Truth about the clothing allowance for tellers: you get $600 twice a year for full time or $300 twice a year if you part time. Unless you work 5 days a week you are considered "part time". So you can work 4 days a week and get the same allowance as someone who works two. Doesn't really add up when you consider that most suits cost $150. Not to mention the costs of dry cleaning, assuming you have a decent one to choose from. Employees pay the taxes associated with the clothing allowance which is randomly taken out from a paycheck without a notice of the deduction in advance.
Everything is super hush, hush. Depending on where you are in the company (location and department) depends on what you know. Case in point: TowneBank branch gets robbed, ends up all over internet/social media, etc. The only notification received from Senior Management was three days later telling everyone to keep their mouths shut, not to talk to the media and reference to the employee handbook about "conduct on the internet". Let's be honest, I don't expect a play by play, but when you work with the public, my customer base shouldn't know more about what is going on than the employees...you look and feel like an idiot. How hard is it to send an email about "the incident" Seriously?
Don't bet on getting a raise for an exemplary review, those are only given every three years across the board depending on the how well the bank is doing financially. (Which by the way every quarter and every year is a "record profit" over the previous time frame). There are constantly emails coming out about people getting promoted at corporate to VP of this or EVP of that. While I am sure that these folks have worked hard and no doubt deserve to be recognized for that, people on the front lines in branches work everyday DIRECTLY with members who invest their money in this institution. Shouldn't we thank them with a promotion or raise?
The bank runs promotions for credit card sales and I sell them on a pretty regular basis but not every branch will have the clientele that wants or qualifies for credit. The annuities campaign sounds good, you just have to make of referral for someone who has $25k to invest and is willing to sit and chat...that's it. Not so fast. Your representative has to actually call the person and set up an appointment to chat, which doesn't happen. Then the members call back or stop by and say they never received a follow up...and the money goes elsewhere. Hasn't anyone in TowneBank figured out why an entire region never has any "qualified referrals"? Must be too busy drinking the Kool-Aid at Headquarters to figure that one out.
Branch Managers, Commercial and Private Bankers have goals and make Chairman's Club (read: Bonus Money) based on meeting or exceeding those goals. So those folks have to talk to current members about deepening their relationship with TowneBank and also have to go out and get new business. That is generally how sales works. People step on other people's toes and the next level up constantly takes credit for the "underlings" work. No different at Towne. My supervisor (among several others I know of) do not attempt to leave the branch to get new business. Rather they take walk in business and code it to themselves or after the underling (me) does the hard work of talking them up, getting a entire relationship (personal account, business account, credit card and line of credit) you get this: "Wow that is really great, go ahead and code that to me". Wait, what?! What did you do? Response is "you don't get credit for business coming in" Fair enough however if you didn't do anything to get them to walk in the door why should you get credit for something you didn't do? This is an act of desperation folks. You see this is after they (Branch Managers, Loan Officers) have worked to get almost an entire new relationship (or a big extension of an existing one) just to have their boss sweep out from under them and take credit for it. How is that for empowering your folks?
Company wide "Family Dinner's" are eerily similar to a pyramid scam company. Music, lights, a big group of people singing and pulling people up on stage. It was very uncomfortable.
The bank is constantly looking for ways to save money while they spend money like it's going to expire. They cut staff in branches and various departments to save money and expect the same level of work output. The buildings while beautiful, are over the top, extravagant really. They say they want employees and bank members to "feel pride" where they are. I feel it's really more of showing off. We were under a "hiring freeze" for some time and that's because Senior Management was busy plotting the Towne takeover of other companies and banks. If I am not mistaken, TowneBank acquired 4 different companies over the course of 2014. As the company grows so does Bureaucracy and with each merger the Hometown banking diminishes a bit more.
