“Remoted” – Day 380 (Wednesday)

Fresh out of college, my career started in banking in the headquarters of a tiny bank with three offices where each of us had multiple roles. Every teller also had a backroom function, and mine was handling the IRA accounts. From the tiny bank I moved to the larger bank next door, starting at the teller line, then the IRA department, accounts payable, and cash management. During my time there, the bank underwent a merger with a bank in a neighboring city. 

In the last department I worked in at the second bank, my manager was a former bond trader who ended every phone call with “Bye bye, and buy bonds.” Every call. All day, every day. That team was smart, funny, and talented, and we sometimes hung around together outside work. 

Former HQ of a former bank and former employer.

One day, it all changed when the bank was taken over by the FDIC. My department knew it was coming – the executive vice president who headed our department told us and swore us to secrecy. For weeks we rode it out, bearing the weight of knowledge and waiting for March 31, which we knew to be the day the FDIC was coming in.

That designated Friday, as the specified hour approached, we kept watch out the large window in our second-floor office. From there, we had a clear view of the parking lot behind the building at 15 Monument Square. It was the same window that entertained us with views of the liquor store next door. There were patrons who would exit the store and take a walk behind the store to drink, take care of personal toileting needs, and sometimes pass out, to be driven away in an ambulance.

Leading up to the bank’s closing, we had heard stories about vans pulling in and briefcase toting regulators in trench coats piling out and swooping in to take control of a bank. That is exactly what unfolded as we watched from our window. It was less shocking for us than for our colleagues who had no clue, and it was also crazy and stressful with heavy surreal overtones.