how houses themselves changed over the millennia and how technology changed how we live, I love all of your episodes and please don’t take this as criticism, you and Rex changed my life and created my passion for old tech and how it’s works and now how I can fix stuff. I can’t thank you guys enough.
And there's Tim @ 24:46 cheekily peeking out from under a desk in his and his friends' fabulous animated end title sequence. Masterpiece!
Haha hadn’t noticed him there! 😂
I feel like this episode is a series in itself.
The final sequence is just epic. it really has a wow factor.
The work-from-home phenomenon that appeared this past year surprised many with its effectiveness. Many workers are reluctant to return to offices full time and many companies have discovered efficiencies by letting them. This may become a sea change in how people work and would hugely reduce carbon emissions.
@Tim, Thank you for remastering and posting this series. I have greatly enjoyed watching them, and hearing your commentary afterwards.
Can't say it came as any surprise to me but then I'm fortunate enough to have been doing it to one degree or another for a decade or so (in a previous role had a manager for a while who worked three months of the year from Colombia where his family were).
What we're seeing today is pretty much the promise of telecommuting and such that started being talked about in the 80's and 90's, the only reason we haven't been doing it for much longer is because companies didn't trust their employees unless they were under foot. One of the few positives out of the pandemic was that their hands have now been forced and the data is there showing that productivity has actually increased as a result.
Yeah, but the media only ever focuses on the office/white collar worker. We who have to move heavy objects around and sweat for a living never get any attention. We certainly can't "work from home."
@@lanceash It is true that all the real work that gets things done requires people to be physically present. It seems that over the course of this disease thing that there has been a growing appreciation for these "essential workers" that keep our works running.
Many companies have no doubt noticed how much they pay for offices, computers, and electricity to house their "NON-essential workers". Think how wasteful it is to have a sales rep sit in traffic for an hour a day to get to a desk that the company pays for where he sits and makes phone calls or sends emails all day. And once you think about it, if that worker doesn't have to be in the building to do his job he doesn't have to be in the country. His job could be outsourced to whatever country will work the cheapest.
That can't happen to Real jobs.
@@Miata822 Yeah, I'm actually more irritated at the attention that office/white collar jobs get in movies and television shows (rather than the news or documentaries), compared to "get your hands dirty"-type jobs. I understand that there's a practical reason for this: it's easier for dialogue purposes, since you can hear people talking to each other in an office setting, as opposed to a plant or factory setting where there are machines screaming in the background. The work-from-home phenomenon is only going to drive a larger wedge between the classes because the resentment at such a privilege will build, I assure you.
@@Miata822 Excuse me, real jobs? They are real jobs you stuck up pillock.
If an applause is deserved, it is now. I feel sorry to have reached the end of this box set, but I will be revisiting episodes now and again, plus your new videos. Funny thing is I did feel during this episode that it was an unusual departure from the normal offering of experiments, but you raised this in your epilogue. Once again, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be myself today. I’m a computer science teacher, and I’m going to deliberately set one of your episodes as homework. You do trespass some computer science in the photocopy episode. I’m sure it will be a gift to a few students when they discover the entire series for themselves. Thank you for resurrecting this onto TH-cam, it’s really quite special. I cannot end this comment without saying, may Rex RIP.
I absolutely love your work, I remember watching it as a kid in the USA. So glad that you decided to remaster the series on youtube
Dear Tim, Today I visited your museum in London. That is so great. I'm very happy because I saw some younger in the museum.
They have enjoyed your machines. I hope someone will go new generation of engineering.
I often find myself saying: "I know of an engineer in the UK who gets the job done this or that way...". Thank you for each treasure trove of a video you release, Mr. Hunkin.
it was interesting the way Mr. Hunkin feel about this episode. I thought this episode was perhaps one of the best ones if not the best one in the series and all because they explained something which is almost invisible and unassuming until you dissect it and look at it in a different light. I wouldn't think about this subject in 100 years.
Tim - Thanks so much for remastering this series and making it available to future generations. My kids loved it the first time around and with any luck, their kids will too!
2:15. "A hundred fifty years ago, there were no office blocks, and the only office workers were Dickensian clerks: they wrote letters and financial ledgers, but all other business was conducted by word of mouth: there were no memos, reports, printed forms, and orders. Recent research in America suggests that the introduction of printed forms stemmed from a series of fatal train crashes in the eighteen-forties."
