Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway
From: csense!root@uunet.uu.net (Frank Haynes)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: BOC Strike - One Good Side-Effect
Message-ID: 
Date: 15 Aug 89 23:36:15 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 303, message 5 of 12


 From article , by RS%AI.AI.MIT.EDU@
mintaka.lcs.mit.edu (Robert E. Seastrom):
> ...Maybe we should just flush the current employees and let the
> supervisors man the phones.  It took a little extra time, but the
> operator's pleasantness made the wait worthwhile.

> [Moderator's Note: If the make-do operator sits there much longer, her
> pleasant disposition will begin to erode, believe me you. Operators take
> a tremendous amount of abuse at times from customers, ...

If you only knew!

[Moderator's Note: Believe me, I do know. I was a switchboard operator from
1958 - 62 for the University of Chicago. I got the job when I was a junior
in high school (working part time of course, and full time in the summer),
and full time when I graduated from high school. In those days the phone
setup was an *eighteen position* cord board. All manual service inbound
and outbound. As I recall, 135 trunks to the CO; a couple dozen tie-lines
direct to Long Distance; about 3000 internal extensions. On the sixth
floor of the building at 5801 South Ellis Avenue. During the summer when
school was not in session, I was *the* overnight operator. Fifty dollars
a week and all the fools I could talk to at night. My employment there is
another story for another time. My ears soon lost their virginity!  PT]