The retired telephone operator from my town is an example of that. As the operator of a small town exchange of about 400 lines, she did most everything (toll calls were relayed to the next town). She provided all of today's fancy features plus kept track of where the town doctor and police officer were. Just like "Mayberry". She enjoyed her job.
When they put in dial, she was transferred to a nearby city. Completely different -- high volume traffic, strict protocols, etc.
Switchboard duty varied by the size of the town. In big cities it was completely specialized, and that's where I wonder about pecking order. I moderately sized cities and towns the dial 0 assistance operators could do more things -- local assistance and long distance, intercept.
As long distance itself became automated, they ceased using separate long distance operators and merged them in with regular 0 operators. (This was before TSP consoles).
A dial 0 handling local and long distance seemed a reasonably interesting job, even with most calls automated.