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#186974 - 05/05/04 02:34 PM Chairs for Tellers
The Banker Offline
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 1
Minnesota
Our bank is located inside of a grocery store. I see cashiers standing all day long. I have a couple of tellers who love to sit and I felt it was making the cashiers look more professional than our tellers. Several months ago I removed all chairs from the teller line. However now I have an employee who is pregnant and she want a chair to sit on behind the teller line. I would like to accomodate her however I feel other tellers are going to be using the chair or will complain because she has a chair and they do not. Does anyone have any suggestions.

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#186975 - 05/05/04 02:47 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Beagles22 Offline
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Posts: 3,626
State of confusion
I would imply that concessions are made for many medical reasons and if the mommy to be can be kept on the teller line doing her job longer by allowing that concession, the other tellers will have to realize that it is a medical reason and not playing favorites. Professional would not be sitting at a teller line for the average teller, maybe point out that if one of them had another medical reason to make it reasonable (a broken leg/foot, a pinched nerve, ect) that the same courtesy would be extended to them to make them more comfortable.
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#186976 - 05/05/04 03:21 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Anonymous
Unregistered

You took their chairs away? Why? That is the shotgun approach, don't you think?

Yes, cashiers stand all day, but they are allowed breaks, often have a padded floor, and probably wear very comfortable shoes. A teller typically doesn't have a floor pad and may be wearing high heels.

We have several offices similar to yours and we established a policy that we will ALWAYS stand when helping a customer. A chair is provided for each teller, but when a customer approaches, we are to get off the chair and stand to help.

Give them back their chairs and you may not have any problems with the pregnant teller. Once you've done that, set some customer service and professional behavior standards. If you're worried that they look less professional than the checkers, it is time to review your dress code.

As for the pregnant teller, please make sure you meet her needs. If her doctor wants her to sit all day, then by all means, allow it.

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#186977 - 05/05/04 04:01 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
MackenzieS Offline
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MackenzieS
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,722
Oklahoma
Quote:

You took their chairs away? Why? That is the shotgun approach, don't you think?

Yes, cashiers stand all day, but they are allowed breaks, often have a padded floor, and probably wear very comfortable shoes. A teller typically doesn't have a floor pad and may be wearing high heels.

We have several offices similar to yours and we established a policy that we will ALWAYS stand when helping a customer. A chair is provided for each teller, but when a customer approaches, we are to get off the chair and stand to help.

Give them back their chairs and you may not have any problems with the pregnant teller. Once you've done that, set some customer service and professional behavior standards. If you're worried that they look less professional than the checkers, it is time to review your dress code.

As for the pregnant teller, please make sure you meet her needs. If her doctor wants her to sit all day, then by all means, allow it.




I completely agree with Anonymous. We provide tellers with chairs too. I couldn't imagine making them stand all day. I wouldn't want to stand all day.

Your tellers only look unprofessional if they are dressed unprofessional, they are reading novels, eating at the teller station, etc...If you are having seperate issues with professionalism, deal with them, but I think you should give the chairs back.

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#186978 - 05/05/04 04:26 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Pup Offline
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I'm with Anon and Mack on this. We have very nice chairs for all our tellers. Personally, if you make me stand all day, my back is going to be in knots. It's a stressful job already, don't add to it.

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#186979 - 05/05/04 04:36 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
okstgrad Offline
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 26
As a teller, if I were told I had to stand all day I think I would quit. At my last bank our boss told us to sit more. He said there was no reason to stand all of the time. I agree with the above posters. If they don't look professional it could be because of the dress. Make a more professional dress code and enforce it.

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#186980 - 05/05/04 04:39 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Pup Offline
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Oh, and for the record, all of our branches outside the main bank and one drive thru location are also either in WalMarts or grocery stores as well.

Standing for hours, IMO, doesn't make one look more professional.

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#186981 - 05/05/04 04:40 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Jasmine Offline
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Posts: 149
Massachusetts
I am wondering if the original poster has ever been a teller and how the original poster would feel if they were suddenly required to stand all day!
I agree with the other posts that there are multiple ways a teller can appear unprofessional, and those are the issues that should be addressed.

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#186982 - 05/05/04 04:43 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Retired DQ Offline
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Turnpike Exit 10
My guess is that the original poster did not expect to get so much heat from this topic.
But, The Banker, I would also give back the chairs, not only to the pregnant woman, but to all.
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#186983 - 05/05/04 04:50 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Beagles22 Offline
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State of confusion
Our tellers don't sit at their windows. They have work space just behind the windows at a counter. They sit there facing the windows and work on whatever. We also have branches at the Wal Mart stores and there they sit at a back counter or in the offices, always facing the windows but never sit at the windows. Does she feel she needs to sit all the time? That was my assumption. If they are truly standing up all day, I agree that is unreasonable. Do your officers have to stand up all day? Give the president a higher desk and tell him he has to stand at it all day for 1 week and see how it goes That should get them chairs somewhere in the vacinity of their teller windows.
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#186984 - 05/05/04 06:46 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
sof'touch Offline
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sof'touch
Joined: May 2004
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I have never understood why tellers appear less professional sitting down than personal bankers. Having been a teller, I had one position where I was allowed to sit all day (the chairs were raised to the level of the counter, so we were at eye level with the customer) and another where there were absolutely no chairs available, but we had mats. No human being should have to stand in one place for 8 hours a day. Allowances were made for one pregnant teller, and another with a medical condition, thank goodness. The practice of not allowing chairs leads to fatigue in the people who are the first line of security awareness in the branch, and the face that customers will associate with your bank's name. Please give them back their chairs ya big meanie!!
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#186985 - 05/05/04 07:28 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Anonymous
Unregistered

I think tellers should stand all day. We should keep our banks open 7-days a week. And if we really want to be like the Wal-Marts and grocery stores then we should keep our banks open 24 hours a day. We really should eliminate some of the holidays that we get. Most don't celebrate what they stand for anyway. After all for as much as we pay our tellers we should really get a lot more out of them. By the way...I am not a teller.

