Student operators’ work involves answering even the unusual calls

When you answer phone calls as a job, you occasionally get a weird one.

Emily Brown, an operator at the Telecommunications Service Center in the Woldt Hall lower level, answers quite a few.

“Someone called asking why I didn’t call to wake him up this morning,” said Brown, a Conklin senior. “I said ‘Well, I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong number.’ And he
said, ‘No, I had called you to wake me up this morning.’”

The Telecommunications Service Center, which takes care of the 774-4000 number, is a 24-hour service where many students work the midnight shifts.

Brown said the weird calls can make things a little tough because she has to decide how to forward them.

“A guy wanted me to call his wife while she was in class,” Brown said.

Brown’s not the only operator that experiences these uncanny calls. Brown’s co-worker, Brad Schmidt, said he answered one very weird call about a man’s pet.

“One guy called saying that he lost his kitty,” said Schmidt, a Livonia junior. “I transferred his call to the police because they have a lost and found.”

When a stranger calls

CMU operators’ main task is to help callers by providing event or campus-related information.

Brown said dealing with upset callers is a difficult part of her job.

“Sometimes, people will tell me their life story and ask me, ‘What should I do?’” Brown said. “It’s hard when people are really upset because there’s not much we can do but
transfer their call.”

Brown, along with other operators, answers a lot of phone calls throughout the week.

Main switchboard operator Tonia Price said the number of calls depends on the events on campus.

“Depending on the day, we answer around 500 to 1,000 phone calls per day,” said Price, a Shepherd resident. “If it’s extremely busy, we get around 1,300 calls a day.”

Student employees work between 15 and 20 hours a week. Price, a full-time operator, works 40 hours a week.

Operators must tend to the switchboard even if school is canceled.

“No matter what the weather is, we still have to be here,” Price said.

Students do get a few days off throughout the year, such as Thanksgiving and part of Christmas break.

Student operators consider the job to be beneficial.

“I am more knowledgeable about where things are on campus and I can contribute a lot more to younger students,” Brown said.