Miguel_Cruz@ub.cc.umich.edu (08/17/89)
Benson@odi.com writes in #288 about the "big brother" breathing down the supposed necks of operators. It's no secret that phone companies (and most other places with similar service positions) time their operators' performance. But they don't, as you all but insist, get "fired" for taking a little longer on a call. If you're pleasant/talkative with an operator, he/she'll often take the time to answer your question or whatever. It's only if everyone who called started asking for ringdowns in Rangoon that they'd get in trouble. There's a such thing as leeway (it comes in the same package as common sense), and operators know how much of it they have and they decide when to use it. They're people, understand?
david@indetech.uucp (David Kuder) (08/18/89)
In TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 288, message 11 of 11 our moderator writes: >But, it is *overall* performance which counts, and not the call count being >up or down in any specific time period. Telco management understands that >different types of calls take varying amounts of time to handle. >I wish some of the operators were not robotrons; but then some of >the Business Office people are just as inflexible. The system does need >repair, or at least some tweaking. Recently while riding the BART here I overheard some of the management types discussing their day on the information switchboards. One was apparently a supervisor of information operators, the rest were drawn from jobs apparently not requiring interaction with customers.* The non-operator types complained about the performance montinoring display on their station. It apparently showed how many calls had been handled in a given time. The supervisor quickly explained the key sequence to clear the number saying that he disliked how poorly he did these days. On the evening news the other day they interviewed a PacBell speech writer filling in as an operator. He wasn't too happy about it, but I bet if they paid their operators as well as their speech writers there wouldn't be a strike. -- ____*_ David A. Kuder {sun,sharkey,pacbell}!indetech!david \ / / Independence Technologies \/ / 42705 Lawrence Place FAX: 415 438-2034 \/ Fremont, CA 94538 Voice: 415 438-2003