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An hour in the life of a bank branch manager

N.S. Vageesh

THE job of a bank branch manager must qualify for among the most stressful in the world, perhaps next only to that of air traffic controllers. The work load is prodigious, despite computerisation, and the demands on time punishing. Decisions have to be made every minute and some of them tricky ones.

Man management skills and diplomacy come into play every hour. Dealing with the new generation irate, unreasonable and demanding customer is par for the course. Assuaging the hurt feelings of the young and sensitive staff who bear the brunt of customer o nslaught is also top priority in the job. And late hours are the norm.

Go to any bank branch manager in the morning - and it will be a miracle if you can chat with him without interruption for more than 3 minutes. Even as I walked in to meet one of the tribe, (without prior appointment) he was on the phone handling a custom er. He gestured me to take a seat while he completed his phone call. We got introduced after 5 minutes and our conversation continued in a staccato vein for about an hour punctuated with a dozen breaks. One felt like a television panel expert cut in full flow by irritating ``commercial breaks''.

First came a customer who wanted to know details about the mutual fund which the parent organisation has launched. The manager gave the contact numbers of the concerned official to him. Then, an assistant, walked in, requesting for special approval for a customer who wanted to draw more money than the normally allowed sum. The manager signs the authorisation slip and turns to you once again.

He had barely talked for a minute before in came another customer with a complaint that the ATM was not working. The customer, full of righteous wrath, launches into a tirade and claims that he had switched from a foreign bank expecting better service. T he manager immediately switches on to damage control mode and handles an explosive situation without losing his cool.

He takes him aside gently, hears him out and explains what the problem with the ATM is, and what alternative arrangements have been made.

Within a minute of pacifying the customer, and resuming the conversation, in comes a staff member asking for instructions on how to handle a problem concerning renewal of a fixed deposit. Meanwhile, the phone rings and a customer wants to find out his ba nk balance. He is asked to contact the bank's call centre for the purpose.

Another gentleman, drops by, asking that he be allowed to have his NRI son's bank balance so that he may issue a cheque to someone. When the manager demurs, the gentleman pleads that he has the bonafides and that he holds a FD of Rs 2 lakh with the branc h. The manager makes a quick decision, calls an assistant to give the detail but instructs the customer to get a mandate for that purpose in future.

Soon after despatching him, in walks an assistant with a sheaf of papers requiring the manager's signature. Before he is through with this, there is a short conference with another assistant to review the performance and the achievement of the branch vi s-a-vis the monthly targets. Meanwhile, the phone rings again... and more visitors...

By this time I feel thoroughly guilty of intruding into his time and excuse myself after enquiring if he would be free for about twenty minutes in the evening. He agrees and I return at 7.00 p.m. Our twenty minutes stretches to over an hour - thanks to i nterruptions, although fewer and not as chaotic or in the overwhelming manner seen in the morning.

Hunger and the chill blast of the whirring air conditioner ensure that I don't exploit his time beyond 8.30 p.m. I bid good night and am let out of the bank by a security guard who lifts the shutters for me. As I walk out, I can see a few staff members w inding up and waiting to have a word with their manager. And he has a forbidding pile of official papers on his desk. Looks like it will be a long night.