History: Early 20th Century Switchboard Operators Pioneered Women's Workplace Rights
David Filwood
CEO | TeleSoft Systems | People & Process Improvement For Contact Centers
In 1876 – the first successful telephone call was made possible by inventor Alexander Graham Bell – and rang in the era of talking at a distance. But it was really just “Two Cans & A String”. Telephones were sold or rented out in pairs – and communication was limited to just the owners of the telephone pair.
1894 saw the invention of the manual telephone switchboard – an innovation that allowed people who had telephones at home or office to call others at will.
The manual telephone switchboard acted as a hub for telecommunication activity. It allowed the connection of two or more phone subscribers without any of them requiring direct lines between each other.
Telephone Exchanges Were The First Call Centers
Manual telephone switchboards required human operators using electrical patch cord cables (aka ‘Switchers’) ?to route the calls. The caller telephoned the operator and asked to be connected to someone. The operator then plugged the caller’s patch cord cable jack into the call recipient’s socket.
By the start of the 1900s – the idea of picking up a telephone & instantly chatting with someone was becoming very popular – it was the Internet / Social Media of the day – and telephone exchanges – facilities that housed hundreds of switchboards (and hundreds of switchboard operators) – were sprouting up in cities around the world.
The First Switchboard Operators Were Teenage Boys. However – Boys Frequently Proved Rude & Unruly To Callers – Receiving Poor Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Scores – So Young Women – Believed To Be Naturally More Polite & Empathetic – Were Hired As ‘Telephone Girls’ Instead.
Women's labor was also cheap in comparison to men's. ‘Telephone Girls’ were paid from one half to one quarter of a man's salary.
The beginning of the 20th Century was a time when women struggled for equality – fighting for among other things the right to vote.
Most women in the workplace were little more than indentured servants – for whom poverty was ever present – and they mostly had to quit their jobs when they married.
Women working in the garment industry – the manufacturing sector – in health care / education / the public sector / civil?service – and?those?who?did?office / domestic / industrial work – were often exploited as cheap & expendable labor.
From the phone company’s point of view – customers needed personal assistance & support if they were to incorporate this new technology into their lives.
Telephone companies back then regarded their business less as a utility and more as a personal service.
‘Telephone Girls’ were central to this idea – acting as an early version of an intelligent assistant with voice recognition capabilities.
‘Telephone Girls’ got to know their assigned customers by name – and generally knew their needs.
If a party didn't answer – she would try to find him or her around town. If that didn't succeed – she took a message & called the party again later to pass the message along.
This created a measure of intimacy between callers & their ‘Telephone Girls’ – as customers grew to recognize their switchboard operators’ voices – and to know them somewhat as people.
‘Telephone Girls’ could be counted on to have all sorts of information at hand – even gossip. They made wake up calls – and gave out the correct time of day / latest news / weather / sports scores. During crimes in progress or medical emergencies – a telephone subscriber needed only to pick up their handset – and a switchboard operator would summon the police or doctors.
A Career As A ‘Telephone Girl’ Was One Of The Few Technically Oriented Jobs Available To Women In The Early 20th Century – But It Wasn’t Open To All Women.
Telephone companies decided that because switchboard operators were their direct link to customers they had to project a positive image that was highly controlled.
Only “capable” young unmarried girls “from the middle classes” were recruited for switchboard operator jobs – and they had to wear a uniform at work.
In order to be hired – young ladies were required to have "a respiratory system in perfect condition, a normal circulatory system and digestive system, good teeth, nose, pharynx and larynx in perfect condition, a clear voice, well timbre, not nasal, no physical infirmity, apparent or hidden, absence of deformity or unsightly scar on the face, good constitution”.
Women with “foreign” accents were not employed. Even native English speakers were usually given elocution training to make sure their speech matched the image the company wanted to project.
Height & weight were also issues. Sitting & working in front of one of hundreds of floor to ceiling telephone switchboards full of sockets for plugging electrical patch cord cable jacks into was a tight fit.
Because ‘Telephone Girls’ had to sit in front of the company’s switchboard equipment for long periods of time (ten to twelve hour shifts) – women were selected whose height & weight fit within certain narrow parameters. Most women under five feet tall were considered too short to be switchboard operators.
Throughout their long shifts – ‘Telephone Girls’ were required to wear headsets with the weight of a heavy helmet on their heads – along with a horn mouthpiece strapped to their chests that was equipped with a counterweight maintained by straps on their backs. It was heavy cumbersome kit to be wearing throughout the work day.
‘Telephone Girls’ were required to manage an average of 6 calls per minute (1 call every 10 seconds).
Imagine having to answer calls quickly – and from memory – finding the right jack in a maze of patch cord cables & sockets on your large switchboard to connect Mr. Brown (who is in a great hurry) with Mr. Smith (who takes his time to pick up). All while supervisors on roller skates quickly move back and forth behind you auditing your performance.
By 1910 – in most large cities – calls were coming in to telephone exchanges so rapidly that ‘Telephone Girls’ could hardly take their eyes off their switchboards for a second.
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Although Female Switchboard Operators May Have Been Recognized For Their Abilities – They Worked Long Hours For Low Pay & Few Benefits.
Beginning in France in 1910 – and quickly spreading to most other industrialized countries – ‘Telephone Girls’ began to organize.
The need to attract & retain “capable women from the middle classes” led telephone companies to be benevolent & progressive employers by the standards of the day – and in some respects of any day.
Among the Women's Workplace Rights won by ‘Telephone Girls’:
‘Telephone Girls’ From The Earliest Call Centers Made A Lasting Contribution To Developing Women's Rights In The Work World. They Were The First To Obtain Paid Maternity Leave – Years Before Other Business Sectors.
Contact Center customer service is still powered by women today. Roughly 80% of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are female – and 2/3 are working mothers in a relationship or single parents.
For many CSRs – the availability of family benefits make or break job offer acceptance and/or length of job tenure.
Clif Bar & Company – based in Emeryville, CA – is best known for their performance nutrition CLIF Bars.
Clif Bar operates an in house Customer Service/Inside Sales Contact Center.
In today’s tight labor market – where competition for new recruits has become intense – Clif Bar provides a childcare center for up to 64 children.
Operated by facility management company KinderCare – the Clif Bar childcare center is staffed with early childhood teachers – using a curriculum of age specific programs for infants through 12 year olds.
The childcare center shares a common wall with the Call Center – so CSR parents can visit their child at lunch & on breaks.
20% of the daycare costs for parents are subsidized by the company – with full scholarships offered to top performing CSRs.
Onsite daycare is ranked highly by the CSRs as a benefit – many of whom have trouble finding quality & affordable child care.
Clif Bar reports annual CSR turnover of less than 5% – about 1/6th the Contact Center Industry Average.
Comparing The Hardware / Software Of Today’s Modern Multi Channel Contact Center To The Electrical Patch Cord Cables & Sockets On The Switchboard From A 1910 Telephone Exchange Is Like Comparing Henry Ford’s ‘Model T’ To Electric Cars From Elon Musk's Tesla Motors. Technology Has Advanced Dramatically Over The Past 111 Years.
But the need to attract & retain “capable women” to the job hasn’t changed at all from the ‘Telephone Girls’ of a century ago to today’s CSR.
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