r/TalesFromYourBank

Hi all, just wanted some insight and advice on what to do or if anyone has a similar experience. A few days ago, I cleared and processed an 18,000.00 check for a customer who frequently makes large deposits. I noticed this customer’s name on our red flag list this morning, and immediately went onto the account history. It appears that within the last few days he has been kiting checks between institutions on his business. Within an hour of me depositing his check, he transferred the funds into another account which is already negative. I totally missed the red flag, and honestly the only reason is because he is here once a week minimum depositing large checks. His accounts have since been locked, although the check I had cleared is essentially gone. I immediately brought this to my manager’s attention and she told me there isn’t much she can do, and it has to be brought to upper management. Unfortunately, the funds are gone and I have personally known people to be terminated for similar mistakes. I completely understand that this is my fault and I’m going to have to wait it out until next week, but I’m almost 100% certain that this is grounds for termination. I guess I’m just wondering what my next steps are. Is it even possible for me to be hired elsewhere with something like this on my employment record? Or should I go back to retail. I’m so upset because I absolutely loved this job and I know this is entirely on me. I should have paid better attention to his account history before clearing the check.
Thanks in advance.

Deadass my bank has signs saying that we'll be closed for "The Legal Holiday" on Monday.

Last year we were sent 2 different signs saying either Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Is this something that was required federally somehow or is my bank in particular being weird 💀

Teller referrals are really low at this branch. I’m a senior banker that’s worked at multiple branches with multiple tellers and I always gave them tips on how to make referrals. Most of them do really well. However the tellers at this branch are just not listening despite me repeatedly giving them new tips every week. The tellers make like 1 referral total a week to the bankers (we have 6 bankers). There’s just not any motivation for these young kids because they don’t get anything for making referrals, and also don’t want to be promoted. Other tellers I worked with before really tried to become better at this because they wanted to grow and advance, however my current tellers are just ok with whatever.

Now BM blames it on me, saying I’m not social enough and need to spend time with the tellers. Like come chit chat with them on my free time so they like me more and make more referrals. While bank’s expectation is for the bankers to be on the phone calling if you’re not with a customer. And isn’t coaching them the manager’s job and not mine? So it is my fault that the tellers are not doing their job? And it’s because I’m a quiet and reserved person? It just doesn’t make sense 😭 BM is basically telling me to do her job for her omg

i hate these people

this is just a rant and yes i’m looking for a job before i lose my mind.

i do enjoy being a banker on paper. it pays great and it has good benefits. my team is pretty chill.

but the clients? oh my god FUCK THEM. FUCK THEM. THEYRE ALL LAZY INCOMPETENT PIECES OF SHIT. YES I NEED UR ID TO WITHDRAW $2k.

I DONT CARE THAT UR LOCKED OUT OF ONLINE BANKING. FIGURE IT OUT.

I DONT CARE THAT U NEED TO SEND A URGENT WIRE AND WE CLOSE IN 5 MINUTES.

I DONT CARE THAT U NEED TO OPEN A TRUST ACCOUNT AND U NEED A NOTARY AND OH U DIDNT MAKE AN APPOINTMENT BUT UR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL THE APPOINTMENTS WE ALREADY HAVE BOOKED

I DONT CARE THAT YOU HAVE FRAUD AGAIN BUT U REFUSE TO USE TAP TO PAY AFTER I TOLD U ITS SAFER

I DONT CAREEE I DONT GIVE A FUCK AND IM TIRED OF FAKING LIKE I DO

I DONT CARE ABOUT ANY OF THESE TO BE HONEST I WISH THEY WOULD ALL LOCK THEMSELVES INSIDE THEIR HOUSES AND GET FUCKED!!!!!

Bank teller at a regional here. This is mostly a rant but if it helps keep any well meaning management from making the same mistake elsewhere I think it's worth posting the saga so far.

Monday there was a full org rollout of an "upgraded" and "improved" phone system both internally and externally and I genuinely am a little scared about how this will end because oh my GOD what an absolute TRAINWRECK.

Internally every extension has been messed with and they have what I can only assume is some kind of AI-driven speech thing where you ask it to send you somewhere but also if there's any ambient noise it resets the prompt. There is always ambient noise, obviously. The new extensions dont make sense and you cant hit someone's direct extension anymore either (:

It took a coworker an hour of shuffling through various prompts the other day to do a single foreign currency order. I waited on an entire lobby and drive thru both by myself during it (because of COURSE it was during lunches)

Customer side things are somehow even worse. Phone banking is useless. Nobody can get it to work. I had an older woman come in with a paper where she wrote down what the music and hold message marketing blurbs were saying to her and proceeded to ramble it off to me at the window for 5ish minutes and I have never been so thankful for the security glass because I thought I was going to throttle her by the end (it had already been a Very Hard day)

Literally every phone call we field at branch now is about the new phone system. When people cant get thru to phone banking or customer service (who i feel even worse for in all this) they call us and are absolutely psychotic over the phone. Swearing, name calling, vague threats, everything. The branch managers are close to revolting bc every customer wants a manager about this, obviously. They've banded together as a unified front calling for Something to be done.