Edgar Allan Poe's marriage license was a printed form-in Virginia, in 1836. His filing for bankruptcy, in Philadelphia, also involved printed forms, in 1842.
Printed forms for indentured servitude in the anglophone world were used at least as early as 1742.
My wifes been a teacher since 1985 and they've been telling her "the end of paperwork is right around the corner...", and it's still, right around the corner!!! Only, for now, she still has to fill out the paperwork AND fill out the computer forms!!! So you know who loses??? The students who don't get access to my wife... THE TEACHER!!! Good grief!!! 2 steps forward, 10 steps back... Guess it's just human nature ;-) Excellent video sir, have enjoyed them all!!! (From the mountains of western NC, USA :-) Thank you!!!
I love the segment with all the scenes of people around the office; pushing coffee on a cart, a guy yawning, etc.. I especially love and can't think of a single good reason why the guy whips out a stack of cash in a plastic bag @ 21:15, but I can think of plenty exotic reasons. 🙂
27:17 Everybody hates it. It's one of the main reasons so many don't want to go back when restrictions lift. Why go back to the place where you can't have your friendly and dear plants, photo, teapot, favourite tea, mug, cozy blanket, etc., unless you carry them back and forth in a suitcase? And you never know who's next to you each day, so you dread that
Exactly! I changed jobs just before my previous employer shifted to this evil concept (along with no cubicle walls), and now my current employer is slowly converting to hot desking. Management says it's to foster collaboration, but the rest of us know it's a way to pack more people into a fixed area.
I once shared a cubicle with a young woman when I was a young man. By shared, I mean I worked 2nd shift in a cube and she worked 1st shift in it. She hung up pictures of men all over the cube, shirtless and whatnot. So one evening I pinned up a picture of a young lady in a bikini between all the men. The following evening when I arrived at work I got a major talking to about being sensitive and not sexualizing the woman. When I arrived at the cubicle, all of the pictures she hung were still there. I walked back to my supervisor and quit.
@MichaelKingsfordGray you've clearly never been self employed :)
@@Acceleronics Can confirm. Unless everybody in an office is doing pretty much the same thing for the same team/group hot desking does nothing to foster collaboration, if anything it reduces it by generally ending up with people with wildly differing roles (and thus no value to add to one another's work) sitting together.
Last scene of the office shows we are dealing with a genius here. How Tim managed to produce that much chaos was incredible.
Oh dear god, I remember studying Taylor and Galbraith in college and then being the subject of their methods as an machine operator. These two people contributed to more worker misery than anyone else, ever. All complete bollocks as far as actual productivity was concerned but it made the managers, shareholders and bean counters happy.
Thanks Tim, my wife and I very much enjoyed watching your series in the 70’s. Looking forward to revisiting them!
"In the future, there will be no paper in offices"
I can confirm that we are still a long way off that yet...
including fax
Yeah, the "paperless office" is one of those promises we're still yet to have fulfilled.
Our office is paper free, now. trying to rolling out in other areas is becoming very difficult.. Hours of scanning and shredding. Making everything digital and in the cloud and all being on the same page works magically.. Now just make and share it.
As with every, we try, build and deliver. Lots of projects haha. Paper is messy. Desks are spotless. Laptop, dock, Keyboard, mouse, graphics tablet and a cup of coffee and bottle of water in the morning 😂
We're building the template. It's shocking how much paper and printed elsewhere
I've only printed once this year. And they were some personal documents 😂
@@tsimeone That's all very well, until you have an internet or (even worse...) power outage.
@@Dave5400 oh 100%. We just have no use for paper anymore in my team. Other teams I've seen printing off sheets daily. and then populate the same exact sheet on the pc that's printed off. 🤣
We don't need paper to work, it's built to not need to ever print off. (there are some exceptions legally on legal documents at the moment)
I can't believe it's the last episode so soon. Please keep making components videos or something Tim. We'd love more content from you!!
I watched the original ones on TV and all these at least three times each. Absolutely fascinating and educational tv.
"there is no limit to which the human body cannot be pushed as long as the leader has a mustache" laughed very loud!
the seagulls were pretty good too
That seagull narrative at the end was awesome but the volume soared out of control;-)
Ironic in these times, we seem to have gone full circle from a few hundred years back people working from home weaving or similar, through ever more complex offices, and back for many to working from home.
