LIFE GOES ON… and on… (Part 171 k)
Bret had an idea of where I’d
been, and why, and he was waiting to find out how it had gone. I was
still ’up-tight’ when I got to my desk. The main thing on my mind was to
not let any of what had transpired in the Board room get out. I liked
and trusted Bret and it was really hard not to tell him but I just
couldn’t. The best I could do was to say the situation hadn’t been fully
resolved but it was “in the works”. He was disappointed and I could
tell he was a bit upset with me. He went back to his desk and I just sat
there staring at the teller line trying to assimilate what had just
transpired. While doing that I spied Mae bustling about even though the
lobby wasn’t that busy. It seemed like it was impossible for her to slow
down, mind and body. That got me to thinking of how to approach getting
her a raise over and above what she would get in her annual review
without upsetting the very stable and mostly competent crew we had. When
she was headed out the door for her lunch she stopped by my desk and
asked if I’d gone to the cellar. I hadn’t any reason to go there and
asked her why. She came up with a weird smile and then said she hoped I
didn’t mind but she’d gone down the previous afternoon and, with Mike,
the messenger custodian, moved some things to a different place and had
all but cleared the first bin. I won’t say I was surprised but was a
little miffed that she’d done it. I remember thinking that she’d been
smart enough to have someone down there with her. When I told her I’d go
take a look and she disappeared from sight headed for the door.
Sure
enough, the two of them had shifted some things that needed to be gone
through so there was no reason not to start construction of shelves. I
was impressed… again. Walking through the work area it suddenly came to
me that Mae might be an answer to our branch problem. Jerry, when hired,
had it in mind that he’d have an assistant branch manager but didn’t
get one. He’d overstaffed the place and after I got involved had settled
on Betsy as the head teller. She was marginally capable of being second
in command and had reduced the staff to just three. One of those had
been Mae and, not to put Betsy down, Mae was actually smarter. However,
Betsy had experience that Mae didn’t have. When the main office came up
being short one teller and with no time to train one. I brought in Mae
and rehired one of the women I’d had to let go earlier to replace her at
the branch. Seeing how quickly Mae adapted herself to the hustle and
bustle of the main office I’d been trying to come up with a way to make
better use of her and now, just like they say, ‘a light bulb came on’.
My
grandfather was always spouting off cliches and one I’d heard many time
was “Two heads are better than one". One of the marginal items noted in
the branch audit was that although there was no rule against it, there
were times when both Jerry and Betsy were out of the office at the same
time. It just wasn’t good business practice. When Jerry was on vacation
I had Bret take over for him and, on occasion, I’d fill in as well.
With the results of the audit very fresh in my mind I came up with the
idea of returning Mae to the branch and to work out some sort of tandem
arrangement with Betsy where they would effectively share the duties of
an assistant branch manager. Trish had been promoted to a brand new
position… administrative assistant but there’d been no job description
created when that happened. We had a 'situation' and needed to do
something about it and we did. Trish got a nice ‘bump’ in pay but there
were no salary guidelines established. While sitting there mulling this
wild idea over I became even more convinced it would work. Since Jerry
had been lax in adhering to policies and procedures I’d assign them to
one of them. There were instances where Jerry had not kept up with
inventory and had ended up calling in a panic to send Mike with the
needed papers. Writing about it now it’s almost comical as to just how
inept Jerry was in all facets of the job. I started writing my thoughts
down and never even thought about lunch. All hand written on a yellow
legal pad, I ‘lay in wait’ for Hobie to return from his lunch.
Hobie
was a good boss… no if ands or buts about it. He would listen to my
ideas and often let me try them out but if they started to go off kilter
he was there to reel me back in to reality. However, this idea was a
little too much, at least at that moment. I’d not exposed him to Mae
enough for him to see just how good she was. I think he was a little
turned off by the fact that she was ‘a little rough around the edges’.
She didn’t dress as nicely as most of the others. I knew the reason why…
a semi dead-beat husband and trying to keep four kids clothed for
school were starters but I couldn’t use that as a selling point. The one
thing that I didn’t do, and was really proud of myself because of it,
was to argue with him. She was due for her annual salary review as her
one year anniversary was coming up in June. She’d only been at the main
office for but a few weeks but I knew that she’d really impressed Lorie
the chief clerk who oversaw the tellers. Hobie really liked Lorie and
would talk with her when passing through the work area. So, I let my
wild idea go at that time to wait for another opportunity… and started
planting the seeds for getting Mae some recognition with Lorie's help.
With my wild idea I’d envisioned Hobie proposing it that afternoon when
he was to meet with Bert to come up with a plan on how to corral Jerry.
But, it had been made clear that it wasn’t going to happen, at least on
that day, and so I set out with my own plan.
Later that
afternoon, Bobby, the kid who worked at the print shop where we had all
our printing done, popped in and handed me a small package. The print
shop always wrapped whatever it was they printed in brown Kraft paper
and would tape a copy of the contents on the outside. The package wasn’t
very big and, knowing I hadn’t ordered anything since before the ‘busy
period’, got up to go see just what it was. It was the coupons that
Cliff had ordered to be printed up for his restaurant that our race team
was supposed to hand out on race nights. I thought the idea had some
merit and the team was so desperate for money so I agreed to do it but
hadn’t yet gotten the money from Cliff. With the coupons in hand I
figured I’d stop on my way home.
I was down in the cellar looking
at what Mae and Mike had accomplished and starting to plan what I
wanted for shelves when I heard Joanie calling me. I was wanted in the
Board room. That was a complete shock, especially after hearing Hobie
shoot my idea of matching Mae and Betsy together. I made it up the steps
to the landing outside the Board room in record time… two at a time. I
stopped to take a deep breath before knocking on the door. Both Bert and
Hobie were talking when I walked in so I stopped. Bert saw me and waved
me over to where they were seated and, with a smile, told me to tell
him more about my idea for the two women at the branch.
To be continued…
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