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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1920)
mi VOL,. XXXIX. d Vt2r 7Sr-Nx A AX 1 ( . "Hello" Factory ip - 7 . "'sri lc ittwww'-' U'-M a BY DE WITT HARRY. . IT f A VV -fcLi .A ii . TfZZjf . tf'JhJ ,.T l-.jJJC .... 1 I - ft . V" I M I OLD-BLOODED business of today made. In one instance at the discovery that the gold en rule Is not out of date. Welfare workers, to many a new and little understood factor in modern commer cial life, found several years ago that the human factor in the workaday world responded nobly to a little con sideration. How far this might be carried with corresponding propor tional favorable results has not been fully ascertained even yet. but some lines of business more than others have devoted a great deal of time and effort to giving their help even more than would be considered theirs In a literal analysis of the worki agreement. Stress and strain enter into today's :1, big tasks in greater degree than ever I before. There is likely - no line of work in which the actual concen- tration is greater than in handling the nerves of a great metropolis, the telephone system. Then comes thft additional factor that female employes are In the majority. Yet, with some 950 girls working at top speed and at high tension taking accurate care that Portland's wires do not get crossed, the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph company has created an organization that. Instead of wearing out the employes as was the frequent fault not so many years back, actually turns them to their tasks in as good! or even better shape as are the em-1 nloves of any other line of endeavor. I In this the company may and most likely is, actuated by purely selfish reasons, but the facts cannot be de- nied that they have managed to build up in Portland one of the most con- I tented and efficient commercial or ganizations of the city. New Central la Efficient. Banish the accepted conception of central. The- debonair dame, elabo rately coiffured. eteadily masticating cum while she nonchalantly trifles with an elaborate arrangement of plugs and Jacks is no more, if she ver was. The real picture that must be visualized is that of a keen young professional woman w no morousiu, knows her job and has taken it up factory is visited. Every detail seems as her life work. carefully thought out and the space Ask your business or professional devoted to the comfort of the work man, especially those who labor in ers is greatly in excess of that de eome firm that is large enough to signed for their actual work. In the (have a private exchange, what ele- ment enters the most into their bus dness success and seldom will he fail ito answer that it is tne teiepnone. Some few short years ago a masterly Invention came on the market des- lined to revolutionize the telephone systems, none other than automatic telephones. Communication engineers generally unite in their beiiei that the main element that conduced to tiieir near elimination iruiu day systems was the lack of the per- 6nal element. A keen thinking in- tellect governing the switchboard was lound to DO me wiing oesirea anu into tne Dreecn. just aooui. ni.a .. came the efficiency experts with the result that today telephone operating is one ot tne Keener appucu i me an ordinary human girl, not an autom tnodern business sciences. I aton designed solely for the con- Not being hampered by precedent I veriience of subscribers. For eitrht phone officials set about finding how they could improve their systems. It was admitted tnat tne ultimate naa been reached so far as machine was concerned, and then came the in spiration to Improve the working force. Mere schools for teaching the rudiments of operating had been es tablished for some years, but they were improved. Then came the plan for the inauguration of the rest and lunch room systems. In this the keen analysts of results ln the company's organization were actuated by the Idea of Improvement, not so much from humanitarian reasons, as from the angle that better service meant better dividends. Nowhere in this torce is the investigator met by the smug pretense that the reforms now (n forc or being established were made merely because they loved their mploY.es, though It must be admit KUl en ted that some little consideration for humanity was intended, Once imbued with the idea that maximum efficiency came from a force that was fit to carry peak loads at all times, and that workers, espe- cially when they were of the weaker sex, showed their appreciation of what was being done for them by giving ample return in added concentration, the rest was easy. The nice thing about this idea was that the tele phone company, perceiving the angle that applied itself to their business, did not hesitate or split hairs, but went to it whole-heartedly. While no one is prepared to admit that the limit has been reached in the matter of making employes com fortable at the present . time, to the ordinary individual there does not seem great room for improvement. .bach step of the progressive improve ments in welfare work seem to have been carefully thought