Great video! Thank you for shining a light on what is partially women’s history as many operators were women. Subscribed and looking forward to your next video
I am 44 years old, and my first job out of high school (in 1998) was as a directory assistance operator for USWest (now part of CenturyTel) in Waterloo Iowa. At that time I did directory assistance for 11 western states. The floor below us was the old "zero operator" floor, which had much fewer staff by that point. In 1998 and '99 when I worked there, the zero operators were already largely defunct. Most of the calls they got were people wanting to know the time, or occasionally you would still get old folks who actually would still dial zero and have the operator place calls for them (not kidding). I want to say that USWest finally closed their "zero" operations in or around the year 2000 (don't quote me on that). I know that after I quit working there they eventually closed the entire office. There are at least to my knowledge no operators left at that location. We also had sister offices in Colorado and Oregon which I imagine are also closed by this point. My mother as her first job out of high school (1968) was the type of zero operator discussed in this video. She worked for AT&T at what eventually got split into Southwestern Bell in Texas. Phones have certainly changed a lot over my lifetime!
Wow, that's such an interesting story! It must have been quite an experience working as a directory assistance operator back then. It's fascinating how the role of operators evolved and eventually phased out. Your mom's experience as a zero operator in the '60s must have been quite different too. Phones have indeed changed a lot! Thanks for sharing your memories and insights!
Good video keep it up 👏
Thank you!! 😊
Great video! Thank you for shining a light on what is partially women’s history as many operators were women. Subscribed and looking forward to your next video
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for subscribing, and I can't wait to share the next video with you!
I am 44 years old, and my first job out of high school (in 1998) was as a directory assistance operator for USWest (now part of CenturyTel) in Waterloo Iowa. At that time I did directory assistance for 11 western states. The floor below us was the old "zero operator" floor, which had much fewer staff by that point. In 1998 and '99 when I worked there, the zero operators were already largely defunct. Most of the calls they got were people wanting to know the time, or occasionally you would still get old folks who actually would still dial zero and have the operator place calls for them (not kidding). I want to say that USWest finally closed their "zero" operations in or around the year 2000 (don't quote me on that). I know that after I quit working there they eventually closed the entire office. There are at least to my knowledge no operators left at that location. We also had sister offices in Colorado and Oregon which I imagine are also closed by this point.
My mother as her first job out of high school (1968) was the type of zero operator discussed in this video. She worked for AT&T at what eventually got split into Southwestern Bell in Texas. Phones have certainly changed a lot over my lifetime!
Wow, that's such an interesting story! It must have been quite an experience working as a directory assistance operator back then. It's fascinating how the role of operators evolved and eventually phased out. Your mom's experience as a zero operator in the '60s must have been quite different too. Phones have indeed changed a lot! Thanks for sharing your memories and insights!
If I might humbly suggest, have the plug at the end, the intro is a little too long