Banker's Hours...

There is an old saying about bankers that goes something like:

"Charge 'em six percent, pay 'em three,

In the office by nine, on the golf course by three"

Boy, how times have changed!

At a time when all our neighbors and friends are getting ready to go on vacation and forget about work for awhile, does it seem to you that our pace has picked up?

Between the examinations in New England, the mergers in Texas, the government check fraud in the northwest, the money laundering in the southeast, the real estate problems in the west, the Community Reinvestment Act enforcement, the Bank Secrecy Act changes, the Bank Protection Act changes, Regulation CC changes, and the FDIC Insurance notification for every depositor in the United States-who has time to go on vacation?

And if you did go-or have been-it will take you a couple of weeks just to get caught up on what happened while you were away!

"Banker's hours" have become a part of our colloquial language, a term that means a six hour work day, with plenty of time for play.

Some bankers I know don't show up at their desk until nine or ten in the morning. That's because they have already attended a breakfast meeting and made two calls before coming into the office.

And they will probably still be at their desk long after six or seven o'clock that night.

Some very clever bankers are fighting back. I've learned that some of them schedule 11:00 a.m. meetings away from their office on Friday. If you don't finish up the meeting until long after lunch...no sense going back to the office then, eh?

But most times bankers put in long, hard hours-and still manage to be pleasant with customers and fellow workers alike.

Try to be patient with your friends who kid you about your "banker's hours." You have a lot of company out there in financial institutions all over the United States-bankers who are keeping the same hours you are. Not liking it, mind you-but keeping them just the same.

And try to have a great vacation!

Copyright © 1990 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 1, No. 6, 7/90