out, and judg ing from the known results, have been successful to the limit. The aim has been to develop a working force that is overplus In service and this concept has been religiously borne in mind in all of the innovations that have been placed at the convenience of the girl workers. "Hello" Factory la Marvel. So far have the officials of the company gone that it no longer seems like . workshoD when the "hello old manner of thinking this would have been valuable business area going to waste, but the telephone company considers it space well in- vested and finds that they reao rood jy returns in increased dividends from 1 better service. Central's club Is her workshon and fuU well does she reaie tno value of It and make KOOd UBe tha ttlea tnat are placed at her dlsposal. To the average outsider the life of a teiephone operator consists mainly ln asklnsr . NUmbe r. Dl ease?" and then pokln& a long-tailed plug in a wilder- nesa of littie noieB with uncanny ac. curacy. Thls ls tho main object of her life aU rignt but 8ne 8ome mUe otner reiaxatlons and j, just I hours every day she weaves her web of wires, much of it at top tension. tnoug:h there are some slack periods, but she has several- little rest pe riods and gets the best of care from a maternal, though cold-blooded, cor poration. Almost speaking in a para dox, isn't it? Ordinary Girls Make Good. What manner of girls work the switchboards? Just homy, comfor table, nice girls, most of them, the good average wholesome American girl that the boys of this nation are ready to fight the world for. The telephone company is not searching for paragons in any sense for Its operators, they just want the sensible, ambitious type, willing to learn and if anxious to advance, so much, the I better, for they have many opportu- - 1 nities. One pX the maia things that PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, they insist on is that applicants for positions have good hearing, for that 1 Is' essential in distinguishing clearly the varied assortment of calls that come by numberless voices over their web of wires. Articulation is a vir tue that is early taught the young operator, and skilled elocutionists are employed to inculcate this in the girls. for their voice is the only part of them with which the public Ib famil iar, and most of the fickle public will admit that central's voice ls one of the nicest ever heard. Lack of education is not too much of a handicap for the girls, though the company prefers those who have had at least a full grammer course, but It Is the girl herself that counts. Some of the best operators that the com pany has are girls whose preliminary education was cut short by the neces sity for work, or some other reasons, but who have had sufficient ambi tion and energy to improve their ad vantages to the fullest degree. Vari ous causes, mainly matrimonv. de plete the force of operators contin uously, with the result that there al ways seems to be a demand for new girls. Tnis the company tries to meet by a continuous advertising campaign, always trying to get the better class of young women to take up this work. One of their latest and most success ful ways of recruiting help has been by personal approach of mothers, the company inviting them to look over the plant and see what the actual working conditions are, with the al most uniform result that the careful parent is glad to trust her girl to the well-guarded .care of the corporation, just imagine, a corporation with a heart. " Glrla Welfare Gnarded. The women who have charge of the girls are carefully picked for their positions. There are several depart ments of this work, the company hav ing experienced women caring for the girls while they are actually in the shop, women in charge of the dining and rest rooms and others who spend their time on the outside, investlgat ing cases and seeing that the girls are protected in every way possible. So rigid is. this system that the really bad girl has little chance to Invade the precincts of the company, and the girl who starts to slip usually finds a good firm grasp held out to her so that she can regain her standing be fore it is too late. The girl who is interested ln tele phone operating erets her first look at the inside of things -when she visits the offfice of the employment luoer intendent. It looks more like a cosy sitting room than an office. There is no aragon onice Doy on guard, no dismal row of chairs for the ap plicants, nothing forbidding at all The employment office has for its waiting room a prettily furnished place with big comfortable wicker chairs, tables covered with maga zlnes and papers, artistic lights, dra peries, cushions and generally pleas ant surroundings, to introduce the girls to their new environment. When the girl has talked over the situation with the employment super visor and has decided to begin work, she is sent to the echol maintained by tho company! where ghe learns the Portland Central's Club, Operated by Telephone Company, Is Far From Being Like Accepted Idea of Hello" Factory mysteries of boards and Jacks and plugs, and so on. The school Is equipped with a complete