Diamond Bank adopts new workings hours    E-mail
Written by vanguard   
Monday, 02 March 2009


In furtherance of its strategy of being “the employer of choice,”  Diamond Bank Plc recently reviewed its working hours, pegging all official works to close by 7pm to enable its staff join their respective families before night falls. According to sources, this policy christened “Operation Eat Dinner with Your Family” was put in place after a careful review of the prevailing working conditions of bankers in the country and in appreciation of the challenges faced by staff in striking a balance between the world of work and family. Recall cases of armed robbery attacks on workers on their way home at late hours and also broken marriages arising from psychological distance created between couples in the name of work.

It is a known norm that an  average Nigerian banker spends over 12 hours in the office such that most bank employees  appear as mere visitors in their various homes. A good number of them get to see their children on weekends because before the children wake up, they are in the office and due to late arrival from work, they meet their wards sleeping. In some instances, bankers’ children erroneously call their parents uncles and aunties.

Also because of the traffic situation in some cities, most workers resorted to leaving their homes very early having to close very late. It was so bad a situation that Diamond Bank decided to set the pace by embarking on this staff oriented exercise. Reacting to this life-saving initiative, one staff stated, “we have heaved  a sigh of relief since the inception of the new closing hours and our families are the direct beneficiaries.”

With this noble initiative by the Bank’s management, our source revealed that Diamond Bank’s “staff have learnt to work smart using official working hours to deliver on their assigned tasks and thereby justifying management interest in their welfare.



I'm guessing that we are supposed to praise Diamond Bank for this family friendly initiative. Next thing we'll probably hear is that they have won "Thisday Awards" for the most family friendly bank.
To Diamond bank staff, please what was the previous closing time?

7pm ?    What kind of job is that? Do the executives close at that time too or is it just the low-level staff?

I think they meant the last group of workers should leave by 7pm

so they don;t have an official closing time before?

This is rubbish! what kind of family friendly is that? If they are really doing family friendly, they should be closing by 5pm so that staff will get to their various families at least 6-6.30pm.
That's means they were closing too late like 8-9pm before. Please these banks should have sense and feel of human being jare. Somebody will resume office at 7am and closes at 7pm what kind of nonesense and rubbish is this? To hell with banking work. schuuuuuuuuuuuu

fesse:

This is rubbish! what kind of family friendly is that? If they are really doing family friendly, they should be closing by 5pm so that staff will get to their various families at least 6-6.30pm.
That's means they were closing too late like 8-9pm before. Please these banks should have sense and feel of human being jare. Somebody will resume office at 7am and closes at 7pm what kind of nonesense and rubbish is this? To hell with banking work. schuuuuuuuuuuuu

No my sister, most bankers get to the office by 6am and leave for their homes at 9 - 10pm. No official closing time for most banks, it’s so pathetic.

But come to think of it, this act of closing late is not a deliberate act from the management. It is something cunningly invested by lazy and hypocritical Managers or bosses to show they're really working and it gradually became part of their life.

Most of them also stay back at work in other to beat traffic and they'll expect that their junior workers should also wait till they (the bosses) are ready to leave the office.

The closing time diamond bank adopts is therefore a welcome development which I hope other banks will learn from

This simply shows the inefficiency associated with banks in Nigeria.
With their "wayword" attitudes and lack of customer care, they still end up spending 12hrs in the bank.
What are they doing? Their services are poor and they still spend way too much time at their office.
With the kind of service Nigerian banks provide, they should be out of their offices by 1p.m
Arrant Nonsense

Jeez

I really feel sorry for bankers especially those in Lagos! Thats why most of them dont make it a career after putting in some years because they cant bear with the emotional and psychological stress that comes with it.

What i dont understand is that before the recapitalization in 2005, Banking and Bankers never used to have it this bad and it used to be a normal job for people to aspire to. What changed over night?

Is it greed? Over ambition? Hypocrisy? False image projection? or Nigeria's money is so much now that it cant be counted within the stipulated working time?

What i dont even understand is that prior to the use of latest technological innovations to aid bankers, thins used to be very easy for them especialy with the manual use of intelligence to achieve things in the banks. Has Technology complicated things for them?

Forget the so called money that they say they are earning. Money that has certain clauses and conditions attached to them that makes it almost impossible for the banker to thoroughly enjoy his hard day's work, what really is the problem? Because at this rate, i predict that 75% of the bankers working in all the banks now in 2009 will by 2012 be reduced to 20% because they cant cope with these emotional stress!

Or is it the traffic that is the root cause? i am trying to wonder whether the bankers in jigawa or ebonyi face this kind of stress like lagos bankers encounter daily?

diamondbank :-x

No news.

Sometimes your boss delays you. Sometimes, you delay intentionally.


Probably this is caused by non-usage of time-rate.

wow 10hours a day!

