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I definitely thought about my comment a lot, since I am in a technical role. I recognize it's arrogant, but let me provide some insights. We are currently faci

by jbob2000 7y ago

I definitely thought about my comment a lot, since I am in a technical role. I recognize it's arrogant, but let me provide some insights. We are currently facing threats from "online only" banks, where you can sign up and use a bank account without ever talking to a person or stepping foot in a building. This is a threat because banks make their money on transactions and if everyone goes to the cool smartphone app bank, what will our bank have left? We'll be left cashing cheques for blue collar workers. We'll be left doing phone support for geriatrics. We'll be left giving loans to refugees. We'll be left with safety deposit boxes. We'll be left with all of the unprofitable parts of the banking market that the online only banks say NO to. And that's where that 80% of our staff comes from. Branches and call centers to manage the small, unprofitable sector of the consumer banking market. To my point, our bank has a long running project to shut down branches across the country. We realized that profitable customers only come to the bank to sign papers, and unprofitable ones come to harass the bank staff. There are staff needed for good governance and to manage regulations, but those staff do not make up the bulk of our labour.

JaimeThompson 7y ago
>unprofitable ones come to harass the bank staff. And banks wonder why credit unions and the like are growing.
- jbob2000 7y ago
  You’d need to hear stories from the trenches to understand my comment. My brother works in a branch, most of his day to day activities are explaining to people why they don’t have enough money in their accounts. “Well Jim, you spent $100 at McDonald’s yesterday and the day before that you spent $500 at a shopping mall. That’s probably where your pay cheque went!” “My wife and I just can’t understand how we’re in debt, we make 10k a month.” “Well you spent 15k on your 6 credit cards last month, that’ll do it!” “Oh”.
- 1123581321 7y ago
  I’ve done credit union product marketing and IT — it’s exactly the same situation over there. Many credit unions are terminally infected with bad board members that prevent them from making hard decisions that will result in better customer service in the long term. And actual harassment of staff in banking is a real thing, as is occasional criminal activity like keying employee cars. This must be dealt with on top of robbery training (varying your commute, etc.)

JaimeThompson 7y ago

>unprofitable ones come to harass the bank staff. And banks wonder why credit unions and the like are growing.

jbob2000 7y ago
You’d need to hear stories from the trenches to understand my comment. My brother works in a branch, most of his day to day activities are explaining to people why they don’t have enough money in their accounts. “Well Jim, you spent $100 at McDonald’s yesterday and the day before that you spent $500 at a shopping mall. That’s probably where your pay cheque went!” “My wife and I just can’t understand how we’re in debt, we make 10k a month.” “Well you spent 15k on your 6 credit cards last month, that’ll do it!” “Oh”.
1123581321 7y ago
I’ve done credit union product marketing and IT — it’s exactly the same situation over there. Many credit unions are terminally infected with bad board members that prevent them from making hard decisions that will result in better customer service in the long term. And actual harassment of staff in banking is a real thing, as is occasional criminal activity like keying employee cars. This must be dealt with on top of robbery training (varying your commute, etc.)