bank clerk

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Arvest Bank

A typical day at work consisted of arriving to find that only one other co-workers behind the teller line actually was doing their job (there were six total tellers behind the line most of the time). Then, the request by management for you to work increasingly harder to pick up the slack for the others texting on phones, conversing in the back, playing games/surfing the web, or eating and drinking (non alcoholic) would begin. Other employees would not be accountable for their mistakes, and it was like working with a group of children.

Even if I worked at maximum efficiency, exceeded all personal sales goals, and did everything and then some in my job description, I would be pulled into an office and raked over the coals by management because I accidentally mispronounced a customer's last name (spelled similarly to qbsdiuhsudhsfoisdfosduhfsoid) or initialed a form 11 times instead of the mandated 12 times.

Management clearly played favorites with employees rather than being impartial leaders with the goals of keeping all employees focused on performing to the best of their abilities in a safe and serene work environment. If you did so much as breathe in the direction of a golden employee (and it was perceived as a slight), you would be called into the office by the manager playing favorites and be excoriated without any considerations of the circumstances or what actually transpired.

As someone, who was a model employee and was looking for advancement opportunities at Arvest, I was extremely disappointed about many things. Arvest claimed to have a desire to promote from within the company, but, every time I would look on LinkedIn, I would realize that they were consistently "welcoming new employee X acquired from company Y (not Arvest)". Additionally, the time it takes to get a promotion is INSANE! One of the tellers I worked with was on the teller line for EIGHT YEARS before getting a (well deserved) promotion. Yet another teller has been there for SEVEN years and is still on the teller line. Waiting close to a decade before advancing in the company is INSANE! They want to train someone to be the best teller and then keep them their indefinitely with tiny raises and a non-existent chance for promotion.

Finally, the contradictions of management were enough to make you go insane. Management would say things like "we want you to feel empowered to make decisions to help make the customer experience better" but then they will get mad at you if you do anything that they did not approve. Once I had an angry customer, and I decided to listen, look at his issue, and actually spend the time necessary to resolve his issue. Rather that getting a "thank you for going above and beyond to help this customer" or a "we appreciate that you could help that customer with his issues and calm him down when no one else could", I received an "in the future, you should never take that long to address a customer's concerns", "you should have sent their call to me", and "you need to go back and read your job description and re-complete some training." Management also said to meet employees from other branches to know your fellow employees and feel comfortable asking for help and collaborating to help customers. However, if you talk with another employee at another branch on the phone or via messaging and email, they will scold you for getting to know the other branch employees and for being friendly with them.

This job will pay the bills, but it will not lead to a career. You are only fooling yourself if you believe that the company actually cares about your happiness and success. While working there, I had a friend with a job as a waiter at a restaurant in the same city. He averaged $15/hr while the bank was barely paying above minimum wage. They ask a huge amount of work and responsibility out of their employees and expect to pay them barely above minimum wage, which is simply a disgrace considering that one of the richest men in the WORLD owns this bank and other competitors were offering $13/hr starting wages.

Caveat Emptor! You will not get what you bargained for when you accept a teller job at Arvest. It will be the seventh circle with hundreds of middle management Nero types waiting to play you a tune.

I was an FSR
Branch management is not held accountable for their actions whatsoever, they are allowed to do whatever they want "it's their branch". There is no fairness when it comes to performance, one teller will make the same mistake 10 times and get nothing more than a coaching, but another teller will make the same mistake once and get a final warning to termination.
Upper management plays no active role at the branch level (other than showing up to find a reason to fire someone).
Sales culture is out of this world, there's not one second I wasn't forced to think about some sales opportunity or where we stand for the month/year.
The benefits are nice, but the pay is horrifying. It is a VERY well-known fact that Arvest pays less than any other bank. They've even made "adjustments" in the last year to make their minimum pay more "competitive". That just made a small bridge in that pay gap. P.S. to anyone who cares, as of now (Feb 2019) the starting pay for tellers is invariably 11.50, they don't adjust based on qualifications.
You will almost always have somewhere to go since there is literally a department for every tiny, little thing you could imagine. Call one and they'll tell you another that may, or may not, exist. I was literally given a number and department to call and it didn't even exist anymore and hadn't for years.
The advancement process might as well be applying for new jobs. You literally go to the careers page and apply and go through an interview process, the only benefit is that they interview internal applicants before considering externally. Any bonuses like your annual raise are forfeited upon promotion, effectively meaning you could decrease in pay. An example, I knew a teller who'd been in the position for 24 years, pay was capped and no longer increasing. If they promoted to FSR, they'd take a minimum of a $6/hr decrease in pay. Other than annual raises that are based on performance and usually not exceeding $0.10/hr, there aren't any benefits given to long-term employees.

