Lessons learned answering phones in a convent
Summer series: Tales from jobs past
Susan Kirsch’s colleagues at Schneider Downs know she takes pride in being respectful, but they might not realize she learned this lesson at her high school job: answering the phones in a convent.
As a student at Vincentian Academy -— then known as Vincentian High School — in the North Hills in the 1970s, Ms. Kirsch learned of a job opportunity from a graduating senior. The motherhouse of the Sisters of Divine Providence in McCandless was looking for a switchboard operator, a job Ms. Kirsch described as “coveted” because students could get their homework done in between calls.
She spent two years on the job. She worked roughly 12 hours a week, from 3 p.m. until after dinnertime, when the sisters would leave her a meal, often chicken.
The job paid — probably not more than minimum wage, Ms. Kirsch speculated -— and she would get dropped off each day by her parents until she got her driver’s license.
From her seat at the reception desk, Ms. Kirsch would answer the landline telephone, which she described as “just a big old console.” Her script? A variation of, “Hello, you’ve reached the Sisters of Divine Providence.”
The work was slow. The convent received no more than 20 calls a day, most of them from relatives looking to speak to the nuns or other residents. Ms. Kirsch recalled there were a few hundred sisters, ranging in age from 25 years old to “pushing 100.”
Ms. Kirsch would also welcome guests of the sisters and clean up the parlor after they left. The job was a quiet one, as the reception desk was on the same floor as the chapel.
“It wasn’t like [Schneider Downs], where I feel as though … our receptionists are impossibly busy,” she said. “It was more about learning the names of all the different sisters as they would come through, because you’d want to be polite and greet them and be
respectful.”
Managing the switchboard itself was not stressful, Ms. Kirsch said, but working in the convent’s compassionate environment underscored the importance of respect and consideration. She remembers one sister who was always signing out the van to take older or unwell sisters to their doctor’s appointments.
“I guess it deepened my respect for the sisters,” she said. “Their contribution to our community, their commitment to their vocation, and their commitment to one another.”
The most unexpected lesson was that the sisters there had loving families and close relationships with them — something students like Ms. Kirsch, who saw them in their roles as teachers and religious women, did not always consider. Families came to visit, bringing cupcakes and celebrating together in the parlor.
As a student at a Catholic high school, Ms. Kirsch said she was originally intimidated by the sisters. Over the course of her job, she came to see them in a different light: as “delightful people” who asked about her day and seemed to truly care.
“They’re just real people, doing God’s work,” she said.
Asthe chair of the tax departmentat Schneider Downs,where she has workedfor the past 14 years, Ms.Kirsch said she is mindfulof her “obligation to be gratefuland give back to thosewho have been so influential in our lives,” a lesson largelyinformed by her experiencesat the motherhouse.
Even before then, she was grateful to the sisters for taking care of her brother, who was born with a serious birth defect.
Ms.Kirsch now serves on thePortiuncula Foundation, anorganization run by Sisters ofSt. Francis of the Neumann Communitiesthat is dedicatedto advancing health and well-being.She was formerly theboard chair of Vincentian CollaborativeSystem, the parentcompany of Sisters of Charityof Nazareth-run nursinghomes and assisted living facilitiesin the area.
At Schneider Downs, Ms. Kirsch said she “works from a place of gratitude.”
“I like to think I’m respectful to all those with whom I interact,” she said. “Whether it’s the wonderful person who’s answering the phone or the wonderful person doing report production, they’re all contributing, and without each one of their contributions, we wouldn't be as successful as we are.”
Plus, as Ms. Kirsch was quick to joke, she definitely knows how to use a phone.