MORE SUMMER HEAT... lots of it (Part 162o)

MORE SUMMER HEAT… lots of it (Part 162o)

The hardest part was in pinning Hobie down. As our immediate boss, for the idea to go forward it had to go through him. I was positive he’d go along with it. He’d hired Trish, Cara and Lorie all within a week of each other and had chosen Trish to be his secretary over the others. I knew, first hand, about his feeling towards Lorie since he chose her (with no teller experience) over Gina to fill the newly created position of Chief Clerk. But Trish was his clear cut favorite. By the time we were able to meet with him I’d decided to let Bret be the one to present the idea. I’d stepped the whole scene out anticipating what he’d throw back at us as negatives so was actually cocky when we sat down at his desk.

I would’ve started a bit differently but Bret managed to get all the important points across to him. When Bret was finished with his ‘pitch’ Hobie just sat back in his chair but didn’t look at either of us. After maybe a minute he, very slowly, asked who would fill her position as receptionist/secretary. Hearing these words I couldn’t help but smile as I said but one word… “Joanie”. He smiled too. If you’ve been reading this for any length of time you might remember it was Hobie who had arranged for Joanie to be interviewed by me. Her parents were friends with Hobie and his wife so it had been pretty much a set up. But, I was impressed by her right from the start. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a vacancy in the operations section of the bank. The only one was in the mortgage department and I really didn’t want to have her under J J’s control but that’s where she ended up. I’d managed to ‘borrow’ her when Trish had been on vacation but J J was really upset when I did it. So… when I spoke her name Hobie was right there with the next question… “Do you have someone to replace her?” I did… one of the kids that had been part of the new account/gift campaign. I’d made sure I had Trish put a note on her application because I felt she had potential. What was looming as the ‘fly in the ointment’ was J J… and I made sure I reminded Hobie of the fact. He was well aware of the ’noise’ he’d made when Joanie was working with the three of us. I hoped Hobie would volunteer to be the ‘go between’ and, after some questions concerning training, he said he’d talk with J J. Aside from that there were two open items that Hobie would have to have Board approval. Bret had indicated that Trish be given a totally new title… Administrative Assistant and Hobie liked it. It wasn’t an officer’s title but still was indicative of some authority. The second had to do with salary.

Right from when Trish and Lorie had started they pretty much had matching salaries until Lorie was promoted to Chief Clerk. I immediately spoke up and suggested that Trish get the same money as Lorie. Again, Hobie didn’t immediately react but eventually nodded his head in agreement. I was told to give him the salary history of both and Bret and I were dismissed at that point. As I walked away I looked back at him and made the point that in the hierarchy of positions within the bank it would make sense to have both titles at the same level. He didn’t say anything but a weak smile crossed his face. Now Bret and I had to wait for the ‘wheels’ to mull the idea over and to approve the title and salary increase. I knew it was going to be hard to keep it a secret from Trish.

There wasn’t much lobby traffic that day which gave me the opportunity to get caught up on some neglected projects. I called the branch to get the tally for the new accounts for the previous week and the numbers weren’t good. In spite of continuing the advertising of the gift campaign the results were very disappointing. Betsy said that they had less than a dozen customers walk into the bank that day with only three new accounts. My first thought went right to the staffing… five people to wait on but  ten or so customers. Not good!

When five o’clock came I saw J J walk across the lobby towards the door. I started smiling as soon as I saw him. I couldn’t wait until the news broke about the upcoming changes and to see (hear) his reaction to losing Joanie. It made me try to think of a way to accelerate the process. It would be almost five weeks until the next full Board meeting and that was a long time to keep a secret. From what I’d taken away from the meeting with Hobie the crucial decision about the whole thing had to come from the salary committee. “Gee”, the Trustee/attorney, was the chairman and I knew he was on the current month’s mortgage committee. That committee had seven members and four of them changed each month. All the other committees had five standing members appointed to fill a term of a year. I dug out my list of all committee members and checked to see who on the salary committee was on the mortgage committee for the month. I was surprised to find that, including “Gee”, four of them were on the current list. That gave me an idea to pursue with Hobie, given the chance.

The trip home was a quick one as I conjured up ways to approach Hobie about having “Gee” call a special salary committee meeting either before or after the mortgage committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss and possibly act on promoting Trish and adjusting her salary. In my mind, there would be four out of five members already there and they would constitute a quorum. Arriving home I was quite pleased with myself and couldn’t wait to approach Hobie with my idea.

I’d completely forgotten my own suggestion about a party for Barbara so when I walked into the kitchen it was me who was surprised. I’d gotten home before 6pm  and Barbara wasn’t yet there. In the back of my mind was how Barbara would take it what with the events of the previous day. Elle pretty much put my concerns to rest by saying that she and I would stay in the background and would let the kids ‘run the show’, at least in the beginning. Her reasoning being that the ‘incident’ was exclusive of the kids and that they and Barbara had a wonderful relationship for the whole time she’d lived next door. I hoped she was right.

From my sign painting I had a pile of scrap of poster board that Elle got out and had the kids make up signs. Elle had baked a cake and, knowing Barbara’s penchant for pink, had the kids decorate it with various shades of that color. I took a look at it and was pretty sure I’d take a ‘pass’ on eating it but was pleased with their effort. Elle was sure Barbara would be oblivious to anything but the kids efforts on her behalf. Now, all we had to do was to wait for her arrival. When 6:30pm came and went it became a concern. The kids had eaten earlier but Elle had waited for both Barbara and I to arrive before eating herself. She waited for a little longer and then the two of us sat down to eat. The kids were really ‘hyper’ wanting to know when Barbara would arrive. Elle tried to explain that Barbara didn’t know about the party and very probably something had come up to prevent her from coming. In watching their reaction to that suggestion I was sorry I’d even suggested the idea. Elle did her best to mitigate the disappointment by saying that Barbara would be there to sleep and that they could say up until she arrived. She didn’t.

To be continued…