Tuesday, July 31, 2007

We Don't Take Kindly To Your Kind Here, Ma'am

The lobby is bustling today, with a line stretching to the door. We are down a teller. The ones we have are not really doing a great job dealing with the stress. I see a woman walk into the lobby, look at the line, and then walk back out. A few seconds later, at the drive up camera, I see the same woman walk up to the tube and put a transaction in. The tube crashes down into the receptacle behind us, and every client in the lobby suddenly realizes that this woman is trying to circumvent them.

In layman’s terms, she’s a dirty little line cutter.

One of the young tellers begins to get out of her chair, saying something about the woman’s ridiculous attempt to butt ahead of people.

“Leave it,” I say, “I’ll handle this.”

I let the woman wait a few moments. The teller call alert sounds out. Her highness is beckoning.

“Yes?” I say pleasantly into the microphone.

“I’m on lunch,” the woman says.

“Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry, but we generally do not accept walk ups to the drive up lane. It’s a safety issue. I will make an exception this time, but you’ll need to be patient while we help the customers at our stations.”

“I’m on lunch,” she repeated nastily.

“I understand that,” I replied calmly. “We’re very busy at the moment.”

“I’m in a rush!” she said, screeching like a Skexie from the Dark Crystal.

“I gather that,” I replied, “but so is everyone else in the branch, and their time is just as valuable as yours, so you’ll need to wait your turn.”

The next client I helped shook my hand. : )

I hope she wasn’t as important as she thought she was, or I’m gonna be out of a job.