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Todo o mundo If you've recently made a collect call, checked your bank account balance over the phone, or left a message for someone in a large company, you may have done so without the assistance of an operator. With automation, computers, and voice synthesizers, you can now place a call directly and get all the information you need yourself, saving phone companies, and other businesses, time and money. The demand for telephone operators has dropped considerably from the days when operators were needed to physically connect and disconnect lines at a switchboard. AT&T has laid off thousands of operators in the last 20 years, but people can still find work with telecommunications companies and in corporations that handle a number of calls.
Rynn Lemieux, an operator for the Hilton San Francisco, can remember the old “cord boards” from when she worked for an answering service more than 18 years ago. “I have to say,” she says, “when you disconnected a call from one of those boards, you really knew you disconnected a call. Pushing a button just doesn't have the oomph of yanking a cord. ” Though Lemieux still works at a switchboard, she also uses a computer to find room numbers and in-house extensions. “I answer calls, connect to extensions and rooms, put in wake-up calls, as well as answer the TDD for the hearing impaired, page beepers, and answer questions concerning the city, the hotel, and pretty much anything else the caller can think of. ” Pushing a button just doesn't have the oomph of yanking a cord. ” Though Lemieux still works at a switchboard, she also uses a computer to find room numbers and in-house extensions. “I answer calls, connect to extensions and rooms, put in wake-up calls, as well as answer the TDD for the hearing impaired, page beepers, and answer questions concerning the city, the hotel, and pretty much anything else the caller can think of. ” Pushing a button just doesn't have the oomph of yanking a cord. ” Though Lemieux still works at a switchboard, she also uses a computer to find room numbers and in-house extensions. “I answer calls, connect to extensions and rooms, put in wake-up calls, as well as answer the TDD for the hearing impaired, page beepers, and answer questions concerning the city, the hotel, and pretty much anything else the caller can think of. ”
When a call comes into the phone company, a signal lights up on the switchboard, and the telephone operator makes the connection for it by pressing the proper buttons and dialing the proper numbers. If the person is calling from a pay phone, the operator may consult charts to determine the charges and ask the caller to deposit the correct amount to complete the call. If the customer requests a long-distance connection, the operator calculates and quotes the charges and then makes the connection. | 