https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/wrohxm/engineers_at_general_motors_before_autocad/

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one of my browser extensions does a trick sometimes

Very cool. Looks like everyone probably had back trouble. hhh

Reminds me of the similar "Excel" photo of the bookkeeping department

>>back
Looks more healthy than the modern engineer chained chained to her computer by Autocad and an endless flow of email and Slack messages.

No surprise GM was onboard.  This is what I grew up with:

IBM: Suit, white shirt and tie. Nothing flashy, dark, conservative.

NASA Mission Control: white shirt, tie, dark dress pants, pocket protector, 5 pens, slide rule either on belt or not very far away.

Doctors: white shirt, tie, white lab coat, stethoscope right from the refrigerator, heh.

>IBM: Suit, white shirt and tie. Nothing flashy, dark, conservative.

Same for Burroughs if you worked financial clients. If non-financial, then you got to wear a spiffier tie.  Some of the NCR guys wore bowties.

>NASA Mission Control: white shirt, tie, dark dress pants, pocket protector, 5 pens, slide rule either on belt or not very far away.

That was my dad, except MORE writing devices, a little stainless steel micrometer-ruler in a leather sheath (instead of the slide rule), a small screwdriver, and a pretty good stack of 80cc punch cards (great for note-taking) --ALL in his shirt pocket.

> little stainless steel micrometer-ruler

Oh, I remember seeing men with those.  Pretty cool.

> small screw driver

My grandfather had a small screwdriver that had a pocket clip on it.

Some local businesses used to give away pocket protectors as customer swag.