Tim's cartoons really bring the episode together.
Thank you for remastering this and adding your commentary. I watched this series with my grandmother about 30 years ago, and have rewatched it multiple times. I'm also very happy that you created the components videos. I think you are amazing. RIP Rex. 🙏
The ending scene was absolutely fantastic. Great work as always Tim
21:14 was a crime inadvertently recorded? (brandishing a polythene bag full of cash).
I have questions. 🤔🤫
This has been the most marvellous journey Mr Hunkin.
Thank you from an English armour-maker in a French forest.
Long may you reign. ⚒️ 🌞
It was the 1980s so I wouldn't be surprised if every segment in the series didn't involve someone or some action that would be considered criminal by today's standards! 🤣
That’s my old friend Robert waving his hourly pay around! We worked there in a management consulting firm, Rob was never one to ‘toe the line’!!
@@Richardincancale That's great, mystery almost solved! Well played 'Loudsarobert' I say. 😉🇬🇧
Glad to hear he is isn't on holiday at her majesty's pleasure after all.
@@j2simpso Yes indeed, everyone trying to stitch-up everybody else was indeed my main recollection of the entire decade... All to the the backing of sequenced synths.
Altogether now: "Just can't get enough... Just can't get enough"
This feels like it makes a nice companion piece to David Graeber's 'Bullshit Jobs'
Absolutely amazing series, both of the home and office. So sad it has come to an end. Love your secret life of components too. Hope you will make some more. How about the secret life of tools?
Definitely the most introspective part of the series, despite not actually being about a particular kind of machine. The office and the workers in it are the machine. The arcade machine at the end is stunningly insightful. If the 'zoo hypothesis' is ever proved to be correct, then that arcade machine depicts something probably very close to what's actually going on, and we humans are as oblivious just the same as the machine portrays. I've never actually seen anything that I can recall come as close to it as what I just saw, and I've got chills everywhere right now. Not at all what I expected from the video. But fitting if it accidentally peeled back a curtain and exposed the true secret machine. Well done, Mr. Hunkin. Thank you for everything you've done for all of us.
21:25 - the image of that bloke yawning and stopping himself lest he be noticed for slacking off - it captures so much of modern work culture. This episode is a work of art, even if you don't like it so much Tim. Thank you!
The end commentary really helps to explain the context. I agree that this was a break from the series. However there was the one part where Tim busted out onto the roof and listed off all the wierd machines, without explaining any of them.
The caricature line drawings always have me smiling.
Thank you Tim for sharing these wonderful films, and especially for making them freely available.
In addition the wonderful commentary at the end is something I've looked forward to every time. You are a true gent.
Tim at the end mirrored what I was thinking during the episode - definitely an odd episode. I would happily have settled for a whole episode on the service floor! I share his aversion to offices - every time I have to visit some souless office in London I can't wait to get out, and oddly, the more ostentatious the building, the stronger the urge to escape!
Straight faced, sitting in front of that "voluptuous statue". Love it.
must have been the bromide in the water
Wonderful to see in such good quality !
Thanks Tim 👍👍👍
I had a philosophy professor in college who described a corporation as a social machine, for all the good and ill that implies, and when you really think about it all forms of organization between people are a technology, they had to be invented. Some of the basics emerged from our instincts to be sure but much the same way that all of our physical machinery is built to be worked with human hands or feet all of our social machinery is built to be worked with human brains and human speech.
If anything what you've got here is a machine with a secret life that's so secret that nobody even knows it's a machine at all.
Thank you, Tim, For these wonderful documentaries and for all the hard work you've put into remastering them. You've taught me so much over the years.
This is my day to work from home. Glad this popped up.
Thanks for uploading and appending these Tim, not to mention making them in the first place. I grew up watching these series when they were first broadcast, and they've shaped my life in a positive way.
I was obsessed with lifts as a kid, and so in the absence of any TH-cam enthusiasts filming shafts and machine rooms in the early 1990s, your Lift episode was my favourite bit of TV at the time. I admit to having recorded a few episodes onto VHS and I think I wore the tape out with that particular one.
This episode here appears to be filmed in the same office - where was it (looks like London)? Did you have to rent part of the empty floor to build your set?
Interesting that youtube says your comment is 4 months old, on a video that was uploaded only a few hours ago ?!