oirlflt. simi lar to that used in a central office. nd the girls become familiar with the tools of their trade before going into the real office. Training; Count Offered. Some girls complete their prelim- nary training in two weeks, others take a month to it, but when they ave mastered the first principles. hey begin their work in a central trice, perhaps stationed beside an ex perienced operator for the quiet hours where the trained girl can oversee the beginner. By the time she has become thor oughly grounded in the technical side f telephony, her hands fly among the tangled wilderness of cords and plugs. apparently with eyes of their own, to find the right one. At a "peak hour" perhaps 10 o'clock in the morning. when everybody in Portland is in- pired to telephone to somebody else. he boards are covered with what is apparently an endless tangle of cords stretching from board to board wound around each other, sometimes going back into the same hole where they start. The operator is working with both hands, and there is a con stant murmur of "Number, please,' and a repetition of numbers into the black rubber mouthpiece that hangs around her neck Just in position for use. ' "Nerves" Not Developed. At first glance one might think thai telephone exchange would be no place for the nervous girl, but the chief operators and the heads of the "traf fic," the technical name for the oper atlng end of the business, Bay that the only girls who suffer from nerves are those who would be in the same condition in any other work. The concentration that is demanded seems to act in beneficial fashion on nerv ous girls, who are too much occu- nted with their work to remember that they are nervous. After two hours of. work the oper ators have a rest period of 15 min utes, the eight-hour day being thus broken into short shifts to ease the weight of the work, the actual oper ating shift thus being but seven and one-half hours. Now, in Portland there are seven main exchanges and each of these ls eaulDDed with a rest or clubroom. These rooms are all attractively fur nished and decorated with picture and always contain cut flowers, th big comfy chairs giving the girls amrle opportunity to relax completely from the strain of the recent sessio at the boards or from the dance of the night before, which makes to day's work a little hard. Girls will be girls and it would be impossible to have them lose even the slightest por tlon of their pleasures, and this the company does not desire to do, but en courages them and even at times assists ln arranging dances or out ings. In this manner they have also found that they built an esprit corps that resulted in great increase ln the co-operative feeling, the girls realizing that they were like a larg. family, all working ana even Playing JULY 25, 1920 . . 1 - "TV r 1 3S- if together. Many close friendships have been born amid the strain and stress of the operating rooms. The Broadway Exchange building has a typical rest ' room. Here the room has a pretty rug on the floor, big tables with magazines and pa pers, big wicker chairs and plenty of hem armchairs and rockers, not straight chairs good pictures on the walls, potted plants to make the room heerful, and a pleasant matron who there to be called upon whenever the girls desire her assistance. For the girl who is tired, there is a silence room," where there are couches that she may use during her rest time, or if she ls ill. Only strict mergency cases are handled in the way of caring for Illness, as the rule is that girls are advised to go home or to a physician if they are really 111. Aromatic spirits of ammonia is the etrongest thing in the little medicine closet, which is installed ln every rest room and which contains precisely the same things wherever it is found. Cafeteria Ran at Cost. The new operator, at her first lunch hour, is shown the way to the sunny cafeteria, a feature of every big ex change. Here she fills out an order slip, signs it and receives her lunch fiom the up-to-date cafeteria kitchen. A typical menu has soup, salad, four meat or fish orders, three kinds of vegetables, five kinds of desserts, four kinds of fruit, and tea, coffee. milk or cocoa to drink. The most ex pensive item ln the list is roast leg of lamb, which costs all of 9 cents. It is possible to get a nourishing and satisfying: luncheon for as low as 10 cents. This is managed by charging only the actual cost of materials and labor, eliminating not only profits but charges for room rental, depreciation. breakage, etc The girls do not pay for their lunches when they get them, but in stead pay twice a month 'when they receive their salaries. The slips are kept on file and a bill presented every two weeks. Cosy Groups at Lunch. - Not lor.g. ago orders were given oat that the regular restaurant tables with their white cloths should be re moved from all the company's cafe terias and replaced with round wicke tables, their tops of glass over pretty cretonne. This was done in the in terests both of efficiency and attract lve effect. The lunch rooms with their cosy little tables for four, thel wicked chairs, the window hangings matching the table