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#186986 - 05/05/04 07:30 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Brandy Osborne Offline
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KY
and i really hope you were be sarcastic!
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#186987 - 05/05/04 07:30 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
CRAatBOK Offline

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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 6,172
Further South than I wanna be.
Quote:

I think tellers should stand all day. We should keep our banks open 7-days a week. And if we really want to be like the Wal-Marts and grocery stores then we should keep our banks open 24 hours a day. We really should eliminate some of the holidays that we get. Most don't celebrate what they stand for anyway. After all for as much as we pay our tellers we should really get a lot more out of them. By the way...I am not a teller.




I hope you are also not serious.
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#186988 - 05/05/04 07:41 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Anonymous
Unregistered

Of course I am serious...But then I am a union organizer and these type of changes in banks would make my job a lot easier.

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#186989 - 05/05/04 08:36 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
thomasj Offline
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 5,063
Pennsylvania
As a former teller who stood from 8 to 12 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week for over 10 years I feel bad for your tellers. At a branch where I worked, we had stools to sit on when we were not waiting on customers but they were taken away, because customers were complaining that some of the tellers looked "put out" to have to get off the stool to wait on them. A few years ago, we aquired several branches that had teller stools that the tellers sat on while waiting on customers, but they were ordered removed shortly after we took over. This caused a great deal of hard feelings during a very delicate time.

The Branch Administrator who ordered all of the stools removed has since retired and moved away. She talked with one of the tellers recently and told them she had taken a part time job where she was required to stand but had to quit after a short time because she could not stay on her feet that long. She said that if she ever hit the lottery she was going to buy teller stools for every window of every branch we had!
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#186990 - 05/05/04 10:05 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
zaibatsu Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 6,153
I think I will file this one along with the president who wants to prohibit lotteries. Nothing like taking something menial away from employees to cause discord and discontentment. I'd give the pregnant woman a chair and put out a stack of employment applications because you are going to need them.
Last edited by Huddie Ledbetter; 05/05/04 10:05 PM.
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#186991 - 05/05/04 10:21 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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Next to Harvey
I am going to treat this like a spoof because I don't want to think about the possibility that it isn't...
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#186992 - 05/06/04 12:20 AM Re: Chairs for Tellers
sof'touch Offline
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sof'touch
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 8
Ken, believe it. I still work for the bank that made me stand, and that is their policy to this day.
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#186993 - 05/06/04 01:52 AM Re: Chairs for Tellers
zaibatsu Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 6,153
Quote:

Ken, believe it. I still work for the bank that made me stand, and that is their policy to this day.




I think Ken may have been more skeptical that a bank would even think about making a pregnant woman stand than by having a policy that tellers must stand.
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#186994 - 05/06/04 09:10 AM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Anonymous
Unregistered

I am a Branch Manager for a small bank (4 branches). When we opened up our branch, there were chairs and mats ordered for each teller station. Because we are a small branch, foot traffic in the bank is slow right now and I would rather have my tellers sitting than leaning on the counters at their stations. Also there are many times that I have to work a station with a teller being out sick or family situation. I take some of my other work to the station with me and work on it during slow periods, I know that I enjoy sitting and working vice having to stand up and trying to get it done.

Before going and making knee jerk reactions, stand in the teller's shoes for eight hours (the pun was intended) .

Seadevil

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#186995 - 05/06/04 01:53 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
DawgFan Offline
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,678
United States
I have to say that I agree, put the chairs back. The increased "professional image" you will get from having tellers stand all day does not outweigh the cost of the morale you will lose. Besides, I doubt if a customer cares whether the teller sits or stands, as long as they provide prompt service with a smile.
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#186996 - 05/06/04 02:07 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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Next to Harvey
*RANT, if you are going to be offended, skip it.

I've been a teller. If 30 years ago my boss had thought it was very important that I stood when I was waiting on someone, I would have thought I was working for a fool. The only difference is that today I would know I was working for a fool. If my co-worker was a pregnant woman who could not get some slack on the issue, I would downgrade my assessment of my boss two notches.

Today, I am just another customer when I walk into the bank, but I still notice things many customers would never notice. Nevertheless, I could not tell you whether the tellers were seated or stood at any bank where I have banked in the last ten years. A customer who has a life cares about whether the person across the counter is alert, attentive, and well trained, not whether he or she is standing or seated.
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#186997 - 05/06/04 03:21 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
Banknote Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 46
Kentucky
I can't believe you took away their chairs!! That is really bad. We have chairs for our tellers and they look professional. I agree that chairs have nothing to do with looking "more professional". That's awful!

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#186998 - 05/06/04 07:54 PM Re: Chairs for Tellers
EllenA Offline
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EllenA
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 598
Flushing, NY
When I was a teller, we were not allowed to sit but my branch had slow floor traffic and they allowed us to have stools so that we could sit at eye level to the customer but we were supposed to stand while waiting on them. If I am acting as a teller, even today, I stand while waiting on the customer. Just habit I guess. Oh, by the way, to tell you how old I am, if you were pregnant, you were not allowed to work on the banking floor. If there were no "back office jobs" -- bye-bye. If you were pregnant, and sick, no pay (even if you still had sick-time left). Thank God things have changed. Please, give them back the chairs.
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