A BIG STEP... wise or not (Part 113h)

A BIG STEP... wise or not (Part 113h)

I took her up on it and while she filled out all the necessary papers I went to Mala and told her to follow me to the back. I gathered Willa, Lori and Mala together and proceeded to tell them of the change. It was obvious that Mala had spoken to the other two about her conversation with me about the possible switch because there was little in the way of a surprise reaction. The surprise came when I told them that Mala would be free for training as long as the lobby traffic was slow. They all seemed happy about that. The next step was to get Jerena started in her training. At that point I decided Cara would be the one to do it even though I knew she wouldn’t like it. I knew I’d get constant feedback on how she was doing though because Cara and Trish shared just about everything.

Everything seemed to go well the rest of the day. The first reaction came on Friday when I took Jerena’s paperwork up to the lady in charge of accounting as payroll was handled there. Her name was Bette (like in Midler) and she was a long time employee. She and Hobie were hired around the same time and they and their spouses were good friends. She’d always had a smile for me and on this day it was no different... until I handed her Jerena’s paperwork. She didn’t say anything until I’d turned and was walking away. Then she called me back and I could tell from the tone of her voice that there was some concern. She pointed to the annual salary number and didn’t ask but stated, quite firmly, that it was wrong. I didn’t react (honest!) but calmly said that it had been approved by Hobie. The words weren’t hardly out of my mouth before she had the phone to her ear. I stood there and listened as she argued with him. She didn’t say anything that I hadn’t thought of and tried to broach with Hobie. I knew of their friendship and could see she was upset so tried not to add any fuel to the fire by saying anything. However, I did nod my head in agreement as she stated the unfairness to existing employees that the new salary represented. When she hung the phone up she looked at me and asked if I agreed with her. All I said was ”Yes“ and headed back downstairs.

Hobie didn’t say anything to me but soon left his desk and headed upstairs. I wondered what happened to Hobie when he hadn't returned by noon. There was an obvious ”buzz“ among the employees. I also noticed a few of the mortgage people look over to where Jerena was being trained as they left for lunch. I didn’t put ”two and two“ together right away and when I asked Trish what she’d heard she wouldn’t come right out and tell me but lifted her head up towards where Cara and Jerena were. After I returned from lunch I tried to talk with Hobie but he waved me away and picked up the phone. Soon after that he went back upstairs again. It wasn’t long after that when I saw some Trustees coming in and heading upstairs. Again, I questioned Trish and she said she didn’t know why they were here on a Friday afternoon.

It was about 3pm when Trish gave me a message that I was wanted upstairs in the boardroom. I’d been at the bank for nine plus months and I couldn’t remember seeing a group a Trustees there on any day but a Wednesday. That’s what I was mulling over as I climbed the stairs and with no thought of getting a peek of Pauline’s panties. I was quite nervous when I walked into the board room. There were four Trustees plus Bert, the president and Hobie. I knew two of them as store owners in town and I also knew that one of the other two owned and ran a farm equipment sales and repair company. I wasn’t sure of the fourth. Bert asked me about the trouble I’d experienced during the week in filling the job opening. I told them basically what I’ve previously written about it. One of the store owners then made a comment that told me he wasn’t buying what I’d tried to explain. The six of them had a somewhat heated conversation that was going nowhere fast. The three who owned businesses were dead set against doing an adjustment for the existing employees. Finally, the Trustee I didn’t know asked the others to let me have a chance to speak and then told me to explain about the reason for Willa’s resignation. When the store owners tried to interrupt he, thankfully, shut them up. When I was finished I was excused. On the way back downstairs I didn’t know if I’d created a bigger problem than there already was.

Long story short, by the time they left it was decided that I would be given the responsibility to create an across the board adjustment for all the employees that was to be considered by the salary committee (the same group I been called in to see) and, if approved, be taken before the full board the following Wednesday at their regular monthly Board meeting. However, to do it I had to be given all the employee salary information. As Hobie unlocked the files with that information I couldn’t tell if he was upset or not. When he handed it to me all he said was ”Do a good job!”

On the one hand I was excited but when the reality came to me that the only way I was going to have it all done by Wednesday was to spend the weekend on it. I had a hundred and one things to do on and about the house scheduled with Elle and I knew she wasn’t going to be happy. On the other hand, if I did a good job and the Board accepted my work there would be a lot of happy employees. Driving home I decided it would be worth it to put up with Elle's complaining.

To be continued...