A new challenge

[Tink]

My manager, who has been my constant side-kick at the bank, is starting his paternity leave now. He had to leave work yesterday to take his wife to the hospital, and won't return until after Christmas. I will now be working with a new teller, and a manager or teller supervisor borrowed from a nearby branch to fill in for Andrew. I worked a couple of days with the "borrowed" manager and was truly
uncomfortable in the fact that she didn't know the routine or many of the opening and closing processes. I cringe to see what Andrew will think when he returns. LOL

The teller sup used to work in our branch, so she at least knows what's supposed to go on. Here's hoping she's with us most of the time!

[DianaB]

Maybe you can gently let them know how the routine goes. Hopefully it will work out. I really don't know what to tell you. I guess, Good Luck! Keep us posted!!!

[Tink]

Thanks Diana!

I've learned that the 2 women are going to be alternating days with us, so they'll both have quite a bit of time in our branch. I feel confident that the teller sup knows the ropes and is capable of keeping things on track. The manager is a whole different story. I'm told she's a good manager, but she simply doesn't know a lot of what we need for her to be in charge of! On the days she works, we're running behind and struggling to get out of there at the end of the day. She is also allowing what I think are bad habits in our new teller, who is supposed to be taking her orders from me. It's hard to stand my ground when I ask her to do something that I know needs to be done in a certain way (according to the specifications of our original manager) and this substitute manager lets her sluff off or teaches her ways to make it appear that she's taken tutorials and such that she hasn't. They actually laugh about outsmarting the system!

I worry that this is going to end badly. Not only am I losing authority since the manager is also MY superior, but I know when Andrew comes back and expects that things have been done right, he's going to question WHY they weren't! SO I end up looking like the anal retentive one for wanting to do things right and being told repeatedly to "relax and just do only what's necessary" by the sub.

I've already seen the sub manager make several mistakes that even I, after limited experience, knew were wrong... and when I've tried to question her, she gets upset and calls her usual crew only to find out that she SHOULD have done things differently, at which time I get to correct it! She doesn't take responsiblity for her own mistakes, but twists it to look like it was someone else; and takes credit for other sucesses unfairly.

It's bad enough that she's a PITA to work with, but it really bites that she's also teaching the new teller to do things wrong. I seriously don't know what to do.

Going to HER boss isn't really an option, because she has him in her palm. She flirts and he responds with the same.

I'm glad it's only for 3 more weeks that I have to work under these conditions, but I worry about the long term affect it's going to have on my working relationship with our new teller.

The district manager is pleased enough with my performance now that he's going to apply for me to be granted bonuses based on my sales like the assistant managers get. I am expected to make sales calls like they do because our branch is so small that we can't really justify having a teller supervisor AND an assistant manager, so I fill both roles. I'm content with my title because it means I'm paid hourly rather than by salary, and that seriously is sometimes more than the salary would be anyway! Because I'm hourly, they rarely want to allow me overtime which is fine by me! If I were salaried I'd be working longer hours for sure.

The experienced assistant managers and personal bankers are expeted to make 3 appointments during our after-hours call night. Since I am now accomplishing that, I've supposedly earned this bonus program IF I were a Personal banker or assistant manager.

Now isn't a time when I want to be rocking the boat! Arggggggggg I don't know what to do!

[RLC12345678]

Maybe you can just let the manager know that you are available and willing to help her if she needs any help with the running of the branch since you know the routine, ect. Then, you'll get on her good side (and she'll probably compliment you when talking to Andrew) and you'll also probably get the routine back on track.

[DianaB]

You may have to just try and get along with your sub for now and explain things to your real manager when he returns so he'll know that the other girl hasn't been trained properly. Or maybe you can talk to the new girl and explain that she isn't being trained right and that she should probably consult with you if she has any questions. Tell her that there's no sense in having to be trained twice for the same job. Tough decisions. I hope that everything works out.

[Tink]

I worked the first couple of hours today alone with the teller supervisor from the other branch. She's very good at her job and she normally works with the manager I'm having trouble with. So I decided to try to ask her for some ideas on what I can do to make things go better. She listened nicely then told me that the manager is HER boss, so there's just really nothing she can tell me. The way she said it led me to believe she understood what I was saying and she didn't disagree at all, but she wasn't able or willing to put her neck out any to help either.

After, I was glad I hadn't gone too in depth about my concerns. I don't want to start a turf war, I just want to be able to do my job decently so I can stay with it indefinitely.

Oh well, I tried. I guess I will just have to try to be patient and wait it out.