This is a great job if you want to get your food in the door for any jobs in the finance sector. Arvest does provide very good health care and is very generous with meals and staff events during the holiday season. Arvest is big about fostering community among it's employees. Arvest also provides very good compensation if you need to travel for training. Arvest also tries to expose you to all differnt parts of the company, which means that after about a year or two you will have great experience in the financial sector. 

This is very much the kind of company that prefers you to have a "team player" attitude. You will do well as long as you keep your head down and do your job. You are valued more for your productivity and ability to conform to the "Arvest culture". Individuality is not encouraged. If you do not fit in with your team you will likely have trouble being promoted. You can have the best numbers and still not be promoted if your manager does not like you.

Your ability to move up in the company is definitely more about who likes you and who you are connected to than your actual performance. The best tellers and FSRs might stay in their rolls instead of moving up because managers want to keep them on their team. Also, your promotion can be hindered if your team is short staffed. 

The systems at Arvest are quite dated and can cause customers a lot of frustration. You are expected to placate customers whenever the system crashes or causes issues with customer accounts. 

The pay isn't great. other banks in the area will offer you more money for the same job. Some branches will be very accomodating to school and family schedules, within reason. 

All-in-all, if you conform to the company standards and make good relationships with your co-workers, you will do well. This is a great stepping stone to other companies in the financial sector, and will look great on resumes to Fortune 500 companies.

I enjoyed this job very much during the first 3 months that I worked there. The staff was friendly, the mangers actually seemed to care about you and the pay was ok. The issue began when they started to implement several new policies. every week, there was a new "Arvest Law" as some of us called it. It also seemed as if some coworkers were overlooked when it came to enforcing these new policies. For instance, if we took a restroom break, we would get questioned if it took longer than 5 minutes, we were not allowed to have our phones out yet there were people who would leave their phones on their desks and never get noticed. I used my phone once and was "caught". I was told that I had to leave it in my car from that point on and I was even escorted out to my vehicle to make sure I left it out there. I was furious not because I needed my phone, but because I was the only one that was treated like some high school delinquent. All my coworkers thought it was funny that the managers went that far as to punish me for such a menial thing. I was embarrassed to find out that no one else had ever been put through that even though they had done worse. Even when I was "let go" the managers escorted me out and wouldn't let me return to my desk to retrieve my personal belongings (books, bag, pens, cups, trinkets). They insisted that they would mail everything to me. I agreed simply because I didn't want them to think I was resisting. I soon found that to be a mistake because they failed to return all my personal belongings. It was also nearly impossible to ask off for even a day unless it was a Saturday. The managers originally told us that as long as we asked 2 weeks ahead, they would try to let us off. I would ask a month in advance and they still would deny my days off. I had 80 hours of paid time off built up because they never let me use it. Never again will I work for a company as dishonest and biased as Arvest Bank.

I enjoyed working for the Arvest team in Tulsa until new management came in.  When I started the manager was a great guy and the team worked well together however he was forced out and they brought in a branch manager (hence the reason I left) to fill his place. She did not know anything about working in a contact center and had to learn from the representatives and her supervisor crew. When she first arrived she held one on one meetings with us to "find out more about us and to see if there were any issues that needed to be addressed" however, we found out all too soon that that was not the real meaning behind the meetings.  There is one supervisor that is, with lack of better words down right mean and moody so we told the new manager about her and how she treated everyone on the floor. When the new manager was there the second week she began to take the information that we offered and use it against us even going as far as to make some of us feel inferior no matter how well we did our jobs.  The company proclaims to be "one big family" and that once you are an employee of Arvest you are family. This is not true unless you are one of their pets and never buck up against their ways even if their way is condescending or even immoral. I would like to say that it stopped there but it did not, HR is no better then the managers so going to them in "confidence" was a joke in its self.  The co-workers ( the ones that toughed it out) were great and really stood behind one another and I would not trade the friendships that I made during the two years that I was there for anything. The regional managers are out of touch so going to them with anything was also a joke. Would not recommend working for this company to anyone unless they enjoy back biting and being belittled.

