Using The Telephone – Some of the Travails of "Hello Girls" (Operators)

1878

They All Carry Hard Questions to 'Hello' Girl

Do you know how to use a telephone?

It would seem that everyone knows how to manage a small instrument so much in service as the telephone, but the central girls are of the opinion that there are several who have but a small conception of what a telephone is for.

Information, the young lady who tells you what others want, is probably the most unfortunate of these "hello girls" so far as being subject to the inexperienced patrons is concerned. One girl who had sat in information's chair declared she was tired of having the lady at No. — ask her what her washwoman's phone number was. The gentleman at some other number is forever demanding to know what was the matter with his phone, declaring that he could hardly hear.

About the time she gets through answering his question, a lady from another part of the city wants to know when her train leaves and just how many steps it is to the depot. Hundreds of others will ask other people's phone numbers instead of looking in the phone book, or ask for street addresses. Some inquire of people who never exist — "hello" girls say.

Then at the close of a hard day's work, information has all her troubles topped by a growled request that should have been submitted to an attorney or a doctor.

Telephone girls would endorse the opening of a school to teach people the use of a phone, what to ask information for, how to get the best service, and how to make life itself half enjoyable for the operators.

—The Ada Weekly News, Ada, OK, Oct. 27, 1921, p. 11.