Stress In Banking "This is a hold-up!

Not too long ago I was called to provide counseling to some tellers who were involved in an armed bank robbery. People who were never involved in a hold-up have no idea of how a victim of robbery should act, and ultimately recover. They feel the victim teller(s) can just "shrug it off." They say, "You'll get over it?don't let it get to you."

But the sad fact is it's not that way at all.

Bank robberies are not going to go away. As a matter of fact, they are increasing. And you, the teller, have become a target.

When you're the victim of a hold-up, be it by weapon or note, the impact is a trauma, and you will sustain a post-traumatic psychological injury.

The effect of the trauma can be broken down into three phases:
the events occurring during the holdup;
your feelings after the holdup; and
the long term effects.

Let's look at the events occurring during the holdup first.

WELCOME TO HELL!-You look up. Your worst nightmare has just become a reality. You heard those lectures during training?maybe saw a video?the video was of a masked man, yeah, just like on TV? and he had a gun. Now all of a sudden that gun is pointing at you. This isn't TV, and this isn't training.

"Oh, No!"-you sense the danger, you feel the fear. You feel weak, helpless. You have no control.

This time in the hold-up is critical. It can have lasting psychological effects. One of the biggest problems I have when counseling victims is their feeling of "loss of control". We believe, mistakenly, that we have total control of our lives. The sad truth is, we do not. In this case, this person, whose face you may not even be able to see, has control over your life.

SURVIVAL-It's time for you to respond. The reality of the situation has sunk in. All you can think about is, "If I don't do what he says, I'll be dead."

Most robbery victims don't know why they act as they do. They change from this frozen mass of body, to a moving robot, doing what the robber tells them. Interestingly enough, they usually do what they have been trained to do. (The best response comes from those tellers who have been trained for "when" a robbery happens, instead of "if".) They pull the dye-pack, trip the alarm, don't argue with the robber, give him what he asks for. He may order the teller to stay away from the security devices. You do what he says. No amount of money is worth a life. And that's what this is all about. Your life.

The robber leaves-but the crime isn't over. Your world has just been irrevocably shaken, torn apart. Now you must somehow pull yourself together so you can "go on with life."

TRAUMA RECOVERY-The first two of the four distinct phases in trauma recovery are concerned with when you are most vulnerable-when you question your lack of control, how helpless you were, how weak and immobile you acted.

Part of helping a victim teller is getting them to see that they have a survival instinct, and from this they will respond. Focus on your ability to respond in such a situation. This will decrease your sense of a loss of control. It will also assist your ability to handle the short term and long term effects of being a victim in a robbery.

BANKERS' HOTLINE Staff Member Dr. Chet Sigafoos is a psychologist who specializes in stress and trauma. Based in Phoenix, he travels all over the United States to counsel banking employees who suffer from post robbery trauma. He is quite willing to address questions regarding management practices, coping with stress in the office, or stressful situations. Write to his attention c/o BANKERS' HOTLINE. The article on this page is the first in a series Chet will be doing on post robbery trauma.

Copyright © 1991 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1/91