WAUPACA COUNTY POST

July 8, 1920

TELEPHONE WORK SUBJECT OF THEME BY MISS FRANCES STOUT

In order to receive school credit for doing certain work, Miss Frances Stout has written a theme which is judged to be so good and so interesting, that it is offered here to the public:

                                                “Telephone Work”

Today there are 1015 telephone in Waupaca, 633 local phones, and 382 rural phones.  On an average, there are about eight thousand local calls completed every day, although Sundays and holidays are unusually quiet.  Twice a month, a local peg-count is cared for where each call is automatically registered in machine room.  The reports are sent to the main office at Milwaukee, and they can tell by this, what work is being done in the traffic department and when more operators are needed to do the work.  At present there are ten operators employed in this exchange.  A listening observation is taken on the local operators, by the chief operator once a month, and the results are sent to the district office at Appleton.  An operator has many authorized phases which she must use in connection with her operating.  For instance, if a subscriber imagines he hears his telephone ring, takes down his receiver and says, “Did you ring here?” the operator must answer by saying, “There is no one on the line now, will you excuse it lease?”  The employes work eight hours a day, four hours at a time, with a fifteen minute rest period in each shift.  The student course is three weeks and at the end of her training she is supposed to be able to work without any supervision.  Then she must work for speed.  A first class operator is expected to answer and complete from ten to fifteen calls a minute.  The operators’ pay day is every Tuesday, by the local manager.  Time and a half is paid for working Sunday and holidays.  The students are paid from the first day they start their training.  After an operator has been employed a year, she is entitled to a two weeks’ vacation, one week with pay.

Every two weeks a meeting of the operators is held in the rest room – the local manager conducting it.  The purpose of these meetings is to clear up any questions in connection with the traffic department. These reports, stating what material was discussed must be sent to the main office in Milwaukee.  This report is written by the chief operator.  The telephone work is very interesting, and it isn’t simply a “job,” but it is a position.  One must pass a special examination before she can start her student course.  The toll work in the Waupaca exchange is heavier than any other exchange in Wisconsin, for the size of the town.  An average of three hundred toll calls are completed daily with only two operators on duty at one time.  A letter recently written to the manager from Milwaukee, notified him that three more positions are to be installed this summer.  There will be ten positions in the Waupaca exchange, two more than Stevens Point, Grand Rapids, Wausau and many of the larger towns.  This shows that the toll and local work is very heavy.