Background
Joe Frazier was a young trainee working in a branch of the bank a few miles from his home and had recently been assigned to be a cashier, where he was just getting the hang of his duties in what was a quiet country branch. There was little pressure on the staff and Joe was able to cope easily with the work load.
After some weeks of this quiet life Joe was summoned by the branch accountant and told that there was a problem at Miltown branch where many of the staff had caught a bug and they were very short of cashiers. Consequently Joe was asked to report to Miltown branch the following day for a brief attachment and warned that it was a busy branch which would really test his abilities.
When he arrived just in time at the unfamiliar Miltown office the next day, after a more difficult than expected journey caused by a road accident, he was directed to the senior cashier Eric, who seemed less grateful for Joe’s presence than he had expected and spent very little time briefing him on what to expect.
During an increasingly busy day, quite a queue of customers built up and Joe worked as quickly as he could when he found in front of him a gentleman who announced loudly that he was a former manager of the branch and “that standards appear to have slipped since I retired” leaving Joe somewhat flustered, particularly when Eric the senior cashier came up behind him and started talking to the man.
It transpired that the customer was Mr. Macdonagh who had retired from the bank about 10 years ago and was now the secretary of the local golf club, which kept its account at Miltown. He came into the branch regularly and paid in large numbers of cheques and cash and frequently was impatient with the cashier if he was not served with what he considered to be adequate speed and deference.
Joe was conscious of the other customers waiting behind Mr. Macdonagh and began to check the deposit as quickly as he could, but he was unable to reconcile the amount of cash on his till with the figure on the credit slip and became increasingly anxious. Eric, noticing a potential incident seized the deposit from Joe’s position, saying to Mr. Macdonagh “I am sure that we can rely on our former manager to get things right.” He stamped the Golf club paying in book with Joe’s position stamp and gave the book back to Macdonagh, who thanked him grudgingly and left.
As things quietened down, Eric told Joe to close his till and check the golf club deposit carefully and to make sure that it was right, as the last thing they needed was Macdonagh complaining about them as he still had friends in the bank. Joe counted the cash several times but each time he came down to the fact that there was a £10 shortfall in the cash deposit and he wondered what he should do.
Finally, he plucked up the courage to report the shortfall to Eric, who looked distinctly unhappy at what Joe told him and said that as Joe had stamped Macdonagh’s deposit receipt, the simple answer was that they would have to report it on the end of the week return of “overs and shorts in tills,” which as luck would have it was being submitted that day. Eric told Joe that he would help him complete the form explaining how the loss had arisen but that Joe would have to request the accountant to countersign the form. Joe accepted what Eric said but felt that he was being made responsible for something that was not his fault and was particularly aggrieved that the accountant brusquely told him that he would have to be more careful in future, if he was to get on.
Joe felt rather belittled by this treatment and when he returned to Miltown the next day, he was determined to be on his guard.
Fortunately the branch was a bit quieter and Eric was soon making noises about not needing Joe the next day when he saw Macdonagh enter the branch and head straight for Joe’s till which fortuitously had no customers.
“Young man” he said, “I don’t know what they teach you at school these days, but you seem unable to count any better than the people we employ at the golf club. They found £10 under the drawer of the till in the bar, which they said had been included in the club deposit, which you certified as being correct. So who does this £10 belong to?” and he pushed a £10 note towards Joe.
At that point, Eric, who had been hovering once again, took the note saying to Macdonagh “I’m awfully sorry that you had a problem yesterday. This young man had found a discrepancy in his till at the end of the day and we had identified the likely source as your deposit and were going to phone you, so thank you so much for coming in.” Macdonagh looked witheringly at him, turned round and stumped off, whereupon Eric, with the £10 note in his hand returned to his position as another customer stood before Joe.
The dilemma
Shortly before the end of the day, Eric approaches Joe and thanks him for his hard work, saying that the busy days of the week are now past, a number of staff will be returning the next day and so Joe can return to his own branch, but in the meantime should take the opportunity to leave an hour early. Joe is quite relieved and grateful to have a head start on the commuter traffic, so he does not give another thought to the question of the £100 until he is on his way home, when he begins to mull over what happened and what if anything he should do. Joe feels that Eric made him look foolish both in the branch and with the controlling office, to whom his name will be reported. And what has become of the £100, which should have gone into his till, but seemed to have stuck to Eric’s hand and why did Eric send him home early?
Options
As he sits at a red light he muses on the possible courses of action open to him.
- Should he ring Eric the next day and check that he has done what he should, crediting Joe’s till with £100, or will Eric feel that Joe is suggesting that he may have pocketed the money?
- Should he forget the matter and assume that it is just one of those things?He is not going back to Miltown and is unlikely to see Eric again, so there really is no need to do anything.
- Should he contact the bank’s confidential helpline and report what happened? But anything he says will be pretty specific and so if they do anything it can easily be traced back to him.
- Should he discuss it with his own accountant, but what if he then rings the Miltown accountant and says that Joe is concerned about the £100; that will still make him look bad and may easily be seen as accusing Eric of pocketing the money.
Verdict
It is best for Joe to discuss this with his line manager in his own branch, to make his own role transparent and to raise any irregularities. This avoids any direct confrontation with Eric or the accountants, and Joe’s line manager should be able to judge the best course of action.
Further reading