APRIL... More of the same (Part 128f)

APRIL... More of the same (Part 128f)

There were more than a few raised eyebrows after Trish took Gina around to introduce her. I think the funniest thing was in watching some of the people from the mortgage department come down the stairs to try and take a peek of her and then to retreat back up the stairs. Actually, I was surprised it took J J so long to make it back down as he didn’t show up until mid morning. I’d put Leticia, the so called head teller, in charge of teaching Gina the terminal digit numbering system we used for filing the ledger cards. It was the only aspect of her job that she needed any training. They were not in sight when J J appeared so he headed for my desk. I didn’t have time for him but he insisted that I give him her background. Annoyed, I asked him why and he just gave me a leering smile back. The term “lecherous” comes to mind.

By lunchtime, Trish had processed all the paperwork for Gina and was familiar with her employment history. When she brought them over she, quite astutely, noted not only the break in employment but the fact that she’d be making less money with the bank than with the County. I decided to take her aside and asked her not to make it an “issue” and that, when the time came, I’d fill her in. She was somewhat disappointed but when I told her “I promise” she agreed. It left me wondering if I was going to be in for trouble in the future.

Gina had her own cash drawer and was waiting on customers on Friday. Her way with customers, men and women, was equal to or better than Donna’s and I noted a few walking away from her window with smiles. Her acceptance by the other tellers was not the same. I was sure it was her good looks that had them somewhat intimidated. However, she brushed it aside and made a conscious effort to be cordial to them. I’d placed her between Letitia and Jerena, the two polar opposites in both age and speed, hoping that in time she’d be a middle of the range choice for the depositors.

By Friday night J J had made at least a half dozen trips to the lobby and managed to get to Gina’s window a few times. Bret had picked up on that as well and I found it amusing being that Bret had made the phone call to me the previous weekend about her. He’d been “reserved“ in his dealings with her and I was a bit surprised. However, I did catch him sitting at his desk staring at her a few times.

Another amusing thing that happened that week was that on Wednesday, the first day Donna was upstairs, Laura wore her blue velour pants suit for the first time. It didn’t take me long to spy the VPL that I’d hoped would be forthcoming. Even though she had her jacket on it didn’t cover her backside when she bent over to get a file from a cabinet. The unique diamond shape of the SanSoucie panty crotch stood out prominently. Even though I’d yet to see any money for my ”investment“, I’d just gotten my first ”dividend“.

The week after the ”busy period“ was usually very slow as far as lobby traffic was concerned. I tried to take advantage of it advantage of it by getting a head start on what I’d overheard would be coming up for the next ”busy period“... a new account campaign featuring free gifts. The ”damage“ that the new bank to the West had done as far as net withdrawals (about 7%) had woken not only management up but also the Trustees. As previously mentioned, a number of new committees had been formed to combat the ”attack“. Among them were the branch committee (to find out what needed to be done to get State Banking Department approval); the acquisition committee (to find property for a branch); the service bureau committee (to determine what service bureau should do our depositor accounting when we had a branch {but was needed immediately}; and a ”gift“ committee (to choose gifts to provide to customers for a new account campaign during the next ”busy period“). I had nothing to do with the first two committees but was very involved with the other two. It annoyed me to no end that I was doing all the ”leg work“ and they’d get all the credit when the full Board made their ultimate decision.

I spent most of my time trying to track down companies that dealt in what the banking trade called ”premiums“ or gifts as far as the rest of the world was concerned. By Friday night I’d assimilated a list to present to the ”gift“ committee at their next meeting scheduled for the following Wednesday prior to the regular mortgage committee meeting. I quickly found out there was a lot to the process. I was wrapping it all up when Gina stopped by my desk on her way home. She wanted to thank me for not making her too uncomfortable about her ”situation“, as she called it. By then I’d pretty much forgotten about it so I think I just smiled back at her. Then, changing the subject, she caught me by surprise and asked about the dress code.

She’d worn somewhat tight fitting skirts that fell just above her knees for each of the days she’d been at the bank which, compared to some, was conservative. Whenever I’d thought of it I’d checked on just how tight they’d been, looking for a possible VPL, but hadn’t noticed any. After she’d asked the question I realized I hadn’t touched on the code with her. Her question was a bit unexpected and she asked if we had a limit on the length of skirts. As I said, I wasn't expecting the question and took it the wrong way. I’m shaking my head as I write this to think I’d been so ”thick“. I thought she meant the long way, from waist to the ground. She laughed, heartedly, at my answer and then quickly apologized. I apologized too... for being so out of it. Then she wanted to know how short could she go and noted the shortness of Jerena’s skirt. I don’t remember what I answered probably because I was somewhat conflicted with the issue. On the one hand I knew what the attorney Board member had stated in that if the bank set limits we could be subject to law suits. On the other hand I knew that the majority of the Board was conservative and didn’t like mini skirts, at least for the employees. I tried to end the conversation by telling her that pants suits had just been approved. She said she didn’t own any and gave me a look that I took to mean ”help me out here“. I closed it off by getting up from my desk and asking her to try and be ”reasonable“ with her choices. (That was the bank officer speaking but the ”inner me“ was thinking ”Go for it!, Gina, Go for it!“.)

To be continued...