Pros
- 3 days training off-site before you start in branch, they invest time and money in their employees - Co-workers become your second family - Decent benefits, the best being 6% employee match for 401ks - Doughnuts and branch lunches on Fridays, birthdays and other milestone celebrations were nice to have as well. - Being paid for full-time hours even though we operated for less hours due to COVID-19 was very generous of them.
Cons
I can usually find common ground/ get along and be civil with my uppers, but the one I worked with was one of the worst I've experienced: - Didn't lead by example - Cold, off-putting and aggressive - Would constantly make other people (especially those on the platform/ personal banker side) do his work for him - Would never have his passwords memorized or up-to-date when it came to overrides/ approvals due to tellers limits. - He was the embodiment of an old/ privileged white male mindset, where it doesn't matter if or how much you screw up, the bank will still keep you around, business continues "as usual", and you can take naps in your office and collect a 6- figure paycheck for literally doing nothing/ the bare minimum. - There are no branches outside of CA. As an employee that means you have to leave for another employer. As a customer that means you have to do business with more than one financial institution. * When I started with Mechanics Bank (I was there for 2 years) I felt good about being with this bank/ brand and staying with them for the long haul while I grew my banking/ finance career or eventually leaving for a bigger and better opportunity (this was my first role in banking/ finance), but after being let-go my views and overall dislike/ distrust of them has greatly increased: - The acquisition of Rabobank completely changed how the bank does business: * Mechanics Bank adopted Rabobank policies and vice-versa. - Because the policies changed, back office departments that aren't customer facing and handle the majority of the work would then change on what felt like a day to day basis, which led to frustration from the customer and me as a teller in regards to who to reach out to or what to do depending on the situation. - This also caused the customer service number to be backed up/ swamped for days on end which led to extremely frustrated customers because the wait/ hold times were hours, or the call would simply get dropped. - It caused solid, loyal employees to leave, assimilate into a new role, or have a branch/ back office be closed entirely, absorbed into another branch or back office which as a consequence meant ultimately being let go, like me. I wasn't fired, I was let go due to over saturation caused by this acquisition, but more so because I feel Mechanics Bank was done with the "old" employees who had been loyal and stuck around for years to make way for new employees.