A LEAF FROM MY LIFE –IX (An ambitious task) Sector-17, the biggest bank and the biggest branch of Chandigarh was of its time. This was my 2nd posting in Chandigarh. First, when, my house brought me to the D.M. Office (R.O.) as staff assistant. Immediately after reporting, I got myself introduced to each member of the staff at his seat telling: “I am your new colleague”. Amarjeet Kaushal was the other Assistant Manager in the branch. He was looking after Loans. K.G.Khurana was the Senior Manager. The branch was on the ground floor. On second floor was the Regional office. I was given the charge of the Hall with responsibility of the entire routine (minus Loan), coding- decoding of telegrams, Currency Chest, establishment, morning arrangements and Inspection Report (Appendix-A- of routine minus loans). The branch was a problematic office of the Region. The indiscipline was at its virulent form. The staff generally used to come late and it could never be reined. There were three main Unions, one was the Officer Association with M.S. Bajawa as it Secretary and other two were workmen unions. Although both were affiliated to AIBEA, they had a separate entity. One was known as Punjab Union with Ravi Mehendirata as its Secretary and the other was Haryana Union with K.K.Gandhi as its Secretary. However, there was negligible presence of NOBW also. All the unions were very aggressive and they used to dictate even though it was as an emergency period. There were numerous complaints against the branch. On an average two to three customers used to go to the Regional Office daily with the complaints against the staff as the Regional Office was on its second floor. After joining I saw, felt and decided that my first priority should be to weed out the indiscipline and to make the staff to come in time and the second was to improve the customer service so that the customer should not get a change to go to Regional Office with any complaint. The third, but most important was to win the confidence of the entire staff without stooping. The job was an arduous and ambitious. The staff was required to reach the office by 9.45 a.m. so that the branch working could start dot at 10 after making arrangements against the absentees. Simple issuing of the office order for its defiance was not advisable and it might have been tried also. Some respectable but firm handling of the staff was required. It was a challenging job. I coolly worked out my strategy. At 9.45 a.m. I started standing at the Main Gate just to wish the late comers Good Morning. For about a week I used to say them ‘Namaste ji Kaya hall hai’ but after a week I started telling the still late comers: ‘please come a little earlier, if possible’ and used to add: ‘A few minutes neither matters to the Bank nor to you.’ I felt my standing at the gate and saying without offending words had some impact. After a fortnight or so, most of the members of staff started coming in time. One or two persons still could not form the habit of coming in time to whom I called at my seat and discussed their problem. After that, by and large the staff was in time. Further, I found certain lady staff used to leave the branch early without telling officially. Finding the seat vacant I used to enquire from her companion sitting next to her seat why that particular lady had left early. Normally, the reply used to be that her child was sick. The next day I used to go to her seat and used to enquire about the welfare of her child and used to tell whenever she had any problem she could go after telling me so that I could manage her seat in her absence. With the result the lady staff used to tell before hand when, genuinely, they had to go. Not without saying, they used to finish the work before leaving and if any work on her seat came later I used to ask her next companion if he could help me to do her work as I had permitted her to go. There was no ‘halla gula’ or shouting in the branch which earlier was very common. I welcomed smilingly who so ever used to come to me. Each member of the staff was getting due respect from me irrespective of his status. While calling any one, I invariable affix ‘ji’Or Sahib’ after their name. Almost my first and the last priority were achieved. Now, I stated concentrating on the second priority i.e. improvement in the Customer Service. I wanted that there should be no undue rush at any counter and the customer should be disposed of immediately. In the morning after getting the Currency Chest opened and completing the staff arrangements, Doing with the number of telegrams received at my table concerning Telegraphic Money Transfer, Realisation of Bills and DDs for which first decoding and then checking its symbol. It was a time consuming and delicate task as lacs of rupees were involved. There after, I used to keep my self at the disposal of the customers and keep my eyes on the counters. There were about four tellers in the branch. Some times there used to be a great rush at a particular teller-seat and I used to rush to the teller-seat and stand by him and used to take the Cheques from the customers and would tally their signatures and take out the teller card from the box and used to give it to the Teller for posting and making its payment to the customers. In this way the customers were disposed of expeditiously and it used to take hardly half an hour to assist the Teller to clear the rush. All most all the three tasks were achieved with some huddles in-between. It was all for ‘love for labour and dignity’. Next read if you please, “The Truth which is stranger than the fiction”.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 05:29:13 +0000
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