The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-26
I.PLAYOoN WORK FORCENlRAL
TELEPHONE co. rs MAKING LIFE
EASIER TO "HELLO" GIRLS.
They Are to Work In -Four Squads. Police
style, o Hours OF Duty to q Day and
Hest In That-C0inpany TO Provide
Tea and Cofrce and Matron to Make II

~
he hello girls in tie telephone exchanges
iso 70 taA, things easy In the future. Tho
t1mr4uyT managers have introduced
improvements in the central offices to
mat end and they are contemplating more
ior the benefit Of the operators.
For = r--at many years tie hello girl
las con-iie herself much abused
,,erson. She has been compciled 70 sub
MI 20 tho abuse hcaped upon her by ca
-i'ata foreigners who can't properly
pronounce the number they want She
las been much annoyed by III" profes-
ioual frt and she has been the butt OF
-Ianly managers who were ever ready
90 find fau.t with her work besides this
lie has been compelled To work twelve
lDurs ont Of every tweuty-four AID if she
lived very far away from tho central Office
N Rlica she was crpovel she hadn't
uans hours ior sleep ana recreation. Nat.
,tr.ly many complaints wrro made that
'r,u.rl!' was d. .eep when "a call was ,.crt
.ur number.
The managers decided that they could
-.t uvttrr service out of tie gins If they
could devise a system by which the hours
m duty could bo shortened "a, small ex-
rense 50 after figuring for some time
ley have put lii operation system which
he girls call the three platoon, but which
,s practically four platoon system.
Under this system "a squad OF telephone
Nperatois soes on duty at : O'Clock in the
morning and remains until In the after
noon Another squad gong on duty at
o'clock IN the morning remains until 5
IN the afternoon. A third. starting a,
noon, remains on duty until Q o'clock az
night.
In this way there are more girls on duty
between noon and O'clock than AZ any
line during the twenty-four hours This
: necessary, because between noon and
o'clock In the afternoon more telephone
'alls are rung up than at any other time
turing the day. As tho number Of calls
oecomeS less after 0 O'Clock NJ night, a
fourth squad Which goes on duty "a, q ra-
mains Oh duty until in the morning with
1Ct any additiura! girls being brought
lutN tho snr'.i"a.
Alth ugh Ia new svstam IL a little more
e1pe. siya h IA the old lha company finds
,hat il can h.n die great al more busn, ~
nd r y AID III better sh lrc than before.
A. III 81 ne time urov's p..s have been made
'or special reliefs which give III, girls a
chance 70 lake al h ,ur for inca and gives
h Light force an hour for sep.
But il 5 The Intention Of tha company
% ,sss' b. cir furJh r by employing
Uatro. IN "a h exchange. The matron
will be urovid d with materials al d proper
taciliri for making Yea and coffee for
n girs benefit. All tbs will he done
At n eSpel g Of IN, tele Ne company
In III past M telel h me girl Il ) had TO
buy her OWL tea AID coffee AID has had
10 prepare it h IS "
he s.rvice and nd ice tn, cir TO attend
better 10 duty matron has already been
employed in one of the Il IwIltown cx-
hang ) 1he experiment has proved a
90 as. - all OF the exchanges will soon
have matrois.
Now that the operators find that the COM
pany Itei.ds TO make life worth living for
n m s,ld one Of the telephone girls a
few days ago. we have made up our mind
70 show the conpa y that we appreciate
what Is being do ic for our be leht
The life Of telephone girl isn't 50
pleasant. In the first place she is usually
trying TO attend ~ half n dozen calls at
the same time and each of the half-dozen
subsc. iUers is shouting that he has already
waited an hour, when he really has been
waiting but half minute. II the girl
tries TO reason with him he Immediately
shouts for the manage Then, when hs
yets the chief operator. he proceeds to shout
that he has been ringing for eighteen min
ltos by the clock without getting an
answer
of course he gets Jolly from the chief
operator. but a. the same time tho chief
is likely TO make complaint against the
sirl;
Then again. some person who has never
before used a phone rings up and shouts,
Give me 1856 Park row. Before we get
through explaining that there is no Park
row exchange the novice at tho other end
}? the phone shouts, There is such num-
per. for I've seen 1t on the mans sign IN
front OF his door We get quito q few Of
m .rz MT a ~
telephone numbers.
Then we get quite few calls such az
Connec. me with Tom Brady, or Put me
Oh Raferty's saloon IL seems to make
10 difference whether RAFFERTY, or Brady
mas telephone or not That isn't con-
|ide-ed. And there's the fellow who shouts
string Of German or French over the wire.
Or maybe an Italian who rings UP and
asks II NJ. Carmeiitto will come down on
sunday night 70 stand as godfather for
he new baby.
-Now how can tell whether he W ould or
not, evan II understood Italian.
But YOU would be surprised 10 find the
number Of persons who call up central
and ask 70 be connected with foreign coun.
'Tiet, The fellow, who, gets drunk and
links he can talk with his wife at her
aorle at 2 o'clock in the morning although
Ae never had telephone in the house-he's
irarer bird, buy plentiful for ell that. When
H ms gp and Sb 5a9 Seh :1s f Ss6rs
"'.e'N 4l-AA!|-' Sil1 H'S@io SSliAp-
hing like this:
-'Eo.lo. Jennie, don't sco.-scold me
Enis1t. I've been out Z lodge meetin' and
IN gong Ter give yer ten dolrrs extra
eek, week
"of course he believes that an answer
coming iron woman over the phone
Is MADE cy his wife. The telephone girl
shouts What number do you want? and
~ she can get out Of him is some queer
reply. Ike Thirty -four, ten chips on thirty
four
Speaking Of that reminds me Of a queer
.ase had one night. A man called YIN
from a gambling house and shouted 1875
John, all 70 the good" OF course l thought
ne vas calling for No 1915 John and tried
20 got the Christian Nation Publishing Com
pany IN Tho Tract Society Building, for
that is their number. There was no
one " the Office at night, so | shouted back
irer the phone: The Christian Nation
don't answer and the man yelled back
the most un-Christian- like things | ever
heard few minutes later learned from
sober man that the other had won s3.o15
ana believed nc was tclcphoning tho news
70 friend uamed John, and he did not
want q number in the Jonn Street Tx
change,
NPS EIJ RERr IT 81