Interesting that he didn't run into union problems. Working for BT (still very much run on civil service lines) in the early 80's, my fellow software engineers and I wanted terminals on our desks, so that we could work directly with various minicomputers and mainframes. The unions flatly refused; computer terminals had to be in a computer lab, a specially-furnished room off the corridor. Only typists were allowed keyboards on their desks, engineers were _not_ clerical staff.
Eventually getting our own local mini (a VAX) some of us decided to ignore the rules, pulled in cables and moved the terminals onto our desks ourselves. After much spluttering the unions realized that we weren't being exploited, nor trying to put the typists out of work, and they agreed to some new rules. It took a while...