A LOT OF WORK... a little play (Part 158a)

A LOT OF WORK… a little play (Part 158a)

My meeting with Hobie (Bert chose not to join in) about the pending legislation went as well as could be expected. I’m not one who would be called a pessimist or an optimist, preferring the mantle of pragmatist. So, when Hobie asked about costs for implementation I couldn’t give him an answer… and he didn’t like that. He’d thought that was information we’d be given at the conference. When it came to reporting on my meeting with the premium/gift distributor, I knew if I told him the projected cost he’d hit the ceiling. So, I told him I needed to have the premiums/gifts in hand and they would be delivered the next day. That brought forth another frown. I’d been at the bank long enough to get to know Hobie’s traits and when he got into this mood it usually meant trouble. At that point, clearly showing frustration with me, he told me to get with Gerry and work up a list of all the supplies he’d need for the new branch. To me, that was punishment. Hobie knew my feelings about Gerry and to assign me a task like that was a slap in the face.

Back at my desk, Bret came over to me to say the telephone company had come to look at the PBX switchboard. I could tell from the way he approached that the news wasn’t good. The problem was caused by wear and tear and with the equipment being 30 plus years old, they didn’t have replacements for it. In fact, Bret told me that the guy who came to look at it was the only one left at the phone company who knew anything about them. Basically, we needed a whole new system. More bad news!

A call went in to Albie at the service bureau to tell him to activate our order for the teller machines for the branch. His secretary took the message and told me he’d call back. I spent the next bit of time rummaging through the mail stacked on my desk putting off meeting with Gerry. I finally sat down at his desk and asked if he’d thought about the everyday supplies the branch would need. I can still remember the blank stare I got as an answer. Pressing him, I asked how his prior employer handled setting up new branches. Again, a blank stare. I finally got him to say he’d never been a party to the opening of a new branch. By then I was determined that I wasn’t going to lead him around I told him he needed to find every form that we at the main office used and to make up a folio of them. His response… “Why can’t Trish do that?”, like it was beneath him to do such a task. Believe me when I say it took every bit of restraint I had not to scream at him “Because I told you to do it!” As you can see, the morning did not get off to a good start.

By mid afternoon I’d made an appointment with a sales rep from the telephone company about replacing the PBX switchboard. But I also made a few calls to friends I’d made at local banks to see what they were using for phone equipment. One of the calls was to the bank that Gina had gone to work for. I was tempted to ask about her but at the last second stayed on topic… telephone systems. I didn’t realize it at the time but the call ended up being pivotal in the eventual decision. I was advised to go to an outside manufacturer. I stored that away for future reference.

As far as the teller line was concerned, from a personnel standpoint everything was running smoothly, especially when it came to Lorie. She’d taken to the supervisory part and was quickly grasping all the nuances of the banking regulations. The only problem in the whole area was the intermittent loss of communication with the data center. It annoyed both the tellers and the customers. Still awaiting Albie’s return phone call I decided to make that an ‘issue’ when I talked with him.

I’d only been physically in the building four days over the past two weeks. It felt like I’d been away for a month. I’d hired a new switchboard operator, Mary Carol, right before leaving on vacation and I felt I should follow up with her, especially with the switchboard acting up. One of my favorite things to do when Netta was the operator was to climb the stairs hoping to find her in a ‘compromising’ position. Being that Netta was fairly good looking, it was always a thrill to catch her with her legs spread apart. However, Mary Carol wasn’t all that attractive and was a bit overweight. On my trip up the stairs I found exactly what I would’ve hoped for when Netta was there… knees spread apart... but thighs heavy enough to block the ‘view’.

Albie finally returned my call just as I was about to leave for the day. When I told him to go ahead and place the order for the two teller machines I could hear the change in the tone of his voice. He'd always been 'straight' with me as far as handling problems but I had a bad feeling when he told me that the machine manufacturer was behind on deliveries. It had been the same story back before we made the conversion in December and it seemed strange that nothing had changed in four months. Having not had a good day I 'exploded' on him telling him  that he better come up with two machines by mid June. I didn't have the authority to issue an "or else" or I would've. Not satisfied to end the conversation there I brought up the continuing dropped connections. On this topic I did have some leverage as I had friends at a bank the service center was trying to bring on board as a customer for data services. I closed the call on a very 'cold' note telling him to come up with a solution to the problem by the end of May.

To be continued…