We are also getting complaints about how we don't pick up the phones in branch half the time and that's simply because we are always all busy (staffing reductions LOL) and we dont have any automated hold system or anything, just the line and we aren't going to pick up over waiting on customers in branch. Phone rings continuously now and someone in branch quietly reduced the volume on the ringers which THANK GOD because it was starting to pavlov a trauma response in me to hear the phone ring.

Yesterday (Friday) we received an email trying to gaslight us into thinking this phone upgrade was Significant and Good, actually, despite it reducing functionality in every way. It also asked us to pretty please with sugar on top to say nice things about the phone system to customers while also gaslighting them about how it's an improvement. It reads like someone prompted an AI to write the whole thing, btw.

I can't even be mad at this point because anyone with a pulse will see through any attempt to glaze this thing. Customers literally watch us struggle in real time to access branch operations, eft, fraud, etc on the phone in front of them. Like putting icing on a turd.

I cannot fathom how this ends. What a generational fumble to break the one system boomers with money rely on the most.

And all this around a full moon. The ride never ends in this place.

It makes me scared because I work Saturday and it’s just me and another teller… I’d rather it be slammed today and easy tomorrow</3 But some people don’t realize their deposit comes in a day early if the 3rd is on a Saturday or Sunday. It also makes me sad because I have been at my branch for 5 years and I have known a handful of elderly clients that have passed or moved away to be closer to family.

Hope everyone’s day is going ok!

Basically the title. I work for a top 4 national bank in a pretty slow branch in a small city. My manager has no prior banking experience and has been on the floor for just over a year. In that time, she has driven out two extremely talented bankers who’ve been with the company for 7-9 years, one quit and the other transferred. We had a teller only make it a few months under her, and another banker also only made it about 5-6 months under this manager.

She is extremely manipulative, argumentative, hypocritical, and combative. She never considers that she could be wrong and takes feedback extraordinarily poorly. On a regular basis, she will write up branch employees for correcting her when she’s wrong. We also have several Spanish speaking bankers who will speak Spanish to each other, and she’s now starting to write them up for speaking Spanish to each other. She’s that insecure that she needs to be able to hear and understand the conversations her employees have with each other.

Collectively, we have submitted around a dozen different HR complaints about her over the course of the last 6 months and nothing has come of it. We’ve also been in contact with our ethics department for the same reasons and have heard very little back. Ideally I’d like to take it to the district manager but he’s the one that hired her in the first place and is already aware of the HR complaints we’ve logged. What other steps can I possibly take? I truly like my job as a universal banker but she makes it miserable for all of us.

I started banking in June like June 29th trained for a month on a computer but it didn’t really teach me well enough I’m a associate banker II I have zero prior banking knowledge and I’m going through a rough personal patch (Ex passed) so i missed a few days for bereavement almost a week in august so my mental hasn’t been fully there. (Background)

Im still figuring this banking stuff out i have a team member her name is E me and her have had some issues i use the bathroom a lot sometimes holding it in for a while on teller line to be supportive for her as a teammate but Im still sort of slow and ill admit i haven’t been communicating when i have issues I’m working on that part but earlier it kinda hit a breaking point because A. She told my boss about my frequent bathroom breaks so i told my boss about my problems with my body and B.She feels unsupported when i work with her because she feels like she takes all the clients. Ill admit i haven’t been communicating properly and sometimes i get confused this banking stuff is a bit complex. But Im trying to get through it all but she makes some comments about me taking clients and her feeling generally unsupported I feel unsupported as well like its all my fault i cant break a line all by myself asking for help feels hard because even if my team members do there best to support me i cant help but to feel bad as i have made mistakes with currency and forgetting to do important stuff. I try my best to support E on teller but i do take a bit sometimes but her comments make me feel like it’s my fault for not knowing things and asking her for help on teller. I genuinely feel so sad coming to work. And when we spoke essentially she just yelled at me and spoke over me saying i wasn’t taking clients and frankly it’s unfair that i take a hour with almost every transaction. I kinda broke down in tears a bit like i feel so guilty i suck at this job and at communicating. Sorry for long tangent i wrote on my phone and my hands are shakey typing this out.