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Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Telephone Worker, Teacher, Tour Guide, Theater Manager ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter T


          Telephone worker?  Yeah, done that plenty.  Sales, research, customer service, fundraising--I've done it all.  Of course, much work involves the telephone so it's not surprising that most of us have used this tool in some capacity during our working lives.  It's not what I want to do to make a living, but it is a vital tool for work in our time and has been for decades.

           Teacher could have been a real possibility for me.  When I was attending University of Tennessee back in the early 1970s my major was English with a career goal of becoming credentialed to teach.  My plan was to teach high school or middle school so I ended up taking a lot of teaching courses. But then I dropped out of college to start working.  Although I tried substitute teaching, being a full-time educator is not something I think I would have enjoyed.  I'm glad I did what I did in my life.

           Touring the country with road shows might have been a good credential for being a tour guide.  In fact, each year with new travelers on my tour I often felt like a guide as I took these unseasoned travelers to visit sites across the country that I had enjoyed on previous tours.  I kind of enjoy being a tour guide for family and friends so I might enjoy this as a job.

         Similarly, theater manager might have been a good path for me to have taken.  I've played many a fine theater and visited many others.  As noted in previous posts, I am a show business guy at heart.  I love the theater and most of my working life was spent in management.  Theater manager sounds like the ideal placement for me!


         How have you used the telephone in your working life?  Have you had any experience in the field of teaching?   Can you recall any tour guides in your life that you thought were particularly outstanding?








8 comments:

  1. Oh the telephone! How it has changed through the years. My grandma and aunts out in the country had the party line. Our mom would get upset when we girls picked up the receiver to listen to other people's conversation.

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    1. Karen, I remember party lines, but I can't recall us ever being on one. My sister swears we were, but she was probably on the phone more than I was back then. I don't think I ever picked up the phone to hear another party talking, but maybe I just don't remember well.

      Lee

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    2. I am the sister and party lines existed and were quite weird. And, I guess I was on the phone more. 🤦‍♀️

      Delete
  2. I did phone support during the years I worked for software companies. Someone would run into a ptoblem running a program and get on the phone with us, and we'd try to work out a solution with them. I really hated that: unless it was something that was relatively easy to fix, the best soution was to send someone onsite because we couldn't see what the client ws doing. Nine times out of ten, it was something they were doing wrong.

    I spent the bulk of my career in customer education, so I did a little teaching in my time...

    The best tour guide we had was when we were in Edinburgh and took an afternoon trip on the Royal Mile, from Edinburgh Castle to Holyroodhouse. Our tour guide was -- no kidding -- Fred Holton.

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    1. John H, phone support from someone in the U.S.? That must have been some time ago. I'm used to getting connected with someone in India or the Philippines.

      Lee

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  3. I once did some casual work for a mate of mine who is an MP. It involved telephoning people and asking them for their opinions on things. What a cushy job. I am a qualified EAL teacher with over 20 years experience teaching English to adult migrants, students and refugees. I did a tour of Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the Northern Territory. The guide was great because he was really knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
    https://dacairns.com.au/blog/f/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-t

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    Replies
    1. D.A., I'd rather ask for opinions than money. The latter is usually much more difficult to get.

      Lee

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  4. I think you'd have been an excellent theater manager. Of course, not exactly an expert opinion here, but...

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