Evening journal., 1911-04-24
GERMAN PHONE
SLOW and CHEAP
Operators, Protected By Civil
Service Rules, Work Ten
Hours A Day
NO HELLOING ALOUD
ON THE WIRES THERE

Usually the German telephone girl
gets her job through a civil service
examination and hangs on TO it for
life Her average age on entering
the occupation must be near thirty.
AS she can stay until she is seventy
(but no longer) one sees many ope-
rators, says the Telephone Review,
whose age it would be ungallant to
guess.
Novices go to training school, but
are not paid while there. and the drill
in practical operation is complicated
with a good many technicalities Of
construction. On entering an ex-
change an operator is paid about SIX
ty cents a day. An increase of four
cents a day each year is made until
the eighth or ninth, when she is es-
tablished and cannot be discharged
without considerable rcd tape. When
she has worked up to $3.50 year, and
$3.50 additional for house rent, she
stays, at that pay until retired on
pension.
On the back Of each operators
chair are two bags, black one TO
hold head set and service property,
and a brown one for her lunch and
personal belongings. Operators free
ly talk back to a hostile subscriber
and pleasantly pass the time of day
with a friendly one. They apparently
talk to one another with little re-
straint while at the board.
Working hours are about ten a day.
Girls work the board from six o'clock
in the morning until ten o'clock at
night Night operation is by men.
paid double wages, and they repair
cords and work about the board as
well as answer calls for the night
traffic is very light
Supervisors are not so numerous
as with us, and handle fifteen TO twen-
ty-tive operators upon lines that do
not tend to produce the quick service
our public is accustomed to. The
cardinal virtue of the German service
is its cheapness. and the cardinal
defect its leisureliness.
Berlin calls average two and half
cents apiece, and It is possible to talk
nearly four hundred miles for twenty
five cents. But the German exche-
quer, of course, bears the burden of
a deficit, on the same plan as Uncle
Sans Postofice.
One excellent practice universal in
Germany, Americans might well
adopt. Telephone managers here are
now trying to bring subscribers to
identify themselves when answering
the telephone. Every German does
it, for instead of saying Hello" the
form of answering is invariably
"Hier Karl Schmidt" or This is
Karl Schmidt"
Long Distance Service.
Long distance operators identify
themselves by their towns, SO that
when Frankfort-on-the-M Main is rung
up from Berlin the operator says:
This is Miss Frankfort" or "Hier
Fraulein Frankfort" The "Fraulein"
is never left off
While long distance is cheap it is
also crowded through the day. and
considerable time is needed TO get
message through as a rule. The Ber-
lin operators of long distances speak
several languages, as they are work
ing with French, Italian, Russian,
Swedish, Dutch and other operators.
cmfwyp cmfwy shrdl taoi taoin nnnn
The Ober-lnspektor at Berlin gave
one amusing fact on this point. While
all his operators handling traffic to
Paris speak French, learned in the
thorough German fashion. only one or
two long distance operators at Paris
condescend to speak German.
Some of the exchanges have COM
Portable lunch rooms, where coffee is
served TO the operators, and all will
have them in time, it was said. The
telephone service in Germany is like
most business there in that the en-
ployes have two hours for a hearty
meal IN the middle of the day and 20
home to take a nap.