4 December 2007

After 38 years as the voice at the other end of the defence line, Glenda Reti is hanging up the phones for the last time.

“It’s time to retire - I’m looking forward to taking life easy,” says the supervisor of the Porirua-based NZDF telephone exchange whose well modulated voice has answered countless calls over the decades. “I have loved my job, and I’ll miss the people, but I’ve had a great time here,” she smiles.

June 1969 marked the beginning of Glenda’s Defence career, although she had worked in telephone exchanges before then. She was one of five civilian telephone operators and four shift supervisors employed by the Ministry of Defence to operate the telephone exchange that had previously been manned by Air Force personnel.

The defence telephone network linked all the headquarters, camps, bases and units using a PABX-type 300 cord board. What was known as the long distance board was accessed by one operator, while another booked and connected toll calls, and another three operators answered in-coming calls. “We had to gain a good knowledge and understanding of not only the ministry but the three Services as well in order to provide an efficient service.”

With ten lines almost always ringing simultaneously, the pressure was intense on the long distance board, and operators rotated hourly “to keep their sanity”, says Glenda.

“Operators had to have a lot of patience and tolerance, and the main rule was “courtesy, accuracy and speed”. It was a real challenge, and if you could handle the long distance board then you could handle most things. There was always a long delay on all the lines. Some personnel were very patient and if their calls weren’t urgent would rebook them for the next day.”

Calls were limited to five minutes, after which they would be quickly disconnected, a situation which often led to considerable angst, especially among callers within the military. “They were the procedures, and to move calls we had to follow them. We would time the calls and at three minutes ask them to limit their call. At five minutes we told them we were now disconnecting and pulled the plug and cut them off. The supervisors made sure the rules and procedures were adhered to at all time, no matter who the caller was. Once, when I pulled the plug, the caller came storming down to the exchange, yelling at us and wanting to know which operator had done it. He looked like the wild man from Borneo. We kept our door locked after that.”

Glenda’s unruffled composure frequently stood her in good stead with “difficult” callers.

“We were all good at talking and calming irate subscribers down. There was a lot of time spent looking after toll and long distance calls and talking to callers, and on the whole we had a good rapport with them. The best part was meeting up with them at Defence social functions, and putting a face to the voice.”

In 1980 the operators moved to the Freyberg Building, and with new equipment their working lives improved dramatically. Callers were dialled around a network on numerous trunks and tie lines to camps and bases. “There was still a bit of overloading, but nowhere near the delays. We had time to have a quick hello to callers on the way through.”

Telephony upgrades continued, as did changes within defence. Telephone operators – there was a staff of 12 until the late 1980s - came and went, and various buildings throughout Wellington were occupied by Defence. In 1989 the operators moved back to Stout Street defence building, which became known as Defence House. Exchange technology improved even more, and with it came the need for fewer operators.

In 1992 the operating staff was down-sized, leaving just Glenda, and Maureen Peita, the latter also a long-serving Defence employee.

Glenda says she enjoys dealing with people, and being able to help them.

“We’re often the first introduction outsiders have to defence, and more often than not they aren’t quite sure who they want to talk to. It’s good to be able to steer them in the right direction. Occasionally I’m just a friendly ear for someone to vent their frustrations to, or for some elderly person who wants to talk about their time in the Services. People are often surprised a real person answers the Defence phone, and they comment on that.”

The new exchange supervisor is Jacquelyn Blomfield, a former Defence exchange operator who is returning to work for the NZDF.

A grandmother of seven, and great grandmother of two, Glenda plans to “do a bit of voluntary work”, help look after her great grandchildren, and generally take life easy.

“I’ve worked all my life. It will be good to have a rest. I will miss Defence at times though.”

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