That's 50hours a week, add daily traffic in lagos

How exactly are the workers expected to perform optimally

I think they should cut the workers salaries by 20%, employ more workers

get some to work 9am-3pm and some 3pm-7pm

dont get the whole thing wrong
we all knw that d popular sayin bankers dont close early
bankers dont hav time
well Diamond bank created a policy that states nobody shld be in d ofice by 7pm
by 7pm the server is switched off from head office
this doesnt mean that 7.00 is when staff close from work
like me for instance today i left the office by 5.30pm although i dont stay in lagos bt the staff in our lagos branches can attest to the fact that theyy leave the office early
i love my work place and i have no reason to regret workin with Diamond bank

I dont work Diamond bank but i think its a leap forward considering what is obtainable in the banking sector in general. I was with a bank (customer service) at one time and most of the time i dont leave the office till 10pm -12am (midnite). This is not an exageration, i didnt spend 3 months, had to run for my dear life. i was famished, my first meal each day was usually around 5pm and by then i could hardly eat the food. I looked like a ghost. Right now i still work in a bank i and i close for 6.00pm and get home say around 7.10pm which is okay for me. I have time for morning tea, breakfast and lunch, its calmer and sane here.

Go Diamond Bank!

When people are talking about bankers in Nigeria, what type of bankers exactly? Investment bankers? Bankers that work at branches of commercial banks? I get confused. Over here, those two are very very different and bankers that work at commercial banks definitely do not work long hours. Investment bankers do work long hours in many countries though. So my question is what type of bankers are these?

banking industry in niigeria runs this stupid tradition of enslaving its workers. i have two banker neighbors. They always return between 9 - 11pm. one even happens to be a manager in his bank and he comes back last.

Our banks have enough money, they should employ more workers and run shifts if necessary. its just the situation of this country that makes people still desire to work in banks even with all their nonsense. I wonder why the authorities aren't doin anything to check dis mess, (who is even d authority? )

Just imagine, we heard d other day of the zenith bank madam dat forced top management staff to kneel down, Slavery!!

There's still alot to be done but i still applaud d good step by diamond bank (dats if they would truly enforce it)

What re you kidding me?? Are they gonna be paid as much as they work!

I think they are trying to do something strange this term.Here in Ilorin they built two building very close to each other, I mean in the same location

atleast its a start

Great,but why have they refused to call those that are waiting for trainning since July last year, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, anybody

this is no big deal, no news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In as much as I don't support banks closing late I also know that sometimes its the fault of some 'customers'.

I worked in a bank in Naija and I remember that there were some customers back then who wouldn't come till we are about closing to customers at 4pm. And these are the ones that come with huge sums of money therefore we couldn't just send dem back even though we try to do that sometimes but it's an impossible thing cos they will just take their money elsewhere. By the time you attend to these customers, its 5/6pm and then we all have to wait till everyone's account balances. If that happens quickly then we go home 'early', if not, we all stay till the problem is resolved.

The overall blame should go to Naija's monetary system. We need to reduce the amount of cash in circulation asap. We need to do more biz online and carry money on cards! That way, fewer people have reasons for coming to banks and even when they come, they are attended to on time and workers can close earlier.

fs:

When people are talking about bankers in Nigeria, what type of bankers exactly? Investment bankers? Bankers that work at branches of commercial banks? I get confused. Over here, those two are very very different and bankers that work at commercial banks definitely do not work long hours. Investment bankers do work long hours in many countries though. So my question is what type of bankers are these?

@fs - When folks in Nigeria talk about banking, it is generally about commercial banking. I've done commercial banking in Nigeria and Investment Banking Stateside. Like someone rightly said, some of the long hours can be attributed to deliberate decisions to stay back at work to beat traffic while at other times, it's just a couple of random stuffs that may not be absolutely necessary. A bank I worked for back in the day actually made it mandatory for everyone to show up at work at the Victoria Island head office every Saturday. Of course, they scrapped the idea when they found that the phone bills went through the roof over the weekend as employees merely seized the opportunity to chat away at the bank's expense (cell phones were not prevalent then) and nothing was really getting done. I doubt if Diamondbank's pronouncement will really change the culture. Those that need to work late will work late. Maybe putting in "face time" to look good to the boss will reduce though.

I think a clear distinction should be made between Bankers and Bank workers. Bank workers do not need to work late. Maybe the actual bankers in frontline revenue generating roles need to put in a little more time since it is a universally competitive industry. To whom much is given, much should be expected right?

I didn't think it was possible but I found 16 hour workdays to be routine in Investment Banking in the western world. Of course we cannot compare this to commercial banking in Nigeria. The stakes are much higher in investment Banking and this probably a discussion for another thread.

Well, most pple dont get. This is not about any FAMILY FREIDNLINESS, it is about Cutting Diesel Cost (Generator) which runs into Millions Mnthly. Let's cut the crap, they Suck and see pple celebrating sh*t W.T.F, when the closing time should not be after 4.30PM. If you have worked outside the shores on this Continent, you will be disgusted by the 7:00PM announcement of DIAMOND, are we meant to be praising them or what!, W.T.F

@poster!! i have one question to ask. at what time do the top managers resume office every day, most especially the MD and the CEO?

its even too early, why don't they "pegged" it to 1 am, !

This why neither me nor my wife can ever work in a bank. They can make all the millions for all I care.

7pm ko, 7pm ni!

W.T.F:

Well, most pple dont get. This is not about any FAMILY FREIDNLINESS it is about Cutting Diesel Cost (Generator) which runs into Millions Mnthly.

This is just the simple truth, they are less concerned about your family.

Is that supposed to good or bad?

7pm closing time, what's the starting time then? 11am?

Anything more than 40hrs a week is slavery!

TD Bank here in Canada closes at 9PM. They are the only bank that is open late, maybe this a niche that Diamond Bank is also trying to capture.
You people do realize that it will not be every banker who will be working until close on any given day,

Diesel cost