@@gonzo_the_great1675 I think I caught a link (since removed) from Tim's website to the video when it was private. No funny business guv, promise
The office was the same as in the lifts episode. It was (is?) at 123 Buckingham Palace Road where the consulting firm I worked for was based. My ex-colleagues appear in the film
@@Richardincancale Thanks Richard! Weirdly enough it seems that Google have moved in there now
I can relate I run offices buildings now due to my fascination with HVAC and other m&e kit that runs the offices.
Absolutely love that you're doing these Tim, big love to you and yours Ralfy
this was one my favourite tv programs as a kid.
Thank you SO very much Tim - for the remasters and of course for the originals. These have been as much a highlight of the last few months for me as they were when I first watched them as a kid and immediately picked up a screwdriver and took apart everything in sight. I still have the VHS copies I wore out from playing over and over so many times. Unquestionably one of THE most meaningful and formative works of my childhood, bar none. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d LOVE the same treatment for anything you’ve made, ie Why Things Go Wrong, etc., but regardless, thank you for the wonderful ride - I guess it’s back to having nothing to look forward to on TH-cam again for a while…
Yes!!! The VHS copies I wore down also! I'm right there with you, I too took a screw driver to everything in sight. This series and Tim's approach to things is made me the person I am. Thank you, Tim and Rex!
I would nothing better than Tim's re-made "Broadgate Venus London"
Excellent. Love the nature conservancy
Hurrah ! I watched all of them Sir. that was a Nice Journey of whole scientific development
Thank you Tim...very much enjoyed all the series...missed then first time round I guess!
Thank you, Tim. This series has brought me a lot of joy as you've rereleased it.
I paused shortly after the beginning to see if you said how the remaster was done, and it was what I was hoping to see. I picked up "Video Enhance AI" from Topaz Labs last week and had been playing around with it all weekend. It's fun. Back to the video...
I'm glad you're doing these Tim. Its interesting how things have changed and your thinking at the time. Many thanks. Can I suggest you do some shorts (say no more than 5 minutes) of all those little jobs you end up tackling - with your unique perspective.
Thanks so much for making all the episodes available, and adding your commentary. I have really enjoyed your and Rex’s work, and getting glimpses of your marvelous arcade machines.
Tim,your seagull arcade machine at the end is hilarious! You should post videos of all your creations for those of us who live in the United States and can’t easily come see them.
Thanks again for posting this wonderful series here for us,and for the added commentary at the end!
Just found you, what a great video and I've many more to watch
Love this series. The seagulls reminded me of one of my favorite songs, Seagull - Bad Company.
thanks again tim!!! the end sequence is awesome!!!
Loved this episode in particular for some reason.
Truly love these videos after stumbling upon them. I certainly didn't grow up with the series but they easily still hold up to a first viewing today
I really regret that you are old and I am happy that I am proud of a mountain of science and knowledge
I'm sad to have reached the end but I'm so glad you've made these available for us. Thanks.
Thank you for making this wonderful series, I hope you will bring more of your unique style and wit to videos in the future'
I grew up with these episodes and although Tim considered this episode less favourably, most of the paradigm of the office with considerations of human factors briefly covered seem as applicable today as back then. Although all the other episodes do have a their particular place in my heart for their practical endeavours of engineering I've shared this episode most common in various office related settings 🙂The ending summary is less likely to be accept as facts today: "... even if all this expense is justified the value of the Information Technology itself unproven. In the last 20 years the number of office workers has almost tripled. However research has failed to find any significant increases in office productivity, perhaps because it's almost impossible research."
I can’t believe there’s no more! I really was waiting for another …. Didn’t realise there’s was just 18 brilliant episodes… also wish I could of told rex how he was the king of the bodgers! My dad and brother influenced me like this program! Have a go! Repair it … reuse .. build … make create …. You can learn and find out how something works … and it isn’t as dangerous as you make think… or maybe that’s the thrill….before it was cool to recycle .. if everyone applied Tim’s and rexs methods to life I doubt there would be the waste pandemic!
Also it feels good to get something working … and it’s even fun trying! I like nice looking designer things … But I like things that work and function better …..
Thanks so much for uploading these. I had never seen or heard of this series until now, but absolutely love the format and quirkiness.
I'm glad you made this video. It's nice to have a point in time picture of the office and how people thought about things. It's interesting that we're still cycling through the same paradigms.
