FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Peggy (Part 146c)

FINISHING OUT THE YEAR... Peggy (Part 146c)

Normally I wouldn’t discuss work problems with Elle. However, because Peggy had been a part of our lives and I knew Elle liked her as much as I did I decided to share her work problem with her. Over time, I’d made the discovery that verbalizing a problem was a good way to solve it. In trying to explain to Elle what I’ve tried to explain above I ended up giving myself a lead to a possible solution. It came to me that Peggy was performing all the other duties of a teller in a satisfactory manner. Since she was only having problems with doing her day ending “proof” I wondered if it was possible that she was putting too much pressure on herself in performing that exercise. With that thought in mind I came up with the idea to change her position.

I did something else I didn’t normally do... and that was to call Bret. I strongly believed that once an employee left the work place they should be left alone to live their personal lives. However, I needed to run my idea by him before talking with Peggy and that was going to be at 8:30am the next morning. It wasn’t too late when I made the call, probably around 9pm. All I asked of him was to be at the bank at 8:15am. Of course he wanted to know why but I didn’t want to go into it over the phone. He said that wasn’t fair... but said he’d be there.

Mike, the new messenger custodian, wasn’t there yet to let us in. We had our own keys so that wasn’t a problem. Even though I was going to talk with Peggy upstairs in the Board room I chose to get right to the subject with Bret just inside the door. I started by asking him what was the one thing that made the tellers really mad. I was sure I knew but I wanted his confirmation. OK... I have to give some background here...

During WWII the government, in an effort to get everybody involved with the war effort, started a program in the schools where kids would bring in their nickels and dimes to buy Victory Stamps. They would then paste them into a pamphlet and when it was full they’d get a Victory Bond (like a Series E Bond). When the war was over the program ended but some banks decided to keep the concept going and called it School Savings... and this bank was one of them. Right from the day I started there I hated it. I did a cost study on it and determined that the bank didn’t bring in enough in the way of deposits to warrant the amount of money we spent. However, some of the Trustees felt it was a valid way to start kids into saving and wouldn’t consider eliminating it. On Tuesdays the messenger custodian would pick the deposits up from the three schools who were participating. At the bank they would then be given to one teller to process. She, having to deal with all the coins complained and somewhere along the line it was decided that a different teller each week would have to handle it. That’s what I inherited when I joined the bank.

Bret didn’t hesitate in stating “School Savings!” I then asked him if he had any ideas on what to do with Peggy and he just shook his head from side to side so I told him I wanted to put her in charge of the school savings program. I thought he was going to choke. He basically told me I was out of my mind. Then I told him I was going to make her the permanent relief teller for the drive-up window. I remember him starting to laugh. But, there was a method to my madness.

Once all the deposit records were converted to be processed by the service bureau Jaz would be out of her job. She was the "runner" for customer activity at the drive-up when Lillian was at lunch or on her break. My idea was for Peggy, already trained as a teller, to fill in for Lillian without the "running" to the lobby tellers to process the transactions. It was almost 8:30am by then and Bret wasn’t fully buying into my idea and Peggy was due to show up. To make him feel better I told him that I hadn’t yet offered it to Peggy. He still wasn’t convinced.

I didn’t want the others seeing me talking with Peggy so headed up to the Board room after telling Mike to send her up the back stairs when she arrived. It always seemed intimidating to walk into that room. Long and narrow with this huge semi-oval solid oak table right in the center. The chairs were massive. They were leather covered and swiveled. They had special wheels that allowed them to be moved easily over the carpet. Whenever I sat in one I had this feeling of power.

I’d been waiting for about 10 minutes and was getting worried when in she walked. As soon as I saw her I was concerned. Her eyes were red and puffy. I absolutely hated crying females and my first thought was that she was going to start. She stopped in the doorway and I encouraged her to come in and told her to shut the door. The second floor ladies room was right outside and I expected that it would soon get some use. I pointed towards one of the chairs and started to sit down myself. Then I heard “I can’t” in just a bit louder than a whisper. Before I could say anything I heard her say, still in the soft whisper mode, “I can’t do this anymore.” I can tell you this... It caught me completely by surprise. I immediately stood up. She was staring down into the chair. I was at a loss for words especially since I’d just come up with what I felt was a solution for her. I remember her mumbling some sort of apology and then finally I said “”Why?“

As soon as I said it I was sure the tears would start... but I was wrong. She was obviously distraught and the words she was speaking were sort of running together and unintelligible. I had to get her to slow down so I, again, pointed to the chair next to me. She stood there just shaking her head from side to side. I’ll admit that I was getting impatient by then. I don’t remember exactly what I said but I know it had to have been firm. I can’t say that I ordered her to sit but it was close.

After she did I tried, again, to get her to tell me what was on her mind even though I knew I risked tears. I clearly remember her taking couple of deep breaths before she started. To summarize it; causing a problem for the other girls bothered her... a lot... and as the time for doing the day ending ‘proof’ approached she would ”work herself up“. Then, if the debits and credits didn’t equal, she’d have what she called a ”crisis“. I waited for her to explain just what she meant and she just sat there looking at her hands.

To be continued...