Work Hours

When I was growing up (centuries ago, seems like), everybody talked about 'banker's hours'. I wasn't paying much attention at that tender age, but apparently, bankers started work in mid-morning, and closed up before most folks got off work. Oh, and they probably had a long lunch in there, too. Looking back, I wonder how people managed to do any banking at all; there was no direct deposit, no drive-up windows, no evening or weekend hours when the bank was open. But it must have been nice to BE a banker; no getting up before the sun, no late hours, and you got all sorts of holidays off.

But times have changed, as people say. I have a friend who works in a bank. She doesn't work in the lobby, helping customers; no, she works in one of the back offices where they push papers around and never really even touch money. So, she's a banker, since she works in a bank. But bankers hours have changed. She and her co-workers arrive before the bank lobby opens, they work a full day and trudge out as the guards lock the building up, past the ATMs and the still-open drive-through windows to their cars in the parking lot. And this year, when Christmas and New Year's Day happen on the weekend, they don't get any time off for them. Some of the back offices in these large banks have more than one shift. How would you like to be a banker working the 'graveyard' shift?

No doubt in my mind; bankers hours aren't what they used to be.