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City operators, on the other hand, handled up to 600 calls an hour. To increase efficiency, telephone companies hired scientific management teams. These teams created rules for everything the operator did, from how she should sit to how long she should take to answer a call -- which was four seconds. They were forbidden to have conversations with customers. Supervisors watched over operators constantly, even secretly listening in on their conversations.
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Like school children, city operators had to ask permission to go to the bathroom or to get a drink of water. Supervisors punished them for even the smallest break in the rules. For arriving a minute late to work, an operator was sometimes sent to sit in a punishment room -- a humiliating experience for a grown woman.
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The life of the early telephone operators who followed Emma Nutt was not an easy one. But these women were true American pioneers. They proved that women could handle a tough job with skill and confidence. They opened doors for women who wanted to work outside the home. And they helped make the telephone business a giant success.
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