peter
“Before mobile phones came along, people had to use the land line, and to make connections between the lines you needed an operator to connect you. They were called telephone exchanges. There were about 200 operators in one room. Behind every 10 operators there were 2 supervisors, they were right behind you, and behind them, there was another supervisor watching them, and at the desk at the top of the room was the chief supervisor watching all the other supervisors. So it waspretty strict. You couldn’t turn around, you couldn’t even talk to the person next to you, unless it was business related. The minute you finished your shift, somebody sat in your place. And if a supervisor noticed a call coming in, they would shout “answer those lamps! Answer those lamps!” So that went on all day. I spent 30 years with them. But I went up on the ladder; I got promoted through all the supervisor positions… I bless the day I got out of that room! I was promoted to the training center, first as a trainer and then a training director…”
“If you spent so much time with them, you must’ve liked something about it, may I ask what it was?”
“This was Ireland in those days! There were no jobs, so if you were lucky enough to get a job you had to stick to it!”