₦airaland Forum

I was just on my way to shoprite towards the end of November 2016 to have some fun with my kid sister on her birthday when I received a call from a recruiting firm that I should resume at "one popular bank" the following day. By the way I'am just a masters student that is already through with his academic work and has his thesis to battle with, and also my school was on strike then, so I just saw the offer as an opportunity to mix with people in the corporate world and also build up my CV. I was told I would be there for just 3 months to relieve a female staff that is on maternity leave and I'm going to be paid 30K monthly, so I jumped at it and I thought in my mind that is far better than staying at home and at least one would have the chance to clinch with those beautiful and sexy female customers. Lol..
So as I got back from shoprite, I went straight to my barber to get a clean cut and also branched at a nearby supermarket to get 2 pairs of socks, perfume and a body spray, as I got home I brought out my already polished shoe for another round of polishing, checked out my wardrobe to chose correct combination of wears I'm gonna put on the following day.
So the following came and I resumed at the bank at exactly 7.46am, so when it was 8.03 I was told to come in and I met the H.R we talked calmly like we've met before and he referred me to the Acting Bank Manager to tell what I'am gonna be doing for the bank. The Acting B.M too spoke in a calm way and told me I'm going to work in the Bulk room as a bank teller! I screamed Yepa! In my mind because right from time I just hate dealing with cash, I'm the careless type; infact I've misplaced a lot of money since I was born! Immediately I recalled how I misplaced the money for my WAEC in 2005 that my dad almost tore me into pieces. My thought was that I'am going to be at the customer service but I just said to myself "you are an engineer: you should be able to fit into any given position".
So that was how my banking sojourn began: I first observed for like one week before I started attending to people in the Bulk room: Mehn it was hell.!! Especially on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays! You would see different customers with diverse attitudes! Some would come with a huge amount of money that as you are counting, customers on Queue would be screaming and hurling insults at you that you are too slow, leg is paining them, the bank is not orderly bla bla bla. and you dare not reply any insult. That was the day I knew bank tellers are trying because after receiving those horrible insults during the day: you would now settle down for your account balancing which is the part I hated most! You would be balancing your account and if care is not taken you would almost develop a high B.P especially when you knew you've not been that organized during the day, and when the account is balanced it would be as if you've won a jackpot! And you don't need to be too excited coz you are still coming back the following day following day for another balancing, and if your account is not balanced you have to balance it from your pocket irrespective of the amount. There was a time I had 15K shortage when we went to pay corpers at NYSC camp, I was told to pay 3K out of it and thanks to some of my good co-workers that contributed the remaining. There was a time I had another 5K shortage. So I "sharpaly" turned to S.U in the name of being a bank teller: I pray every morning in my house, we do joint prayer in bank, and after the joint prayer I'll still pray on my seat again before starting: laying my hands on the counting machine, time stamping machine etc. And also pray against dubious customers! Because we've seen sexy-looking female customers with fake monies!! And they would be smiling seductively to get you distracted, we've also seen customers with incomplete money and they would be arguing loudly that their money was complete before coming to bank and the funny thing is the customers on queue would be staring at you as if you've pocketed the money. Mehn I hate that look!! You would also see educated looking folks that analyzes money wrongly and you'll start correcting them.
Anyway, to cut the long story short: I decided to take my leave at the end of the 1st month due to the fact that my school has resumed and I needed to continue my masters thesis and the resumption was a blessing in disguise because I was already tired of the work. And before I drop my pen I need to appreciate some of my excellent co-workers, people like Noah, Tosin, Dominion, John, Tope, Tunde, Roland, Rose, Dammi, Ruona, Judith, and collins, Godswill. God Bless you all.

Nice short story

Lol..I thought bankers earn a lot oh

Thank God for your experience. Next time when you visit the bank for any transaction, appreciate the tellers cos it ain't easy. Nice story though.

general111:
Lol..I thought bankers earn a lot oh

Depends on the category.

cremedelacreme:
Thank God for your experience. Next time when you visit the bank for any transaction, appreciate the tellers cos it ain't easy. Nice story though.

Those guys deserves some credit. Pressure is always on them and they are always at the receiving end.

I'll try to be 'nicer' when I go to banks from now...

BlackDBagba:
I'll try to be 'nicer' when I go to banks from now...

Yeah bro. Even me I've learnt my lessons. Those guys are trying.

we've also seen customers with incomplete money and they would be arguing loudly that their money was complete before coming to bank and the funny thing is the customers on queue would be staring at you as if you've pocketed the money. Mehn I hate that look!!

Lol. What do you expect the other customers to do? To put mouth in something that doesn't concern them? Hahaha

Lol, funny,interesting and a serious case at the same time.

Hahaha..a bulk teller with only 15k shortage?

Sincerely, you are quite good at Bulk Cashiering.

As a young graduate I did not want to waste time in earning my own money too so l went into banking which was available back then. The Soludo tsunami just hit and banks wanted to make turnover like crazy on their plenty Capital. Branches were springing up. Competition stiff. Wherever you saw a Zenith, there was UBA and GTB and a FirstBank and others around the corner.

In my days in banking, because as a bulk cashier, you recieved and paid out in packets and bundles, people had serious shortages. I mean 50k, 100k, etc. Some guys took loans from staff to pay these back and to balance their cash accounts. Overages were no better as the bank will accuse you of intentionally trying to steal a customers money. Both required serious Call-over and FINACLE 7.0 offered no help back then. It was garbage in garbage out.

Back then there were hardly contract staff in bulk rooms. Our cash accounts needed to balance otherwise, trouble with the Manager, Asst Manager and BDM.

I miss banking. I miss the interaction with the public. When I was in the front office, the satisfaction of customers when we help them solve a problem was fulfilling. It was all good. I miss the brief discussions with customers while they pay in, withdraw or buy a bank draft (yeah and the pretty ladies too I must confess). Looking good and dressing cute was a priority. Now look at me? When last did I shave?

But the work was stressful. Coupled with Saturday banking, risk of Species movement, going for clearing, and alergy to dust from money counting machines. The late work hours, the angry customers when network is down, using print outs of account balance to manually pay, etc.Back then, on very bad days, we take our vouchers or slips to another branch to post them. At times we close by 10 or 11 pm. Intact I pitied the ladies among us. I also never prayed to marry a lady bank worker. Once I was called back from a journey to Owerri because our Branch's ATMs were running out of Cash. My self and the Branch ATM officer. Hahahaha... Person really see something.

Now it is computers, facility walk rounds, maintenance activities, coveralls, SOPs and leaving by 5 am in a shuttle to catch a Bristow Sirkosky S-92 Chopper with boring helicopter breifings. No interaction with the general public at all. And on a lighter note, no cute babes either.


I miss banking but won't willingly go back.

Well it was good u were a full staff. Now its not like dat.