FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Gina (Cont.) (Part 144b)

FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Gina (Cont.) (Part 144b)

While all of this was playing out Gina was continuing to post the names and addresses to the service bureau’s computer center. Cara, who’d been working with her, was only able to help on a part time basis because lobby traffic had increased and Jacqui, for the second day, hadn’t come in to work. It made the teller line especially short handed. I’d had the opportunity to look at Gina’s idea for a holding rack for the name and address plates and thought I could make a couple with scraps of wood I had at home. Gina had demonstrated just how much time could be saved by not having to hold a plate in her hand while typing the information into the system. It was about 20 to 25 seconds per plate and I figured that over the course of the project the gadget could save hours of time.

When Jacqui didn’t show up again the next day I asked Trish to call to see if she was OK. I was busy with a customer and when I was done she walked up to the front of my desk and said that Jacqui wasn’t coming in again... ever. Trish had talked with her mother and was told that Jacqui didn’t want to speak with anybody at the bank. I remember looking at Trish with a puzzled look. Jacqui was a fairly good teller and well liked by the customers. A quiet girl, she didn’t seem to have any close friends among the other employees. She’d gotten a slightly higher than average review and had never expressed any dissatisfaction with the bank. I was at a loss for any idea what had gone wrong.

Realizing that I now had a serious staffing problem facing me at a most critical time forced me to finally reach out to Peggy and to ask her to come in for the promised interview. I actually called her father, James, to find out where she was at the time. When I told why I was looking for her I could hear relief in his voice. I wasn’t sure why but he did say he’d have her get in touch with me. While waiting I brought Bret up to date on what was happening and watched Gina continue to plug away at doing the data entry.

I never got a call from Peggy. She just appeared at Trish’s desk. I was a bit taken aback by her appearance as she’d obviously lost more weight since I’d last seen her. By my estimation though, she still could stand to lose another 10 or so pounds. Only 19, she looked closer to 30. However, she looked more like the Peggy that had babysat for Elle and I a few years earlier. (Since I’ll be writing about her in the future I’ll make this part short.) I offered her a teller position which seemed to make her happy. She said she could start on Monday which was OK as it gave me some time to sort out just who would be going where after ‘the dust settled’ following Gina’s upcoming resignation.

Bret and I decided that Cara would be the one to train Peggy because she had the most experience. Actually, Gina was the best one to do training but I needed her on the name and address project full time. Bret pointed out that if we decided to put Peggy on the main teller line she’d be located right next to Cara who could ‘bail her out’ if need be. We were both aware that Lillian, the drive up teller, wanted to be out in the main teller line and that she might present a problem if she didn't get it. However, we didn’t have to decide on that for a few weeks.

It was Gina who came up to me and asked if there was any way possible to come in and work on election day, a bank holiday. I was shocked at the idea because a paid holiday was considered a treat by everyone from Bert (the president) on down. She had made some projections as to just how long it would take to get all the information into the system and, at the current rate, it would be into December (and after she'd gone). She explained that trying to do meaningful data entry while trying to teach made for slow progress. She said that if she could have seven to eight hours without interruption she’d get as much, or more, done than in a regular work week while doing training. I was impressed with her thinking but didn’t have an answer for her.

The only way it would be possible was for an officer of the bank to be there with her. Since she was in my section that would definitely mean me... if permission was given to even attempt it. I didn’t have any meaningful activity planned at home so decided to put the idea up to Hobie. I was surprised that he was accepting of it and more so when he suggested that Gina be credited with two additional days of vacation. It seemed obvious that his opinion of her had changed drastically, further confusing me. On my part, I wasn’t really enamored with the idea of giving up a day off and decided to pitch the idea of Bret splitting the time with me to him. He wasn’t receptive to it at all but, luckily, Hobie overheard our conversation and stepped in to say that if he did, we’d both get an extra day of vacation. I immediately liked that idea... work half a day to gain a whole day but It took Bret a few minutes to agree. When I told Gina she was all smiles.

With Cara having to train Peggy starting on Monday I felt that Gina should spend time on Friday training a different teller so that if we got lucky with slow lobby traffic the next week there would be two people posting names and addresses. Janet had worked out well as a teller in spite of her haughty attitude. With a college degree and being a few years older than most of the tellers she felt superior to them which had created some stress in the past. Her station was right next to Gina which turned out to be a good thing. Gina was older, had a child and had had to endure some stressful personal experiences so wouldn’t put up with some of the ‘games’ that Janet tried to play with some of the others. Janet was smart and a quick learner so she was my choice. Gina agreed with me which made it even better.

Even though Janet only got to spend about three hours in training on Friday Gina confided in me that she was already faster that Cara was. Even though Cara was smart and knew her job well she had, right from the time I started at the bank, resisted change. Anything new for Janet was good. I was happy to hear Gina’s assessment and when I did, took it to Janet and asked if there was any chance that she’d be willing to come in on Election day, even for part of the day. It wasn’t really a laugh that I got for my effort but it was close... a smile that read like ‘you’ve got to be kidding?’. You have to believe me when I say that I did make an honest effort.

To be continued...