The Telephone Switchboard Operator

Less than 100 years ago, nearly every phone call in the world passed through the hands of a human. 

There was a central office. A physical place. There, the switchboard operator sat. Waiting for that little blinky light. When you picked up your receiver, bingo! They plugged in a cord to your jack, asked who you wanted to reach, and then connected the other end of the cord to the recipient’s line. 

A few seconds later, you could begin your conversation. 

Although they sometimes crossed the wires. Instead of Aunt Linda in Shamokin, you’d get Jack from Pennside. 

It was a job of listening, remembering, and moving fast. It was important. It mattered a great deal. 

In the mid-20th century, about 342000 people were employed as telephone switchboard operators. 

Today, there are zero. 

Technology erased the role. But it didn’t erase the work. Technology took away those 342000 jobs, but then created millions of new ones. These new jobs could not have been conceived of while people still plugged and pulled the cables by hand. 

We don’t yet know what the future holds with AI replacing jobs that exist today. The ground is shaking. 

We’re human, and humans get nervous when the ground shakes. We get worked up. We shake our fists. We implore the system not to let it happen. 

Yet history reminds us: — the ground always shifts, and it’s in the shifting that we find the next place to stand.