DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaiian Telcom switchboard operator Maxine Nataniela fields calls all day from people seeking information about telephone listings -- and other topics as well. She has been with the company for nine years, during which time it has gone through three ownership changes.

Smooth operator

Maxine Nataniela has the information
you need, if you just call her

Maxine Nataniela Title: Switchboard operator Job: Finds telephone numbers for people calling 411 at Hawaiian Telcom

Maxine Nataniela has your number -- and the number of just about anyone else you might know. That's because for nine years, the former Maxine Kaio has been working as one of the information operators for Hawaiian Telcom, the statewide telephone utility based at 1177 Bishop St. that was known as GTE Hawaiian Tel when she started with it, and then, until earlier this year, was called Verizon Hawaii. Nataniela, 49, is a graduate of Castle High School. She also attended Brigham Young University in Laie for two years, where she had intended to major in travel industry management. But, she said, "it just worked out this way" (that she became a switchboard operator), and the visitor industry's loss was the local telephone company's gain. Nataniela lives with her husband, Marseu, and their two teenage daughters (both high school volleyball players), in Kapolei.

Question: What is your exact title?

Answer: Switchboard operator.

Q: What does that mean you do?

A: I answer local and national directory assistance at Hawaiian Telcom. That means people who call 411, I answer the call and assist them in finding the listing that they're asking for. And our services are pretty much available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Q: Is your job solely to give out telephone numbers when people call 411?

A: Sure. And then we have about 700 to 1,200 calls per day.

Q: I was going to ask you about that.

A: Yeah. (Laughter)

Q: Are you on the phone all the time or do you ever have any down time?

A: About the only time we have down time is when we go on breaks, and when we have our lunch. We try to do all the down time before we come back on board to service our customers.

Q: Is there a time of day that seems to be the busiest with people calling seeking information?

A: Pretty much about like now (early afternoon). If comes in spurts. It all depends.

Q: What kind of numbers are most typically asked for?

A: It all depends on the time of day. If it's in the morning, it's usually businesses. And then pretty much for the afternoon, it's for the schools. And then in the evening, it's the restaurants, the pizza parlors. (Laughs) And then later in the evenings, it's pretty much the bars and taxis, or they're lost.

Q: Or they're lost?

A: Yeah. Sometimes they're lost and they don't know where they're at, so we guide them, help them get a taxi.

Q: What exactly do you do when someone calls and asks you to find them a phone number? Do you look up the number yourself in a big hard-copy phone book or do you have computers at your fingertips that you check?

A: We have computers at our positions, and most of the calls for the 411 are very straightforward, people calling to ask for the phone number or address.

Q: Do you ever have actual conversations with some of the people who call information?

A: We do have, pretty much like during the holidays, they ask us general information about the weather and the directions, like where is this place. And when it's about Thanksgiving time, they ask us how to cook their turkey.

Q: You're kidding.

A: No, we're good counselors. We talk to people about everything. People call us for how to spell.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaiian Telcom switchboard operator Maxine Nataniela and her co-worker, Connie Cody, had a laugh during a break on Tuesday. Behind them is artwork that appeared on past telephone book covers.

A: We do, and we do handle the 911 calls, yes. We just transfer them to 911. We guide them there.

Q: How long have you been working for what's now called Hawaiian Telcom?

A: I've been here going on my ninth year already. In September.

Q: What was the company called when you started?

A: GTE Hawaiian Tel.

Q: So you've seen it go through all the phases.

A: Yes.

Q: Have the ownership changes ever affected your daily job?

A: Oh, not at all. Our mission is to serve our customers really well.

Q: And you do that?

A: Yes. (Laughter) They can hear it in our voice.

Q: Have you always been a switchboard operator at the company?

A: Yes. We can crosstrain, so I did with the toll operator, where we call out to the mainland and the outer islands, and I also crosstrained for the hearing-impaired desk, and for conferencing.

Q: What were you doing before you joined the company?

A: I was with a mortgage company.

Q: And why did you switch?

A: I went back to school, through Alu Like, to get to know more about computers, so when I got the job with the mortgage company, I told them that when GTE calls, I would be leaving them.

Q: And they were all right with that?

A: I guess. They hated to lose me, but ... you know?

Q: How many other switchboard operators are there?

A: There's about 70 of us here, but we're all on different shifts because we're here 24 hours.

Q: Do you have a relatively normal shift?

A: Pretty much I have straights, but sometimes I have splits.

Q: What's a straight?

A: Like 8:45 (a.m.) to 5:15 (p.m.).

Q: And a split?

A: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Q: What would be a typical graveyard shift?

A: Pretty much from about 9 in the evening to about 6 in the morning.

Q: Did you ever have that shift?

A: When I first started.

Q: Is that the advantages of seniority?

A: Yes. (Laughter)

Q: Are you planning to stick with the company for awhile?

A: I'll probably hang in there with the new company, which I really like, with our new name and our new colors. It's a positive change. Lots of customers who call 411 are real happy about our change. They're happy that the Hawaiian Tel name is back and the logo.

Q: You mean "Hawaiian Tel," like in Hawaiian Telcom?

A: Yes.