Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300132
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company [snort, snort]," she'd tell customers just before unplugging their call from the switchboard.
Tomlin's character is a long distance from what real, modern-day telephone operators are like.
"Student operator. How may I help you?" asks 20-year-old Christi Milstead in a pleasant voice, and with a smile on her face.
Milstead is one of 28 operators who helped open the new C&P Telephone directory assistance center in Pulaski earlier this month.
And these days, switchboards are out.
Computers with blue-tinted screens, ergonomically correct desks and chairs, lightweight headsets and separate work stations are in.
The center opened March 18 to handle overflow calls from the Washington area.
"It's interesting; that's a good word for it," Milstead said of her new job.
Many customers aren't aware that when they dial 411 to get a listing down the street, they end up talking to an operator who's way across the state.
"I try not to talk like I'm from the hills down here," Milstead said. But callers often pick up on her accent and are surprised to learn that she's in Southwest Virginia.
Communication difficulties work both ways, however. Milstead said she occasionally gets a foreign-born person on the phone, and has a rough time understanding what number is needed.
Other people have a strong aversion to the tape-recorded voice that recites numbers. "Some customers say, `Operator, don't you send me to that machine,' " Milstead said.
Then there are requests for government listings. A lot of them. Most people, being human, get lost in the federal bureaucracy and often don't know what department, division, service, agency or bureau they're looking for.
Some people get irate and hang up, Milstead said. But most are extremely nice - especially when they realize she's new at the job.
Milstead, after two weeks of training and almost two weeks "on the board," takes about 800 calls a day. She averages 38 seconds per call, down from 61 seconds her first day.
Finding phone numbers is a completely computerized process these days. With just a tap of a key on the keyboard, operators can narrow their search by region, by category such as residential or business, even by the type of listing requested.
Like pizza. The C&P center's keyboards have a separate key for pizza.
"Between 12 noon and 12:30, it tends to slow down a little bit - and you get a lot of calls for pizza," Milstead said. Pizza calls pick up again around 5 and 5:30 p.m.
Regional C&P manager Jim Griffith said the company spent $3 million to refurbish, redecorate and equip the building on Virginia 99 in Pulaski.
The annual payroll will total $1.8 million by mid-May, when 108 operators and five staff people will be employed. Shortly after, the center will expand its operation to 24 hours a day.
The telephone company chose Pulaski County partly to provide jobs for people in the New River Valley, Griffith said.
A recent study sponsored by C&P showed that Southwest Virginia is a prime area for "back-office" operations, such as data processing, service order, credit card verification and directory assistance.
Labor availability, low wage scale and a positive work ethic make the area attractive for large companies that want to locate their communications offices outside urban areas, where land and labor are more expensive.
Workers at the Pulaski center start at $5.68 an hour. After four years, they can earn up to $12.12 an hour.
With 1,800 job applicants to choose from, Griffith said, "It was very easy for us to be a little picky."
Contrary to the way things were in Ernestine's day, C&P has hired 17 men to work the phones. And six or seven people who lost their jobs when the AT&T plant in Fairlawn closed found work at the C&P center.
Milstead said she'd taken a lot of computer classes at Pulaski County High School, as well as one semester at New River Community College.
And her fondness for talking on the phone as a teen-ager probably didn't hurt.
"After you get on board, it just sort of comes naturally," she said.
by CNB