Hey there!

Today was the first day of my week long teller training. The entire day was spent doing different kinds of cash withdrawals through checks and savings accounts. I did around 40 transactions through the simulation conducted by a trainer using "play" money but still using the institutions teller program.

I was doing very well and felt extremely comfortable throughout however at the end of the training day I came in under by 100 dollars. I personally suspect i simply counted out an extra 100 dollar bill in one of the transactions.

My question to all of you is how serious this is. Of course it isn't the end of the world since it was a simulation with play money but how tainted is my image with my bank and with the trainers? I worry that this unfortunate accident may have ruined my chances to succeed in this position I am quite excited for.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Breathe. It was your first day. While this may be the benchmark for your trainer to see how you take to this, it is the first day at it. The idea is to learn the teller program.

Slow down tomorrow and count it out twice if need be. When I was a teller I counted it once as I took it out of the drawer, once again in my hand and then a third time as I laid it out for the customer. You'll figure out what works best for you.

Most importantly, don't dwell on it. Tomorrow is another day.

It won't be the last mistake you make in this business. Truffle had the best advice: slow down and don't dwell on it.

Truffle is giving you excellent advice, both on the not dwelling and the three count. I'm a firm believer that things like this happen to avoid a bigger ooops down the road. You will be more cautious going forward and will probably "benefit" from the error due to this, which is all part of training. Good luck in your new position, sounds like you are conscientious and have a great future!

As a trainer all the advice above is excellent but I would add one more thing. A some point in your training make sure you learn how to look for outages. With it being your first day this probably was not covered but it is a very important part of balancing and very easy, usually, to learn. Good luck. You'll do just fine!

I agree with all of the above. Don't sweat it.

In addition to the multiple counts, learn to balance your drawer throughout the work day. If you balanced at 11:00, 2:00, 4:00 and you still come up short, you may be able to find it in the work that occurred between 4:00 and closing.

Of course this all depends on how busy you are. If you have down time and worry about not balancing, balance throughout the day.

Back in my teller days -- the bank had just stopped using abaci for balancing tellers -- on the days I had extra time to be able to balance my drawer two or three times mid-day, I was more prone to being off. On the two or three days a week the coincided with major paydays in town, we were crazy busy and balancing at the end of the day was almost always a snap.

You are getting great advice from the above comments. Also, never ever ever give in and force balance your drawer. I have known a few people who did and they were always career redirected if you know what I mean.

Also, remember that this is training. It is ok to make mistakes. When I was a trainer for one of the big banks I was not so much concerned if the trainees made mistakes but what the did when they discovered a mistake was made.

When I first started at my bank as a part time teller, I was nervous as could be. On my 3rd and 4th day, I worked at a teller window with the lady who is and was back then 2nd in command of the entire bank. Talk about being nervous! We would always note on our adding machine tape who the customer was with acct numbers if we ever needed to go back and look. I agree with RockChucker, never try to hide your mistakes, we had some (key word is 'Had') that no longer work here as well. Eventually everyone gets found out. Good luck, I am sure you will do fine!

Does anyone remember the big old Burroughs teller machines and having to do "9-outs" to clear out incorrect cash tags and cash paids? For example, if your incorrect entry was $18.75, you'd enter $99,999,981.25 to clear it out of the totals.

That really made balancing a teller drawer interesting...

This is great advice even after the training period is over. I agree with RC in that I expect mistakes and questions and "do-overs" in training. But after training, you are still human and mistakes will be made. The best employees I've had over my career were those that handled the mistakes well.

Are you under a probationary period?

it is her first day...of course it is a probationary period...and play money...in a teller training lab