The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-10-31
TELEPHONE TALKS
and Her Work.


The telephone company is engaged in
OF public services. Its purpose Is to put
people into communication with each other
| in the quickest way possible and to main
tain communication. Above all, 1t endeav-
0rs to perform this fuhctiOn-always per
formed under exacting conditions and fire.
| quently in the face Of considerable diff
culties-with unfailing courtesy.
| The New England company, having pro-
vlded most efficient plant for the needs OF
each individual community, trains its opera
tors painstak ingly before it allows them to
handle the public's business, and super
signed to the regular switchboards OF its ex-
changes. Applicants for positions as opera
tors must meet high personal standards be-
lore they are accepted even as students.
| The care with which the raw material, SO to
/ speak, Is selected appears in the fact that
only 60 per cent of the applicants who pre-
sent themselves are finally employed One
OF the advantages of the training system is
that 1t enables young woman who finds
her ideas about the work to have been
wrong to withdraw without waste of time
| or embarrassment, and allows the company
to determine pretty definitely the ultimate
fitness of the candidate before the interests
OF telephone users have been entrusted to
her.
AS students the operators are taught to do
| their work intelligently as well as with me-
chanical precision. They are given prac-
tice in the actual operation of the switch
board, special apparatus being provided for
that purpose, and are educated to meet the
almost ineOnceivably varied situations like
ly to arise when they become the composite
young person known as central" They
learn not by rote alone, but by observation
and experience as well, their teachers TAX
Ing the place of the public Tor the time
being
public's various phases. Even the most
skilful training cannot, of course, lmmed-
lately make a beginner as efficient as an ex-
perienced hand. 1t does insure uniformity
of methods, however, and equips the novice
to become an adept much sooner tran she
otherwise could. 1t makes her self-reliant,
and enables her to deal under standlngiy
with the emergencies constantly arising In
the work of the exchange.
The discipline of the central office is
strict, but every employee Is treated with
the utmost consideration. The amount of
| work each operator has to do is determined
with great care that no one shall be over
loaded and thereby effect unfavorAbly the
quality of the service. Besides the chlei
operator there are supervisors, their num-
Der depending upon the size OF the ex-
change, who keep the work OF operators un,
der constant observation, see that 1t IS zone
| in accordance with the rules adopted by
| the company by the company as necessary
to good service, and act as mentors in cases
of difficulty.
The New England company takes great
pride in its operating force. 1t believes
that no industry is there is be found more
efficient, earnest, faithful set Of employees
faithful alike to the company and to the
public to which the company is responsible.
The work of the telephone operator has
taken no mean place among the professions
of women, and it is a source of great salts:
l .xyr nSntTn Al
s'Central's" character, and the greater con-
sideration which follows better acquaint.
ance and understanding, are more general
and more apparent each year.