FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Gina (Part 144e)

FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Gina (cont.) (Part 144e)

Before I made the announcement to the employees I took Gina aside to make sure we were both on the same page as far as her reason(s) for leaving was concerned. She had it all rehearsed and it fit nicely with what I was preparing to tell Hobie. Basically, it was, for her, a promotion, more money and closer to her home. In the back of my mind I made a note to call the guy at her new bank that I had steered her to to make sure that should any of their officers get together with any of ours that my involvement wasn’t mentioned. He assured me that only he knew and it would remain that way.

The bigger problem facing me was that I had to hire another teller. When the plan for Gina’s leaving was hatched I had Peggy waiting as her replacement. But Peggy was now there and in training as a replacement for Jacqui. The year end was shaping up to be a real problem what with the specter of two inexperienced tellers and the conversion of all the deposit data to be entered. When I told Trish about Gina she, without waiting to be told, pulled out the applications and immediately went to perusing it. I was a bit surprised but not totally so. Quietly, she’d been assuming more and more of what I called the “nuisance things” having to do with personnel. One of them was in doing a cursory interview when someone would just walk in to fill out an application.

The reaction from the other tellers was mixed. Janet, the teller who worked next to Gina and who was being trained by her, was the most upset. As I’d written before, Gina was not ‘social’ because of having to care for her daughter so never really got ‘close’ to many of her co-workers. A few made note that because she was good with customers they’d miss her. When it came time to inform Hobie I had mixed feelings. Originally, before he made the comment to me about Lorie possibly not being right for the Chief Clerk job, I’d planed on letting him know that she was leaving because of him and how he’d treated her. But now... I didn’t know. I didn’t want to wait too long where he’d hear the news from someone else so when he got up from his desk to go get coffee I sort of mumbled to him that she was leaving as he passed by. He stopped and turned to look at me with a puzzled look. I remember him saying but one word... Gina? I nodded affirmatively and then looked over at the phone as if I had to make an important call. The next thing I knew he was sitting in the side chair.

I gave him my prepared spiel. He didn’t stay for long and went straight to Gina’s window. This was sort of surprising because it had been my observation that since Gina was hired he’d gone out of his way to avoid going there. I made a point of watching their exchange of words and he stayed for almost five minutes. I couldn’t imagine what he’d have to say after avoiding her all this time. When he continued on to the coffee break room I went to ask Gina what he’d said. I swear she was doing everything in her power to keep from laughing when she said that he wanted to know if her decision to leave was final or was there any chance to change her mind. Gina was well aware of his resistance to her right from when she was hired right through to when I’d proposed her for the new position. I didn’t want to make a scene and told her I’d catch up with her later. She nodded with a smile. I had a decision to make before then and that was should I tell her of his somewhat change of heart or not. By lunchtime I decided that I wouldn’t mention it even though it guaranteed that I’d be going into the conversion without one of the most qualified employees I had. Once I made the decision I was confident that it was the best one. I waited until she was about to leave for the day because I didn’t want it to take too long. All I asked was if she had any doubts about the move and when she gave me her very short and emphatic answer of “No” I knew the matter was over and it was time to move on.

The next morning there was an application for teller waiting on my desk. Trish had gone through the folder and found one she thought was worth interviewing. There was a note attached telling me she’d be in around 11am. The girl’s name was Alice and she was from a well established local family. I was impressed with her right from the time she opened her mouth. She wasn’t especially pretty but when she smiled she was definitely cute. My only concern was that she’d started college in September but had returned home. When queried about it she explained that she’d been homesick so I let it pass. I told her she was hired and would start the following Monday. As she walked through the gate to leave I began to worry about who would be the one to train her.

Things slowed down the following week and Gina was able to get back to the name and address project and training the rest of our remaining tellers on the new teller machines. The only one who had a problem was the very one I’d expected it to be... Letitia, the head teller (in name only). True to form, she resisted change. I’ve sung Gina’s praises before but where she really earned kudos was in her handling of Letitia. If she’d told Gina once that she’d never “get it” she told her a dozen times, But Gina never gave up spending twice as much time with her as she did with any of the others. Gina was even able to spend time with Peggy and the other new teller, Alice, before her last day. I didn’t hover over the project but watched from a distance with Bret being the one to work with Gina when she needed direction. That, of course, pleased him.

I’d had thoughts of having one last meeting with Gina before she left but hadn’t done anything to make it a reality. Even now I don’t know why. Her last official day was December 1st and as it approached I was struggling with Peggy and how slow she’d been to absorb the nuances of teller work. Alice, on the other hand, had grasped the basics quite well. Gina hadn’t gotten as far with getting the name and addresses entered as she’d hoped through no fault of her own and had come to ask me if she could just do data entry on her last two days. I admired her resolve but made a decision to have her spend that time with Peggy and on helping her on being comfortable as a teller. When I was telling her this she interrupted me to ask if there was a possibility for us to talk one last time before she was gone. I wasn’t prepared for her to be the one to bring it up but I didn’t take long to answer affirmatively. The question, at least for me, was when and where.

To be continued...