Switchboard operator deluxe

In a sub basement down a dim hallway just past some Public Restrooms I finally found a door marked Do Not Enter Miscellaneous Agency.  I knocked on the door and it was swiftly opened by a tall, balding middle aged bearded fellow who reeked of Senior Staff....he gave me a wry little smile and welcomed me to the Agency.  I won't mention his name, just as I have not mentioned my own....discretion is the heart and soul of the Agency.....but if you read the newspapers you might have seen him mentioned from time to time, in some story about old families doing charity functions.....

We passed through an outer office where a nice looking young secretary smiled up at us from her desk as we passed, and then returned to opening the morning mail and sorting it into wire baskets....the Senior went behind his desk, and motioned me into the visitors chair.  He picked up a file with my name on the cover, and glanced at it as if to refresh his memory on some point. He noted to me that as Senior Expediter over the years I had dealt with many complicated problems, and had done a fine job in resolving them....he went on to say that my new Agency would not present me with any shortage of problems....we signed some paperwork, he gave me a gilded Shield from out of a desk drawer, and we stood and shook hands.
Then we went trough another door off his office into a room where a gentleman was seated at a telephone switchboard, talking into an upright mouthpiece in front of him, listening through a headphone over one ear.  He glanced up and offered a wink and a nod as we entered and stood by....
The Senior informed me that this person was at the moment acting in the capacity of Control Officer....and that he would be training me as to the duties of this position for a few weeks or however long it might take for me to be comfortable doing these duties on a shift of my own.  And so I entered the secret world of the Miscellaneous problems of The Government.....