A tea lady provides drinks in an office, factory, hospital, or other place of work. The role under this name began in Britain during World War II, and continues in the National Health Service today. It used to be a wide-spread occupation for women, and as such was well represented in popular culture.
Tea ladies entered the mainstream in the UK during the Second World War, when they were used in an experiment to boost efficiency in workplaces for the war effort (see Women in World War II#Workplace). They had such a hugely positive effect on morale they became commonplace in all areas of work, mobile canteens even serving military units on exercises. [1] They could be found in the workplace canteen or might have come around with a trolley, which typically carried a tea urn filled with hot tea or water, along with a variety of cakes and buns.
This occupation began to die out in the late 1970s to early 1980s when tea ladies began to be replaced by private catering firms and vending machines, as businesses expanded and women moved into different jobs. The tradition of the tea break, from which the role of tea lady rose, has itself declined, also offering a possible explanation why tea ladies are not commonly found today.
In Britain, market research in 2005 showed that of those workers who drank more than four cups of tea a day, only 2% of them received it from a tea lady, [2] whereas 66% received it from a tea urn, and 15% from a vending machine.
In Australia, Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy in the University of New South Wales, uses the decline of the tea lady within the civil service as an example of "managerial solipsism": they provided civil servants with dependable "patterns of civilised sociability" at "significant economies of scale", but "they just faded away, as departments searched for easy ways of making savings". [3]
Tea ladies still exist in the National Health Service (NHS) [4] though the job of tea attendant is no longer restricted to women workers. Some hospital tea trolleys are operated by the Royal Voluntary Service. [5] Patients often comment on the tea ladies, and how their care made a hospital stay more bearable. [6] [7]
In the past Tea Ladies were often upheld as virtues of womanhood, in British comedy, with a tea lady usually portrayed as a jocular, humorous, well rounded, middle aged woman in a uniform and cap, or as a very pretty young women in peak fertility and her best child bearing years, gaining appreciative comments from her co-workers, as in the film Carry On at Your Convenience (1971).[ citation needed ]
In Australia, a sitcom called The Tea Ladies aired on Melbourne's ATV-0 in 1978. [8] Starring Pat McDonald and Sue Jones, it was set in the staff canteen at Canberra's Parliament House and featured topical humour referencing real-life politicians. [9] [10]
Tea ladies in general were a frequent target of illusory "cuts" and "economies" in Yes Minister , frequently conjured up by Nigel Hawthorne's character Sir Humphrey Appleby, but a tea lady was only once seen onscreen during the whole five-series run of the show, sharing a lift with Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby in the episode "The Skeleton in the Cupboard" (1982).[ citation needed ]
The 2003 film Love Actually featured Martine McCutcheon as tea lady at 10 Downing Street. [11] [12] [13]
Medical social work is a sub-discipline of social work that addresses social components of medicine. Medical social workers typically work in a hospital, outpatient clinic, community health agency, skilled nursing facility, long-term care facility or hospice. They work with patients and their families in need of psychosocial help. Medical social workers assess the psychosocial functioning of patients and families and intervene as necessary. The role of a medical social worker is to "restore balance in an individual’s personal, family and social life, in order to help that person maintain or recover his/her health and strengthen his/her ability to adapt and reintegrate into society." Interventions may include connecting patients and families to necessary resources and support in the community such as preventive care; providing psychotherapy, supportive counseling, or grief counseling; or helping a patient to expand and strengthen their network of social supports. In short, a medical social worker provides services in three domains: intake and psychosocial assessment, case management and supportive therapy, and discharge planning and ongoing care that extends after hospitalization. They are also involved in patient and staff education, as well as with policy research for health programs. Professionals in this field typically work with other disciplines such as medicine, nursing, physical, occupational, speech, and recreational therapy.
Martine Kimberley Sherrie McCutcheon is an English actress and singer. She began appearing in television commercials at an early age and made her television debut in the children's television drama Bluebirds in 1989. In the early 1990s, she had minor success as one third of the pop group Milan, but it was her role as Tiffany Mitchell in the BBC's soap opera EastEnders and her role in the 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually that brought her stardom. For the former she won the National Television Award, while the latter earned her the Empire and MTV Movie awards. She was written out of EastEnders at the end of 1998 and then embarked on a pop career, this time as a solo artist.
