From: stephen@sprunk.org   
      
   On 26-Jun-14 13:39, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:   
   > On Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:18:51 AM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   >> There's really no such thing as an "attendant" anymore; most places   
   >> just dump the few remaining parts of that job on the receptionist,   
   >> who is most often a temp.  And why provide extensive training to a   
   >> temp?   
   >   
   > I don't know why they would use a temp for a job like receptionist,   
      
   Many companies these days.  They don't want low-end hourly employees on   
   the books or have to deal with finding replacements when she goes on   
   vacation or quits because there's no opportunity for advancement; it's   
   easier to pay another company to deal with all that.   
      
   Also note that having low-paid employees on your books affects things   
   like the tax-deferred status of 401k plans; if they're contractors or   
   employees of another company, you're insulated from that.  And they also   
   don't factor into revenue-per-employee calculations that stock analysts   
   use when comparing you to competitors.   
      
   > ... and when the regular receptionist was out, a secretary would   
   > fill in, never a temp.   
      
   No more secretaries either, unless they're contractors or temps.   
      
   > Tom Watson wrote that IBM put great import on its receptionists and   
   > it paid off in good public relations.  (Ref Father, Son, & Co.)   
      
   Most companies these days don't care about public relations; at most,   
   they view it as something they pay a PR firm to manage.  Customer   
   service is seen as an expense, not something that adds value.   
      
   >> That's mostly handled by voicemail and IVR systems today.   
   >   
   > On many voice mail systems, there is an option to press zero to get a   
   > human for an important call.  But far too often doing that leads   
   > nowhere--either to a dead line, a line where the mailbox is full, or   
   > in a loop back to the unanswered extension.   
      
   Yep.  It's a lot cheaper to not pay anyone to answer those calls.   
      
   >>> Could you explain "call park"?  I thought it was simply HOLD.   
   >>   
   >> In a key system, she puts the call on hold, notes it's holding on   
   >> line X and pages Bob to pick up that line.  However, that means   
   >> that every line has to appear on every phone, which is expensive   
   >> for analog systems. Even for digital or VoIP systems, it means   
   >> every phone needs a button for each line, which means buying more   
   >> expensive phones.   
   >>   
   >> In a PBX, the receptionist presses the "Call Park" button, and her   
   >> phone tells her that the call is parked on orbit X.  Then she pages   
   >> Bob to dial X.  When Bob dials X, the call is retrieved from orbit   
   >> and connected to wherever Bob happens to be.  The orbits (and any   
   >> calls in orbit) don't need to appear on _any_ phone, so you can do   
   >> this with cheap single-line phones--and get much larger scale.   
   >   
   > In 1971, the hospital PBX had a feature called "meet me page".  It   
   > worked the same way.  When an outside caller reached the page   
   > operator, she would page the doctor and provide an extension   
   > number--that would automatically connect to the incoming call.  But I   
   > think going back to the 1940s there was a crude version known as   
   > 'code call' where the person paged would be automatically connected   
   > to back the requester.   
      
   Sounds like "call park" is just the modern term for the same thing.   
      
   > As mentioned before, in a recent visit to a hospital, I was surprised   
   > by the high volume of pages for doctors over the PA system*; I   
   > would've thought they'd be using beepers or cell phones.  Indeed,   
   > back in '71 the hospital had a trial run with beepers for the   
   > doctors.   
      
   Mobile phones usually don't work in hospitals.  Some doctors carry   
   pagers, but older models that don't use the phone networks are pretty   
   tough to find these days, i.e. expensive, as is the lower-frequency   
   spectrum needed to penetrate deep into hospitals.   
      
   >> You can often tell whether a retail store is using a KTS or a PBX   
   >> by whether their pages say "Bob, line X" or "Bob, dial X".   
   >   
   > I got the impression (possibly wrong) that plain vanilla phones (ie a   
   > 2500 set) are rare these days and that multi-line phones don't cost   
   > that much more.   
      
   Analog multi-line phones mean you need a wire pair for every line that   
   appears on the phone--and that's expensive after the 3rd line.   
      
   Digital phones can have lots of lines, limited only by the number of   
   buttons on the phone.  But more buttons still costs more money; in most   
   cases, the typical desk phone only has 2-3 line buttons, and only a   
   receptionist's phone has more (one for every user's extension).   
      
   > Of course today, many grade crossings have electronic warning bells,   
   > not mechanical.  I don't know about locomotive bells, but I guess   
   > they're electronic too on new units.  It's kind of neat seeing a   
   > passenger train pull in and depart with the bell sounding (though   
   > many MUs don't have bells).   
   >   
   > SEPTA's push pull engineers usually don't bother to sound the bell,   
   > although they should when a car car is leading because the train is   
   > very quiet.  The ex-ErieLack Pullmans have a higher pitched ding   
   > bell.   
      
   TRE's trains have real bells; they ring whenever the ditch lights are   
   set to flashing, i.e. every grade crossing and when entering or exiting   
   a station.  It's even more annoying than the (very loud) horn.   
      
   S   
      
   --   
   Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein   
   CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the   
   K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking   
      
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