Typing Pool Ladies
In the 70s, the pre-internet age, the “typing
pool” was staffed mostly by young women. They
operated BP Singapore’s secretarial, telex and
Keppel Bay Tower. She remembers helping with
the paperwork preparation for the drafting of the
SRC agreement around 1979 because of all the
fax services that provided vital support for the
company’s communications with the rest of the
world. The typing pool ladies can be described
as the generation’s gatekeepers of information
flow as they were entrusted to operate typewriters,
telex and fax machines, and to maintain the
confidences and secrets of all communications
that they were given to handle in a global
company. They were a tight group who regarded
each other as close friends and family members
within the company.
typing and amendments she made on the WANG
computer for the first time. She shared a WANG
unit with another colleague, Jacinta. Together with
Mike Channing, the UK lawyer in charge of the
legal matters, they worked long hours to ensure
that the paperwork was in order. In 2010, Teresa
was given a long-service award in recognition of
her 40 years of service in BP.
Jacinta Tan joined BP in December 1974 during
the first oil crisis. She felt lucky that BP accepted
her application as jobs were scarce. She started
as a telex operator and typist with the typing pool
at BP House on Pasir Panjang Road. That was
before they had fax machines and the Internet.
Telex was the fastest means of written
communication between the other offices around
the world. “We worked in shifts to support roundthe-clock
communications
between
the
international offices. We sometimes worked
into early hours of the morning because of
the time zone differences with London and
With companies like BP encouraging
women to join the workforce, women
were given a chance to join the working
population and contribute to the economy.
Teresa Loh and Jacinta Tan are among BP’s longest
serving employees who joined the company in
the 1970s. Teresa Loh joined BP in 1970. She
had worked in all of BP Singapore's offices over
the last 45 years. Since 2004, Teresa had been at
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