Five hours till quitting time.
Telephone information operators are not permitted to give out their names or answer non-phone number related questions. But they do have supervisors who can do the latter.
"It's not easy," says an unnamed 411 supervisor. "People expect us to know what they want just by saying a few words. And the ratio of `polite callers' to...um...`others' is just about half and half." It's a crap shoot, and the only surprises are unpleasant ones.
"We get all sorts of requests." Really? Like what? "Some of them dirty."
What city please? What city please? What city please? Almost lunchtime.
Lanes and Games employee John Leveroni doesn't mind the relentless din of rolling balls, falling pins, and the monstrous contraptions that set them up again. "You get used to the noise," he says.
Customers are a different matter. "Dealing with customers is a problem in itself. They all have their ideas and they want to tell you how to run an alley. Anyone who has to deal with the public has got it damn tough." League players "get upset when you put open bowlers next to them." And open bowlers steal shoes.
"Yeah, we lose about 30 pairs a year." Law enforcement on a footwear level must provide some degree of excitement. Hot pursuit? Scuffling and fisticuffs?
Naw. "We just tell them that it's actually stealing, and that the shoes belong to the alley. Sometimes people try to keep rental shoes in their own lockers."
Amy Barry's voice is as sweet as her Boston accent is heavy. And when her phone rings, it's never good news. Amy puts together the Obituary page for The Boston Herald.
"When I first started doing it, it was so sad," she says. "I thought, 'Oh my God, it's so awful.' But you get kind of used to it." Amy admits that "being a policeman...or maybe a detective" would be a much harder job. And like a policeman (or maybe a detective), the key to emotional survival is professionalism. "I hate to say it, but you try not to think about people's lives and things."
Which is apparently the same attitude Postal Service employees maintain. If you work at the Central Square Post Office, you know what it is to be busy all the time. Busy, busy, busy. So busy that you'll let the phone ring 14 times before you answer it. So busy that when the caller's questions are non-mail-service-oriented, you only have three things to say: "Yes, the Post Office is the most difficult job. I can't talk about it. I really don't have the time."
Hello?