Tim sitting under the shadow of the nude statue outside the office is priceless!
Thanks for taking the time to upload all these, I hugely enjoyed them when they aired in the UK.
LOL! The building directly after the Venus was my office for some years until 18 months ago! Broadgate Exchange Square, built and suspended directly over the railway lines that terminate at Liverpool Street station, hence the arch suspension.
Thanks again, Tim, for sharing your time and your thoughts with us. You've touched so many lives, as should be obvious from the comments. I can't help but feel a little sad that this is the end of the series, though. I really hope we'll continue to hear from you on your various projects and interests. Much love and gratitude from all of us "geeks" and "nerds" out here. You've made our world a better place!
Unquestionably so!
Loved the whole series even in 2021!
Aww, final episode. I enjoyed them once again, thank you!
This was a neat episode. It's funny how productivity hasn't gone up with the large investments in capital equipment. The introduction of computers has lowered the cost per form in time and materials but this has allowed far more forms to be made. A friend that worked for a paper company said that in the 80's they were worried about shrinking markets due to computers but in the end they computer has been the best friend the paper companies could have. Thank you for the great series.
Many thanks for an absolutely fantastic episode Tim. Please make another one!
Great work again Tim. I remember looking forward to each episode of your original series in the 90s, and have enjoyed your recent "remasterings". I hope that we see more of you in the future. I think that the sea gulls opinion of us is spot on. Best wishes.
Thanks a lot for your nice videos! It has been great watching them all! All the best from Holland.
This was always the best episode of them all, a great ending to the whole series! I show this one to folks all the time to this day!
Thanks so much for all of this Tim, I have to say I sure am sorry to have reached the end! I hope you continue with your new series, it’s so great looking forward to anything you have for us. In the meantime I think I’ll rewatch everything. Hope to see you again very soon! Cheers!
Muchas gracias Sr. Hunkin por traer de vuelta esta serieen excelente calidad. De niño fue lo mejor que vi en televisión y verla ahora es aún mejor! Gracias!
Loved your show for a long time. Watched each episode multiple times over the years, old and new. Thank you.
Thank you for all of these remastered episodes and the commentary with them, it's been a real treat to see them all (in my case for the first time).
I hot desked for 25 years! I still travelled the world though as a pharmaceutical auditor.
Thanks so much for uploading this series again Tim. Wishing you good health 👍🏼🙂
Great series!!!
Thank you Tim and Rex for so many fascinating episodes on enveryday stuff.
Cheers, much Love from 🇵🇹
I just found this series and channel recently. Great content! Upscale looks great!
Oh god the nature conservancy. I didn't expect the twist in the end and be startled
Thanks so much Tim for re-posting this series. I've enjoyed it immensely. The commentary at the end of each one is a really nice touch.
I really loved this episode because not only is it more introspective and social than the other ones, it also comes as a subconscious critique of capitalism. This episode accurately summarises more flaws about the industrial-era work system than entire history and sociology books. Many of the machines in the previous episodes either hung around in transformed ways or became completely obsolete, and I wonder which shape the office work would turn.
Thank you for this and all of the others Tim! Strangely, the office has become a bit of an anachronism over the last 18 months
Thanks for these, a real bright spot of my year to see these and get to share them with people in my life. I have a feeling that they will alter my life as well, especially getting the commentary at the end, and the images from the arcades, it feels like trailblazing of a creative life well lived and satisfying to look back on and also to enjoy in the moment. I love seeing all the positive comments on all the videos as well. It's a good piece of work to leave so many people thinking and pondering over it, and incorporating it into their lives.
Loved the seagull bit.
Pulling strings. I love the low tech solution.
Interesting timing. Given that the whole concept of the huge centralised office, may be coming to an end.
Excellent series. Thanks for them all Tim.
despite this episode being pretty different from the rest I always really enjoyed it and thought it was a perfect end cap to the preceding videos about office machines
covid has set us free :) enjoyed this series so much during the lockdown Tim. Thanks a million for sharing.
Thank you Tim❤️
Your films are marvels of culturology. They should be preserved for future civilisations to understand the past!
You hit the bullseye, the fundamental point, at 21:35. The key to everything: productivity, efficiency, effectiveness & ultimate success, is to take great care to hire the right people. The tools, systems, & technologies used are just reflections of the people choosing & using them. Technology won't cure dysfunctional human interactions & relationships.