Marketplace

What it was like working as a 411 operator before the internet

While attending Los Angeles City College in the 1960s, Lilith needed to find a part-time job. So, she applied for a position at Pacific Telephone Telegraph to work as an information operator. In the ...
Marketplace

AI lessons from the telephone operators of the 1920s

The rise of generative AI — and ChatGPT in particular — has raised a lot of alarm bells in some industries worried that the technology could make many humans’ jobs obsolete. And those concerns are ...
NPR

Telephone operators of another era gather to reconnect

Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...
WBUR

At a recent reunion in Maine, former operators recall the pre-smartphone era working telephone switchboards

Before smartphones, most people kept in touch using landline telephones. And before direct dialing was common, some calls were handled by switchboard operators. During the 1950s, more than 220,000 ...
WRAL

Overlooked No More: Harriott Daley, the Capitol’s First Telephone Operator

Before voicemail and voice recognition; before Siri and Alexa and their electronic sistren; before people cowered at the sight of incoming calls and hid behind blooping bubbles of text; before all ...