Lady is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men.
A pink-collar worker is someone working in the care-oriented career field or in fields historically considered to be women's work. This may include jobs in the beauty industry, nursing, social work, teaching, secretarial work, or child care. While these jobs may also be filled by men, they have historically been female-dominated and may pay significantly less than white-collar or blue-collar jobs.
The Walton Centre, formerly known as the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, is a major neurology hospital located in the suburb of Fazakerley in the city of Liverpool, England. It is one of several specialist hospitals located within the Liverpool City Region alongside Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Mersey Regional Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit and Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. The wards in the hospital are all named after pioneering neurosurgeons in the 20th and 21st century. It is managed by the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust.
The Countess of Chester Hospital is the main NHS hospital for the English city of Chester and the surrounding area. It currently has 625 beds, general medical departments and a 24-hour accident and emergency unit. It is managed by the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, one of the first Foundation Trusts in the UK, formed in 2004. Cardiac rehabilitation services at the hospital are provided by Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The Royal Voluntary Service is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to help in the event of War.
Health and Social Care is the publicly funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland. Although having been created separately to the National Health Service (NHS), it is nonetheless considered a part of the overall national health service in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Department of Health is responsible for its funding, while the Public Health Agency is the executive agency responsible for the provision of public health and social care services across Northern Ireland. It is free of charge to all citizens of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The name National Health Service (NHS) is used to refer to the publicly funded health care services of England, Scotland and Wales, individually or collectively. Northern Ireland's services are known as 'Health and Social Care' to promote its dual integration of health and social services.
Milton Keynes University Hospital is a district general hospital serving the City of Milton Keynes and the surrounding area of Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire. It is located in the Eaglestone neighbourhood, and opened in 1984. It is managed by Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital has an association with the University of Buckingham Medical School.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
A break at work is a period of time during a shift in which an employee is allowed to take time off from their job. It is a type of downtime. There are different types of breaks, and depending on the length and the employer's policies, the break may or may not be paid.
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alleviation of suffering through compassionate presence". Nurses practice in many specialties with varying levels of certification and responsibility. Nurses comprise the largest component of most healthcare environments. There are shortages of qualified nurses in many countries.
Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was an acute hospital trust which, until 2019, operated Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, North Manchester General Hospital, the Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary, all in Greater Manchester. It is now part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group. North Manchester General Hospital was formally acquired by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust on April 1, 2021. The trust also operated Bury General Hospital which closed in 2006.
Scunthorpe General Hospital is the main hospital for North Lincolnshire. It is situated on Church Lane in the west of Scunthorpe, off Kingsway, and north of the railway.
St Leonard's Hospital is a hospital in Hoxton, London.
Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, distributists and Christian democrats, and has been combined with various socialist and mixed economy systems.
Hounslow Hospital was a small hospital for geriatric and long-stay patients situated in an industrial area of Hounslow, girdled by two motorways and Heathrow Airport. It was run by the Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Area Health Authority.
Saxondale Hospital was a psychiatric hospital near Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, built to replace the Sneinton Asylum in Nottingham.
Andover War Memorial Hospital is a community hospital in Andover, Hampshire. The hospital provides inpatient rehabilitation, day hospital services, a minor injury unit and an outpatient unit. It is operated by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, but some services are provided by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. The Countess of Brecknock Hospice is located on the same site as the hospital. The independent regulator of health and social care in England, the Care Quality Commission, rated Andover as "requires improvement" overall in 2018.
But these complete strangers were incredible. Even down to the tea lady who saw I was struggling to drink so tried every cup they had until we hit one with a spout which helped me swallow. And once she had discovered the cup that worked the best, she kept it aside for me. How's that for putting the patient at the centre of their care? To me, it really made a difference.
1978 was not an outstanding year for new comedy... Bobby Dazzler (HSV-7) was a complete failure as was the cheaply produced Tea Ladies (ATV-0)
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