Human Connection Lost To ‘90S Progress
The computer answers the phone now when you call for directory assistance. It asks: “For what city? For what listing?” The computer has a woman’s voice, and it’s a pleasant one, but there’s no mistaking its machine dialect. Another era passed away quietly a few weeks ago. The Associated Press story about the death was short and tucked inside the newspaper. It reported that Ellensburg Telephone was laying off its 10 in-house operators. Directory assistance calls will now be routed to a US West regional phone number clearinghouse.
The surprise was that anyone anywhere had local operators anymore, women and men who actually live in the community where phone services are performed. Operators who not only know the correct pronunciation of nearby town names but have driven around in those towns.
Rest assured that this is not an editorial wishing we could go back to the old way. Ellensburg Telephone is a business that came up against the reality of business in the ‘90s. Family owned for a century, it was bought last year by a North Carolina-based company that owns small telephone and cable companies. Keeping those local operators was expensive and inefficient. Letting them go was a sound business decision. And there are many more options now available if you are searching for phone numbers. The Internet offers several electronic versions of white and yellow pages. Plug in a name and a number will appear.
“I feel lucky things lasted this long,” said Arlene Morrow, one of the operators who lost her job.
As our world grows more global, more computerized, and as services rendered transfer from local offices to regional and national ones, it’s important to pause and reflect on what is lost when this happens. When local operators no longer exist we lose the sense that the operator truly cares that you get the phone number you are requesting. Or even has a clue how to think creatively about finding a difficult number, or suggesting an alternative, or staying on the line for longer than two requests.
Lost, too, is the sense that this is a service done to be helpful rather than make money. How many local operators ever offered to dial the number you requested, for a fee?
A technology writer in Time magazine recently made the point that each new technology cannibalizes the technology that came before it. In this latest phone change, we’ve lost the personal touch, cannibalized for greater efficiency and higher profits.
Goodbye, local operators, and thanks for the memories.