tops, look more like the tea room of some woman' club than the restaurant of a busl ness organization. ' Just make the bald statement ia Portland .that there, la lunchroom 7 .1. XV ft. V UCG 1 where you can get a full meal with all the fixings for 25 cents and there would be legions of arguments, but that such a thing is possible must be' admitted aftsr scanning the sample menu- taken this week from Broad- way exchange. So satisfying are the viands offered and so reasonable the price that careful Investigation has shown the company officials that the greater proportion of the girls eat all their meals with the company. Max imum purchasing ability is responsi ble to t. great extent for the low prices that govern the company's service, and in this sense it might be well to know that the monthly state ment shows thot they serve.and average 250,000 meals ln their Pacific coast exchanges. Following is a sam ple menu: Cream of Tomato Soup, per Cup, 4c Potato Salad. 6c Stuffed Eggi. 7c Kip Olives, Sc. Roast Leg of Lamb. 9c Hot Roast Lamb Sandwich, 7c Cold Sliced Ham, 8c Ham er Cheese Sandwich. 5c Potatoes, Mashed. 4c Baked Macaroni and Cheese. 5c Green Peas. Sc. Pie Apple, Gooseberry. Cocoanut , Cream. 6c. Individual Cup Custard. 6c Ice Cream. 6c Layer Cake Assorted. 4c Orange. 6c Banana. 5c Canteloupe (one-half), 6c. Blackberries, 8c. Coffee. Cocoa. 5c Tea. Milk. 4c. Crackers (3), lc. Bread (per slice), lc. Rolls. 2c Butter, 2c, Two for 8c Cream, lc. Whipped Cream. 2c, Two tor 3c Operators' Lot Enviable. Taking all the things that have been said to this time about the op erators' lot in life it would seem that few girls could resist the lure and rush right after jobs, and right here one fact was discovered that .reflect ed a great deal on the reason why many girls did not take up operating as a profession. The telephone girl of not so distant days used to be looked down upon. Yes. she did, and even now the stenographer who labors at top-speed in some big office and snatches a sandwich when she gets her little lunch period conde scendingly deigns to pity the poor operator who is a member of one of tho best little clubs in the city, whose working conditions are the plu-per feet, and who earns a top salary. Lack of knowledge of tue advantages that the operator enjoys is the main rea son for this feeling among girls, and they can be so "snippy." Why, some of the hand-picked and well-trained PBX (private branch exchange) girls ln Portland today receive as high as $200 per month, and this Just for op. eratlng. Business men are beginning more and more to realize that there must D9 something to a, girl who pan I ' PTTT V V f' " f i : NO. 30 jn make good under the exacting condi tions that are necessary to achieve success with the telephone company. Working as they do always under the eye of a supervisor) there is great opportunity for the capable girls to show their ability. In every exchange there are two classes of directors, the supervisors, who are assigned one to about every seven to 10 girls, depend ing on the circumstances, . and the chief operator, with the evening and night chief operators in addition. Supervisors Assist in Work. The supervisors walk up and down behind the girls on their station, watching the boards to see that no calls are overlooked, lending a TTand now and then as business becomes too much for one pair of hands, answering when a subscriber is told by the operator six times in succes sion that his number Is busy and he asks for the supervisor to satisfy himself that the line really Is busy and not neglected. The chief operator has general charge of the exchange, and to her all important questions are referred for final answer. Supervisors and chief operators are selected from the ranks of the regular operators, the girls who show special ability to handle responsible work. Supervisors are always on the watch for possible material for new super visors, for there are never enough to make the field a hard one for the new girL Finds Are Frequent. The news spreads quickly when a 'find" is made. A supervisor says to her chief operator, "There's a new operator on such and such a board who is really a wonder." The chief operator takes the first opportunity to stroll by and watch the new girl at work. Pretty soon the traffic chiefs hear about It, and before long tho capable girl ls offered her chance of "going on the floor," or becoming a supervisor. The specia departments, such as in formation and long distance, offer an interesting field. "Information," that mysterious person who is supposed to know everything from where the fire is to who lives in the green house two doors up from the corner grocery, works at a long branch table in the main room of the Broadway exchange. There are 20 or 30 of her, seated with a row of Jacks in front of each girL Jacks in an exchange have nothing to do with kings, although they may be associated with queens. They are harmless looking little holes and buttons, designed to form a part of the great telephone circuit when properly dealt with. Each information operator has the latest directory and is .also given .(Concluded on fajs I.) ' K: rVjA
