The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-09-04
HELLO GIRLS
ACTIVE LIFE
Answering Telephones a Most Nerve.
Hacking Employment.
TROUBLES ARE NUMEROUS
Sitting Before a SWitchboar Twelve
Hours Day Is No Dream-Some
Of the Trials and fluctuations Which
the Telephone Operators Are Com.
PEELED to Undergo During the Day.

PEELED to Undergo During the Day.
Of all the disagreeable tasks on
the face of this big, green earth of
ours, and probably the most nerve
racking employment, and one which
by most persons is not given a Sec
Ond thought, is that of telephone
operator. Just how much patience
is consumed during weary shift"
of ten or eleven hours day sitting
in front of a switchboard without
being able to rise and take turn
about the room if ones muscles be-
come stiff or if a breath of fresh air
is wanted, cannot be estimated by
the majority of the people, who can
form no idea of the constant, grind
ing strain which the hello" girls
in phone exchange are under day
in and day out.
OF real hard physical labor there is
comparatively little; of nerve kill
ing work there is a vast amount. The
average telephone operator works
from ten to eleven hours a day. She
sits in front of long switchboard
of little plug-holes and above which
several square feet of drops" the
little devices which give the signal
that she is wanted, confronting her
eyes necessarily during that shift.
When she is. rushed and the numbers
pile up thick and fast her troubles
begin. It is then, when she is liza
BILE to become "swamped," that the
strain and tension on her nerves is
greatest.
Many persons think that they are
habitually ill-treated by the operator
at the other end Of their telephone
line, when, if they could only see the
girl on whom they place the blame
and realize how busy she always is,
they would be far more likely to
take a different view of the matter.
There is trouble on the line; they
blame the central girl. Their par
ties don't answer; they blame the
girl. The persons they want are
slow in answering; they blame the
operator-when, in nine cases out OF
ten she is ringing her fingers on try
ing to get them to answer you. The
average person stands at the tele-
phone not over five minutes day, all
in all. and they generally manage to
have enough trouble and worry and
lose enough temper to last them TOT
the rest of the day. When it comes
tn stand it the hours that tele-
phone operator is compelled to SIT
through, is it a wonder that they
sometimes lose their patience?
Not one person in a hundred has
any definite knowledge Of the mazes
and the perplexing complications OF
a central telephone office. And to
that one person who does know, the
inside workings of the Office and the
troubles of the operator are not real
lied. The local telephone office Is
a good example of the average ex'
change in city the size Of this.
There are more than 200 phones IN
this city, with one girl in the day
time and one at night to answer
them. How the operators succeed
in doing it is a mystery.
When the work is light during the
lax hours of the day, it becomes al
most pleasure so the girls say. to
see the numbers "drop in" and tc
make the connections but when the
little drops begin to fall at the rate
Of six, eight and ten in bunch the
work loses most of it's delightful feat
nres. The operators are then taxed
to their utmost to answer the many
busy people who are impatientlJ
waiting for their connections. BY
the time the first call is answered
the second is becoming impatient al
the supposed unnecessary. delay. and
by the time the few seconds have
passed which are consumed in max
ing number two's connection, mum
Der three, four and five are becoming
angry and calling for the manager
This is only a sample of what the
operators have to put up with all the
day long. 1t has been said that nint
persons out of ten are crankier ovel
the telephone than they are at an!
other time. and it seems to be true
A manor woman, for that mattel
will speak in much holder terms a
a safe distance than if they were
confronting the party to whom the!
were speaking. And as conse
quence the operator gets the brun
of all the sassy" talk over the line
But the mere work of answering
the calls and making the connection
is in reality small part of the labo
of the telephone girl. If her trouble
ended when the connection was mad
her life would be one golden dream
of happiness. That, however, is no
the case. There is always a more o
less degree of patience, exhaustinI
waiting and certain amount o
a