POST OFFICE METHODS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 10

POST OFFICE METHODS

ALLEGATIONS BY A TELEPHONE GIRL. A system of "spying" alleged to have been adopted by the Post Office to test the work of telephone operators was described by Miss Howse t a Manchester telephonist, to the Select Committee' of the House of Commons On Employment in tha Post Office. There was a separate staff, she said, not allowed to mix with the general staff, who from another part of the building could watch every movement of ah operator, timing the exact number of moments occupied by each movement, and thus gauging whether seconds were wasted. A complete record was kept, the operator not knowing that she was under observation. She was prohibited indulging in private conversation, and the supervisors saw to it that the regulation was not broken. Witness ' also Baid that even in cases where the subscriber and not the operator was in error the operator was expected, on complaint being made, to express regret and proceed with the work without further comment. Miss Howso was questioned rather sharply because she appeared to suggest [ that the opinions of operators we're us good as those of experts, and when asked bluntly if Bhe agreed with that, she remarked that expertß made mistakes as well , as other people. ''In fact," she added, "experts said the Titanic could not sink, but it did."