A large room full of voices
Imagine a large, high-ceilinged room in a city telephone building around the 1910s or 1920s. Rows of switchboard sections run along the walls and across the floor. At each position sits an operator wearing a headset, hands moving between jacks, plugs and keys. The room hums with low voices, repeating phrases such as “Number, please” and numbers read back. Supervisors walk the aisles. Behind the boards, out of sight, technicians tend the wiring and power equipment.
This picture applies to larger exchanges, which could employ hundreds of operators. Smaller exchanges followed the same ideas in a smaller space. Details varied by company, country and period.
The layout
A switchboard was built in sections, each a cabinet with a panel of jacks and a shelf of cords and keys. Several operator positions might share a section, and sections were placed side by side to form a long board. Each operator had a seat, a small shelf for tools, a headset cord, and often a fixed number of arm lengths of board to cover.
Operators sat close together. The position of each person was fixed, so a supervisor could see who was where at a glance. In large rooms, the supervisor’s desk was raised or placed where the whole floor was visible. Electric lighting was designed to show the signal lamps clearly without glare.
Who worked there
Besides the operators who connected calls, a central office employed several other roles.
- Supervisors monitored operators and helped with difficult calls. They watched the board for signs that a position was overloaded and moved staff accordingly.
- A chief operator was responsible for the whole floor, including the schedule, discipline and training.
- Information operators answered questions such as a number or an address, using printed directories or card files.
- Long-distance or toll operators handled calls to other cities, often sitting at a separate board. They recorded call details for billing, often on paper tickets with the time stamped by a clock, one of the timekeeping devices every office relied on.
- Trouble clerks and test staff received reports of faulty lines. In a room called the test board, technicians checked circuits to find out whether a fault lay in the exchange or on the customer’s line.
- Power and maintenance staff looked after the battery rooms, where banks of lead-acid battery cells kept the system running through outages, as well as generators and cables.
Routines
The day was organized into shifts. In the busiest hours, such as mid-morning and early evening, more operators were on duty. Companies studied call patterns and scheduled staff to match, with fewer positions staffed at night. A relief operator covered breaks so that a position was never empty at a busy hour.
Common routines included:
- Starting a shift. Operators checked their headsets, adjusted their seats and logged on to their positions. Supervisors briefed them on any special conditions, such as a fire alarm or a line out of service.
- Handling calls. Standard wording and procedures were used, partly so that operators could cover each other’s positions without confusion.
- Observation. Supervisors sampled calls to check speed, accuracy and courtesy. Operators knew they might be monitored.
- Breaks and meals. Short rest breaks and a meal period were scheduled. Companies often provided rest and lunch rooms, and in some cases classes, libraries or recreation areas.
Teamwork behind a call
A single call often passed through several hands. In a large exchange using a multiple board, an operator answered the caller and then, if the called line was in the same office, connected directly. In some large offices, calls were passed on to another board by a trunk line, and a different operator completed the connection. Operators needed to coordinate, using brief standardized phrases over order wires or on the circuit.
When calls overloaded the board, operators helped each other in quiet ways, such as taking a neighbor’s lamps if she was busy, or leaning over to plug a cord in another section. Supervisors might shift staff to cover a surge, and emergency calls were handled first. The coordination resembled that of air traffic control in one respect: many people shared one busy resource and relied on short, standard phrases. Teams developed their own culture, including friendships, rivalries, jokes and sympathy for colleagues who had dealt with an abusive caller.
Pressures
The work could be stressful. Speed was constantly measured, and mistakes affected customers directly. The job also required emotional control: staying polite when a caller was angry. Noise, seating and the weight of a headset affected comfort. Companies attempted to address some of these problems with better equipment, and sometimes with rest periods and medical checks, but the conditions varied a great deal.
When the room changed
As automatic equipment replaced manual boards, the rooms changed. Local switching moved to racks of switches that needed few people, and large rooms of operators gave way to smaller ones that handled long-distance, assistance and directory calls. Some of the old rooms were converted for other uses. The work of the central office did not vanish, but the human teamwork that moved each call became technical maintenance and later software management.