ANOTHER YEAR... new adventures (Part 151k)
With the ‘busy period’
over lobby traffic had returned to normal. Bret and I were able to get
together Friday to assess the performance of the tellers over the
previous two weeks and were generally pleased. I’d been impressed with
Lorie. With absolutely no preparation and no teller experience she’d
done an admirable job of overseeing the tellers during the whole time. I
was surprised... but still wished that it had been Gina in the
position. I made a mental note to call to her new bank to see how she
was doing. While Bret and I were talking I reminded him that there was a
good chance that Janet would be leaving before the next busy period,
Her husband, a pilot stationed at the Air Force base just down the road,
was only there on a temporary basis. I’d hired her knowing that and, in
spite of some minor personality problems, had been pleased with her
performance. During the ‘busy period, I’d used Jaz as a runner at the
drive up window. Technically, she should’ve been let go when we
converted to the service bureau but I convinced Hobie to keep her on
until we were comfortable that there were no problems. I threw the idea
of training her as a teller to Bret, mentioning the potential loss of
Janet. He liked the idea but didn’t think Hobie would go for it. I told
him that the worst case was he’d say ”No“. Bret also brought up the fact
that customer complaints about the new system had dropped off. I told
him that I thought that they’d soon see how much faster making deposits
had become. As I was talking I was watching Cara, in the nearest teller
window, take a deposit, put the passbook into the machine and then hand
it back to the depositor in less than a minute. It was then that I
wished that we’d timed a deposit before the change.
It was about
2pm when I saw a courier come across the lobby floor. He went to Trish
and asked for where he could find the president of the bank. She
directed him to the elevator and then turned to me and said she thought
he had the retirement statements for us. I’d been wondering just when
the material would get there. I’d been excited all day. The night before
I got out some of my old pay stubs and tried to figure out how much I’d
paid in. My guess was around $500 but I’d been told when I switched
banks that what I’d paid in by the other bank would be carried forward. I
had no idea what that amount might be so, all in all I knew I’d be in
for a surprise.
It was Lena, the president’s secretary, who
handed the envelopes out. I took a deep breath as I tore the envelope
open. The amount was over $600. I know it was wishful thinking but I
hoped that it was more. My thoughts quickly switched to where Elle and I
could go on that amount of money to celebrate our anniversary. I had
disciplined myself to not do much in the way of searching places to go
but now I could. One of the bank’s customers owned a travel bureau and
my plan was to stop on my way home.
Mrs. B had a good reputation
and I’d hinted to her that I might be interested on taking a trip the
last time she’d been at the bank. I gave her a call to see how late
she’d be at her office. Initially, she said she’d be leaving at 5pm but
asked why I wanted to know. I explained and she, willingly, agreed to
stay and to meet with me. Long story short, I told her how much money I
had to spend and she said she’d come up with some package deals that
might be of interest. I left highly excited but under enough control not
to give any hints to Elle. It was hard. At home, Elle asked me why I
was in such a good mood. I put her off by saying that it was due to the
fact that the ‘busy period’ was over and things would slow down at work
for awhile. There’s no memory of anything of significance for the rest
of the weekend.
The next week at work was when the regular Board
of Trustees was to meet. With so much happening at the special meeting I
wondered why they were even having it. I asked Hobie about it and he
seemed a little short with his answer. I knew well enough not to press
him on it. When Trish was typing up the agenda I made a point of trying
to get a peek at it. The only thing I could see that caught my interest
was the item ”Nominating Committee“. As far as I knew the only time they
would be on the agenda was when there was someone being made an officer
or for an officer being promoted to a higher position. I went through
the roster of employees and couldn’t imagine anyone fitting either
category. All I could do was wait until after the meeting.
I made
a point of watching the Trustees as they arrived. I knew who was on the
nominating committee and wondered why I didn’t see any of them
entering. It was about fifteen minutes later when I saw them walking
across the lobby floor. What made it interesting was that they were
escorting someone who I’d never seen before. I was confused but not
concerned. It was about a half hour later when I saw the man being
escorted to the rear door by the chairman of the nominating committee. I
began to wonder if one of the Board had decided to retire and this man
was his replacement. I knew they had talked about finding representation
from the area where the new branch would be built and figured that was
the answer.
As usual, I waited for Hobie to go over the
meeting with him. However, Hobie, quite uncharacteristically, told me he
had to leave right away and , basically, walked away from me. That
bothered me... a lot.
To be continued...
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