Some Employees Pushed to Work New Bankers’ Hours

Bankers’ hours have gone the way of teller’s cages and green eyeshades, many employees of major financial institutions are learning.

Wells Fargo this week notified 5,500 branch employees that they must be willing to work evenings and Saturdays or look for another job. Other major banks that have opened their branches on Saturdays and stayed open later on weekdays for the last few months said they have been able to cover the extra hours with a combination of volunteers and mandatory assignments.

The longer hours are largely the result of intensified competition that has emerged in recent months among the state’s big banks. Wells initiated the move to extend hours, which traditionally were 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. five days a week.

All of the banks report enthusiastic customer response to the foray into Saturday banking, a territory that savings and loans had controlled for years.

“It’s like the retail business,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Kim Kellogg said. “If you work for Macy’s or Nordstrom, you have to be willing to work weekends.”

So far, Wells has been relying on volunteers to work evenings--the branches have been open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. since April--and on Saturdays but now wants to start a more formal scheduling system, Kellogg said.

An employee will not be asked to work every Saturday, when the branches are open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the bank will continue to allow employees who work the four hours on Saturday to take off an entire day during the week, Kellogg said.

Kellogg said the bank is trying to be sensitive to employees’ objections. Those who decide to quit will be given counseling and help in finding new jobs as well as paid leave ranging from one to three months.

At Bank of America, spokeswoman Cynthia Kasabian said: “Pretty much, we have been able to handle it on a voluntary basis, but that doesn’t mean we wait till Saturday for people to volunteer.” The bank assigns people to work when there are not enough volunteers, she said.

Security Pacific uses a combination of volunteers and scheduled employees, said spokeswoman Deborah K. Lewis.

First Interstate has been rotating Saturday duty among teams of employees, some of whom prefer to work Saturdays, said Joe Bernhardt, vice president and district manager of the Orange County and Inland Empire divisions.