BMB

The powers that be recently decreed that I should leave the branch at which I had happily spent many of
the last seven years and move to a new location of very different calibre indeed.

If one is to be honest, such a change engenders mixed feelings. The difference between the familiar and
the unfamiliar poses rather more problems than appear on the surface. Whereas the whereabouts of every
form, or book, or signature was as well known as the route to the branch itself, one anticipates with some
trepidation the constant enquiries at one's new abode - "Where can I find this?" or "Where do we keep
that?", and I suspect that one's staff becomes as weary of answering such questions as one does of
asking them. There is the terrible temptation to head letters, forms or returns with the name of one's
former branch. And, oddly enough, this aberration is not over popular with the recipients. The familiar
pattern of daily work, largely of one's own making and based on learning in a hard school, is destroyed
overnight, and a new pattern has to be assembled by trial and error once again. As a colleague said to me
many years ago - "Any fool can find out what to do in a very short time: it takes rather longer to learn
when to do it."

After working with people over a number of years, it is apparent where lie their strengths and weaknesses.
It takes time to evaluate one's new staff. (The same applies in reverse, I suppose: they in turn, are busy
putting their new manager under the microscope - a sobering thought).

But of course the major change may well be (in my case it certainly is) in the type of customer and their
needs.

Sir Thomas More would have made an excellent bank manager, I suspect - "all things to all men". But for
an ordinary mortal the goal may well be out of reach. At my previous branch a knowledge of the arts, at
least one (and preferably two) European languages, and the names and performances of the current
members of the county cricket side saw me over many a difficult hurdle. A modest acquaintance with
roses, dahlias, and other floral delights, plus a smattering of medical jargon was also desirable. And an
almost certain passport to success on many occasions was the wearing of a particular tie, and the
knowledge of the current trends in the stock market. But now comes the other side of the coin, and I have
to perform a character volte face which would receive applause - albeit grudging - in a politician.

I can forget the arts at once. I very much doubt if my new customers know a Rembrandt from a Raphael -
or, if it comes to that, want to know. And the cricket knowledge I have laboriously acquired over the
years has become a definite non-starter. I am in the noisier world of the terraces, Spion Kop (the popular
name for a part of St. Andrews (Birmingham City) football ground), indifferent referees and whether
Bobby Charlton will go to Mexico. And I have to be careful to conceal my personal preferences until I am
certain where lie my customers' loyalties. My European languages are complete nonsense: the dialects of
South India or North Bengal would be of infinitely more value. But here as well I am doomed to failure: a
few of the phrases handed down to my generation of wartime soldier I can vaguely remember, but I doubt
both my pronunciation and their relevance. Conversations about gardening are limited to the size of the
window boxes which appear infrequently in the neighbourhood, and it is the prices at the supermarket
which matter most, and my tie matters least.

But old or new, highbrow or low, public school or junior mixed, they are all a part of me as I a part of
them. They will have an equal need of such understanding and such poor skills as I can give them. I hope
they will not be disappointed. But a candle to Sir Thomas More just in case.

This article was first published in the Savings Banks Institute Journal of January 1970.
Harry Calver was a regular contributor to both the SBI Journal and the Bank's staff magazine, CONTACT,
under the pseudonym 'Revlac'. This article appears to have been written following his move from Moseley
branch to Saltley branch.

(October 28th 2009)