The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-09
THE UNSOCTABLE HELLO GIRL.
SEHI-OFFICI4L STATEMENTS PUT
HER IN A NEW LIGHT.
Telephone Girl Dances That She DOeSn't
Go TO-May Not Even Associate with
Her Fellow EmpiOyeeS-MuStn't chat
in business UOurS-Is . Poor TaIker.


} Go TO--May Not Even Associate with
Her Fellow EmployeeS-MuStn't chat
In business IIOurS-Is . Poor Talker.
The decision OF the New York Telephone
Company 70 transfer, 80 far as possible
the hello girls in its employ TO the exchanges
nearest to their homes may promote more
sociability among them In the meantime
they must struggle along with an unde-
served reputation for being sociable. II
seems that they are by no means so sociable
as the public has been led to believe.
For some reason or other said the
manager Of a central exchange, 'the tele-
phone girls work and ways, her social
pleasures, her habits when on duty and
oil duty, seem 10 be a subject Of never
failing interest to a certain part OF the
community. This fact has been made Use
Of on occasion to advertise certain enter
tainments with which the hello girls had
absolutely no connection.
For instance, remember having my
attention called one day 20 come bsndbills
which proclaimed that on q particular
Sunday afternoon a dance would be given
at an East Side hall which would be largely
attended by the telephone girls from the
ADTlhuNll tAlNSN bANllallkts lAdNo u 10"
inquiries and learned that this was the fret
intimation any Of the girls had that they
were expected 20 attend a dance on that
day OF any other day for that matter.
SOn another occasion some young men
operators at private switchboards and a
few Of their friends hired hall, got up a
dance and invited. among Others, several
telephone girls TO be their guests, with the
result that the affair was reported far and
wide az a hello girls ball.
"In all probability were half dozen hello
girls 10 appear together at an entertain
noe mt the news would he printed that an
organization Of telephone operators was
responsible for the fair
with few exceptions" said the head
OF the teleph one school, the hello girls
depend upon their outside environment
for their pleasures, not on their business
associates, and for this reason telephone
operators don't get a chance 70 become
acquainted while on duty.
In a large dry goods store, say, or In
almost any sort Of worlroom, employees
may converse with one another while on
duty, and az the lunch hour a great many
will meet az the same time under conditions
which foster more or less intimacy. Here
it is different.
swhen ON duty the girls are not allowed
70 talk TO each other. One girl may sit
for days beside another without exchanging
half a dozen words The two may he in
different lunch relays-nut more than twenty
or twenty-five 60 10 luncheon at the same
time-and even IL they do 60 TO the lunch
room at the same hour they may not sit
at the same table
During the rest periods in the morning
aud the afternoon have noticed that the
girls who meet, instead OF getting In a
bunch and jabbering, prefer TO lie down or
lounge In chair and read. There Ia no
clubbing together, apparently, at any time
for social enteTt ailments, Such thing
Gs a social organization among telephone
operators does not exist
The Cortland street central, which h