switchboard

Demand for switchboard operators brought hundreds of thousands of women into corporate offices, reshaping the clerical workforce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

She rang the switchboard of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust claiming to be Madeleine and asked to be put through to Glenfield Hospital, where Mr and Mrs McCann worked.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025

I’m used to being a switchboard of sorts — as a journalist, inevitably, word travels to and through me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2025

Kirschenbaum had no spouse, siblings or children, and lived a no-frills lifestyle, working as a switchboard operator for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization, until her retirement in 2004.

From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2024

For the next several days, Deborah called Hopkins again and again, telling the switchboard operators, “I’m calling for my cancer results.”

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

With no industry experience, Johnson simply called the switchboards of the UK's biggest record companies.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2024

His team is now looking at how these little switchboards can be controlled by the brain.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 27, 2023

Moreover, most people “overwhelmingly prefer to interact with a live person when dealing with customer service centers,” meaning consumers despise those god-awful automated switchboards beloved by penny-pinching businesses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2021

In Buffalo, the Courier-Express and Evening News switchboards were flooded with callers, as was the local NBC affiliate.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 19, 2019

All through the high-ceilinged electrical room of Central, all I see are girls in black and navy and white, manning their switchboards, doing their jobs.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse