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Show r DON'T SCOLD THE 'PHONE GIRL. t A man goes to the telephone, takes down the receiver and wails for "central" to ask him what number he wishes. If the response: is not prompt, he gets annoyed and shows it. If on having given the number he requires, an immediate answer is not forthcoming, he is again annoyed, and again shows it. And if "central" has given him the wrong number but there is no need to tell the full story of a sad loss of self-control. The London Lancet in the current issue calls attention to the prevalence of nervous breakdowns among telephone operators, and says that the general public scarcely realizes the' excessively trying nature of the work which the telephone operators perform. "It seems," remarks the Lancet, "that an appreciable portion of the public believe that the telephone operators make mistakes out of pure and unalloyed wickedness, aimed either against the mass of subscribers in general or against the individual sufferer. We would urge, even while we admit that the number of stupid mistakes made by telephone operators does appear large, that some thought should be given to the fact that the operators are not mechanical contrivances, con-trivances, and that any individual operator with whom wo get into communication i?,' himself or herself, part of a great and complicated scheme, any failure of which may oi ten be felt at a distance from its cause. "It is silly and unjust to conclude if any hitch should occur that the particular exchange operator who is then in communication must be the delinquent the deliberate and frigid delinquent.. And although al-though the exhibitions of temper which too many of the public allow i themselves to manifest may be received with apparent equanimity by the operator, we cannot doubt that they must have a wearing effect. "For life at the telephone exchange is neither a quiet nor a pleasant one. The work is trying and puts a constant strain on the attention, while rigid self-control is aked for in any one who, during long burine33 hours, has to enter tfpon incessant dialogues with a public that is generally in a hurry. Wc hope that the publicity which has been given to the matter may do something toward ameliorating the attitude of the public to the telephone operators, and may help the public to remember that these operators are human beings and not machines.' ' |