September 7, 2007

'Thank you' would take even longer

Yesterday I wondered whether adding pleasantries to the service at the DMV might slow down the clerks. Maybe so. The Division of Labour blog, which daily excerpts 100-year-old items from the New York Times, found this gem yesterday from the NYT of Sept. 6 1907:

Hereafter the 450 girl operators of the Keystone Telephone Company of this city will not say "please" to the subscribers, and the subscribers have been requested not to say "please" to the operators.

A.J. Ulrich, traffic manager of the company, has issued the order, and both the girls and the subscribers are happy with the new arrangement. According to Mr. Ulrich the girls in answering calls and the patrons in making them use the word "please" 900,000 times every twenty-four hours. Estimating that it requires half a second to say the word, 7,500 minutes are consumed every twenty-four hours, which is equal to 125 hours lost every day by the use of the word.

Posted by dweintraub on September 7, 2007 5:54 AM