The years I spent working in an insurance office weren't the best years of my life, but it wasn't all
doom and gloom. My first job working in car insurance was in a large office block about 30 minutes
by bus from my home in a London suburb.
The offices were impressive by 1980's standards and I got the job because my sister, who had
already been working there for a couple of years, was good friends with the personnel manager. The
interview was a breeze. "Don't look so nervous, Craig", she laughed. "You've already got the job!".
I had to buy a suit, of course, and some shirts and ties. The car insurance department was an
open-planned office filled with around 30 employees. On a different floor there was a typing pool of
20 typists who typed out letters dictated to them by dictaphone.
The directors directed us from glass-walled, fish bowl-like offices. They all had very large desks to
remind us of their superiority.