Songfacts®:

• This song tells the story of an older woman taking advantage of a younger man, as she lures him away from his family. "She 'operates' the way things happen around her to benefit herself." Vanessa Carlton commented to Billboard magazine. "That's what operators do."
• The song was released as the first single from Liberman, Vanessa Carlton's fifth studio album. The title of the record comes from an oil painting made by Carlton's late grandfather that hung in direct eye line while she wrote the album. His surname was Liberman.
• The video, which was directed by Daniel Henry and filmed in Nashville, features real-life siblings and their mother. It reverses the classic tale of children running away by instead having the parents run away. "The kids are left to do what they want in this big house," Carlton explained. "The older sister takes charge the best she can. It's done in a cinematic and slightly abstract way."