The Life of a Bank Teller: Part 4....Being a Rover.

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AlexHiro4
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The Life of a Bank Teller: Part 4....Being a Rover.

Post by AlexHiro4 »

I know in my last three installments I've had a lot of complaints. All tellers experience these problems at some point in time. However, roving (or floating) tellers have it worse than anyone else. Just to refresh your memory, a roving teller is a someone that travels to different centers and fills in when other tellers are sick, on disability leave, or if there is an opening. Don't get me wrong, we deal with the same crap as other tellers. Things like rude customers, bad equipment, and dealing with bad coworkers are about the same for a rover or a normal teller. Things like asking for ID can be more of a pain seeing as how rovers aren't in the same place all the time and don't know all the customers. Aside from all the "normal" teller headaches that rovers experience we have a whole new set of problems to deal with day to day. Here are a few of them:

1) Inconsistancy in policy: As a company we are all supposed to be following the EXACT SAME set of guidelines. I can't tell you how much that's NOT the case. I was taught a set of rules and procedures when I was in training that I see broken at EVERY center EVERY day. It gets really confusing. There are a lot of policy-related things to remember as a teller, so putting them into practice is the best way to remember them. Unfortunately, if you are being shown the wrong things every day it's easy to develop bad habits without KNOWING they're bad habits. It's also a pain when an Operations manager tells you something that you know is incorrect. In the past when I've had this happen I would verify my suspicions with the regional trainer. The biggest problem is trying to do the RIGHT thing without pissing off your Op's manager. It's not like you can say "by the way, I called Mrs. ____ and asked her about ____ and I found out that you're wrong. It looks like you're questioning authority. No brownie points there. Of course, all of this could be fixed if every center followed THE EXACT SAME POLICY!

2) "You must be new.": I can't tell you how much I hate this. People say this to me in a few different situations:

a) Sometimes it's when I ask for ID. "You must be new, so I guess I can show you my ID". First of all I'm not new. I've worked for this company for a year. Just because you've never seen me before doesn't mean that I'm new. Does that mean that you're a new customer just because I've never seen you before? Secondly, don't act like you're doing me a favor by showing me your ID. You're doing what you're supposed to do.

b) Other times they say it in this context: "You must be new. They ALWAYS do this for me." This one goes back to the inconsistency in policies that I was talking about earlier. Every center has their special (I don't mean mentally retarded) customers that they "take care of". I understand that you have to bend the rules sometimes to accomodate customers, but some of the stuff I see is ridiculous. Not to mention, my fellow tellers should say something to me when special customers show up and let me know what rules are okay to "bend" for them. Needless to say, I get my superiors to put their initials on a lot of stuff, so that my butt doesn't end up in the frying pan. It's still irritating to have to break rules for certain customers though. It's even more irritating to be talked down to by those same customers ("you must be new....").

c) The first two instances are bad, but this one is the worst: "You must be new, you don't know what you're talking about". HECK NO! You did NOT just say that to me. Just because you've been banking here for 50 years doesn't mean that you know more about MY JOB than I do. I was TRAINED for this stuff. And no....I'm NOT new!

3) Not having a home: When you work 40 hours or more every week your job usually becomes your second home. As a rover that never really becomes the case since you go to a new branch ever couple of weeks. There's no stability. You don't really get to establish as strong of a bond with your coworkers as a normal teller. Don't misunderstand me, I've made friends at work. They've just not been as close to me as friends I've made at other jobs. Also, any time that there's a company get-together I always feel somewhat out of place. Sure, I know a lot of people fairly well, but I don't know anyone really well. It kind of sucks not to have a particular "crowd" to go hang out with at company functions. Another thing that kind of sucks about not having a home is further training. Op's managers are REALLY busy. Why would they want to take the time to give some pointers to a teller that doesn't belong to their center? Because of this, rovers generally have to learn a lot of stuff on their own. It's not horrible, but it's a lot more difficult than it has to be.

4) Sales referrals are more difficult: I've always prided myself as being a good salesman. I still am, but I have a more difficult time in this "mobile" environment. Part of doing well with sales is building a relationship with customers and building up a clientele. It's kind of difficult to build up a clientele when you're at a different center every couple of weeks. This is another situation where a rover has to flat out work harder than a regular teller.

5) DRIVING: We all know gas prices SUCK right now. Driving to far off branches REALLY hurts my wallet. I will mention that there are a couple of branches really close to my house (one of them is 3 minutes away), but the majority of them are pretty far off for me. The company pays me an extra dollar an hour to try to compinsate for the amount of driving I do. Maybe about 2 years ago an extra dollar an hour would fully compensate for this. 2008? Absolutely not!

As you can see, not only is being a teller a pain in the butt...being a ROVING teller is a pain in the butt too. Meeting new people and going to different environments every week keeps the job fresh and a little more exciting, but that doesn't outweigh the daily headache of being a rover.

Anyway, these are just a few things that are day to day experiences....in the life of a roving bank teller. Thanks for reading!
Dwight: "One thing about deer, they have very good vision. One thing about me, I am better at hiding than they are...at vision."
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