Many of those jobs were already killed off by IVR systems.

Any company that still has a live “operator” type job… Well, it’s usually piled onto another role, like receptionist. Many small to mid sized businesses basically hire a receptionist as a catch all for other jobs. Someone to accept deliveries, answer the phone, greet people coming in, do little odd jobs around the office.

Reduction of the workforce by turning a once straight forward job like receptionist into an agglutination of smaller jobs that they don’t want to have to pay someone to do, is the norm. Eliminating positions and entire swarms of people with a single individual who both doesn’t really do a job, but does every job.