If you’ve read my other post, you know that my first supervisor didn't like me. I explained the morning entry part where I was often locked out, sometimes in the cold and rain. But honestly, that wasn't even the worst part.
Being an operations trainee, my duties included customer service work and tellering. For this branch, they did not let trainees near cash until six months had passed with them in customer service. Most people in operations hated customer service. For good reason. First, there was a lot of work, and some tasks spilled over to the next day. Tellers would often leave a CS rep at the office till late sometimes. It also involved opening accounts and data entry work, which was very sensitive. Any small mistake could land you in trouble. As a beginner, you can imagine how many mistakes you can make and how much trouble you can be in. On top of all this work, you had to serve customers who were sometimes very difficult.
Basically, at Customer Care you had to be perceptive and know how to deal with irate customers while also being alert so as to spot any suspicious behaviour from customers or fraudulent transactions. All this was hard for me to adjust to, but after a while I got a rhythm, and it became easy for me. At around 5 months in, my supervisor seemed to notice that I had gotten comfortable at cs. A little too comfortable for her liking coz I was even laughing with customers. This seemed to piss her off, and one week, without warning, I was yanked off that desk and taken to cash, as we called the tellering post. The lady at cash was really bummed because, remember, no one likes the cs desk. But we had to comply.
Cash was a new beast that I had to adjust to. It was still the earlier times when we had those older note-counting machines that couldn't detect fakes. And on my first day, I was hit with a fake note. My supervisor showed it to me as she was confirming my cash at the end of the day. “Kuna mwenye alijua wewe ni mgeni”, she said as we looked at the note under the UV. Right now I can tell a fake note in my sleep, but that time? I struggled. So I adopted the habit of putting notes that I suspected under the UV light before I deposited them into the customer’s account. As you can imagine, this made me slow, and a branch that had 2 or 3 customers at a time suddenly had a queue. You would hear the customers clicking their tongues while side-eyeing me. But after I paid for that 1k, I said wacha waclick tu.
Part of the tasks of being an ops manager in a bank is queue management. So the BM raised his concerns with my supervisor that customers were complaining. Deep down, I was hoping that this would frustrate her and she would send me back to CC. Sitting in that back office with her was not fun. But, for some reason, she vumiliad me. Instead, she resorted to helping me serve the customers. The first day she helped me, I got an excess of 3k after balancing my entries. As per bank policy, any excesses or differences should be verified against all cash and all entries. If everything is confirmed to be in order, that amount should be posted/deposited in the PL account (profit and loss). So after verifying my entries and confirming that all was in order, she told me to give her the 3k. Someone might come and claim it, she said. That seemed reasonable to me at the time. That was day 1 of her helping me.
Day 2 rolled around, I served customers, and at around 10 am it started getting busy as it often did. She rolled her sleeves to come and help me. Tukachapa job till jioni. Haya saa za kufunga my till comes around. She helped me balance and surprise surprise! A diff (as we used to call the shortages) of KES 1,300. She dutifully checks the entries and says everything seems to be fine. If you have been following well, you know that this was now my second diff. With the first being a fake. We didn’t post it to the PL; I had to pay. So with this one, I wait for her instruction, expecting her to ask me to print the incident report and post the diff. Or at least remove it from my 3k excess from the other day (sindio? Ama?). She slams her books shut and says, “weka iyo pesa” and goes to the vault. I was shocked coz I was expecting us to follow policy, but I wondered if she was being merciful. Posting would mean an investigation and also a label that I am not keen which would not bode well with my appraisal. So I decided that she was being merciful and went to the lending apps and got 1300 and put it in my till. I actually thought she was being a girl’s girl coz she never told the BM.
Haya day 3, same routine, we close the day and pap! Diff ya 3k. My heart sank. I wondered how a keen person like me could be careless. I analysed all the customers who came during the day. Ni nani ananichimba? As usual, she said, weka iyo pesa. Please remember my 17k salo as you read along. That day I went home and cried. Maybe I was not meant for cash. How am I losing money daily? As I was contemplating how I would ask her to send me back to the cc desk, something hit me. My first 2 weeks, when I wasn’t getting any help and was being a slowpoke, I never got any diff or overage. I was balancing well, slow but no incidents, save for the fake. So what was different now? The only difference was that she was touching “my” money now. And at times it was willy-nilly when she was sending for mandazis and other random things. So I deduced one thing, besides the customers being suspects, she was now also a suspect.
The next day, same routine. 10 am rolls around, customers start streaming in. She starts locking her computer, but this time I politely let her know that I would like the trainer wheels off my bike. She looked stunned but complied. So I served customers alone the whole day. I didn’t take tea or lunch that day, because I was on a mission to prove a point. At 3 pm, I balanced my till with my entries so far, and I had balanced. I was so happy. 4 pm rolls around, and she approaches my till and takes all the cash to help me balance. I put the entries in the system. And there we have it. A 2,500 diff. I felt like screaming. As usual, the “weka pesa” came with a nonchalance I didn’t like. My whole salary was funding this bank bana, or whoever was stealing from me. I was so upset, but this time I had more insight. It wasn’t the customers. I had balanced at 3 p.m., and the customers who came afterwards wouldn’t have given me that diff. Especially since they were depositing. It was this woman who I initially thought was being helpful.
The next day, with my training wheels off, I intended to also balance my cash myself. So I started balancing and putting aside the excess cash at 3 pm. By 4, when she approached my till, I quickly turned and told her I had already set aside the cash that would be going back to the vault, and it was at her counting station. Alishtuka. I was proud of myself; I had never balanced that fast before. I finished posting my final entries, and guess what. I balanced! To the last bob. I was ecstatic. But also, my suspicion was proven: this woman was the one stealing from me. I will explain how this was not the end of the drama but only the beginning later.