Arvest is a great place to work.  While I have not worked in a department that lets you work chedules other than 8 to 5, the rule in my division is you can clock in up to 8:10 without an issue.  You can take short or long lunches, or have appointments, and the supervisors are really flexible, as long as you work with them and get your 40 hours in.  There are lots of Arvest locations, so you can likely find a job in the spot that is the most convenient for you.  The chain of command tries to make it fun and add conveniences for the regular workers, there are lots of activities like fun meetings, picnics, blood drives, etc. The PTO policy is good; it adds up quickly and you don't have a "use by" date.  You can accrue as much as you like and pretty much use it whenever you want.  As a mother of two little ones, I have never had an issue leaving early to get a child or if I have to run something to school or want to volunteer.  
They are quick to help you in your career, there are lots of opportunities to move around if you don't like the position you're in.  
One thing I don't like is the pay scale, I feel it is industry low.  Then over the last few years, they have revamped it several times and the scale keeps getting lower.  Also I feel that it is hard to move to a higher paying position, as the managers tend to stick around.  That's good for the people, not a lot of managerial turnover, however it's bad if you're wanting to move into a higher position.  Another thing I don't care for is there seems to be something of a buddy system.  If a manager has a position open, sometimes they give it to "who they know" rather than maybe who is actually the best person for the job.  So they have the job posting open and waste everyone's time by interviewing everyone that is qualified for it, when they know going in, who they are going to hire.

I worked here for 2 years. When I was interviewing for this job, I was under the impression that this was a customer service job. It wasn’t until I had worked here for around a month that they starting “coaching” me on selling products. I feel like I was deceived into thinking this was not sales related. The longer I worked there, the worse the sales culture got. More & more they expected tellers to make sales calls and promote products to customers. Even going so far to threaten a write up if you were not recommending products to customers. The managers are not trained well. They do not know how to handle conflict. I had a few horrible managers while I was there because of the high turnover rate. My last manager was not fit for her role. She was lazy and would pass work off on the tellers when she didn’t want to do it. She did not lead by example and when I didn’t respect her authority, I was reprimanded. HR never got my side of the story and completely sided with management. Management protects management. If you’re not management than your opinion does not matter. I learned that the hard way. HR worker told me she wanted to fire me because I angrily expressed my feelings after building up frustration for months. Once again, never getting my side of the story. HR not only threatened me with my job but deliberately talked down to me during the entire exchange and had a hostile demeanor. If you can work somewhere else, I would. The pay is not near enough for the amount of stress.

When I started I was a part-time FSR (did everything but loans) with no experience and left as Asst Manager. For all of the training that I got I am eternally grateful. I loved my co-workers at both branches I worked at except my last branch manager & regional manager. They are unfortunately a large part in why I no longer work for Arvest. We had individual & branch sales & referral goals for each quarter that we made into a friendly competition to help each other reach our goals.

A month after coming back to work after losing my daughter it was "strongly suggested" that I take a transfer that had already been decided on between the regional manager & my current manager. Since I didn't have a choice I took one of my employees promotion & they took my position. Once I got to the branch, the branch manager I was supposed to work with for 2 weeks before a new manager transferred in walked out due to a fight with the regional manager. I was left with a untrained staff. The staff went behind my back with every decision that I made to the regional manager (which I found out months later from one of the staff not a manager). There was several breaches in HR policies that I unfortunately did not report due to the on going stress of dealing with my daughter's death.

Ultimately the last 5 months that I worked for this bank ruined what I loved about the company. Like I said before I loved my customers & all of my co-workers except the last branch & regional managers.

As a part time associate, you'll work 20-29 hours per week which leaves much room for a social life. The hourly pay is a bit lower than most banks, but it balances out because Arvest offers a generous incentive plan for its sales program(which isn't stressfully aggressive by the way) AND health insurance, PTO, 401k contribution and vacation days are still available even for a part timer!

There is a ton of room for advancement. An employee can apply and interview for a new position every 6 months or so, so you can move up in the company fairly quickly. You probably cant go from a teller to a branch manager in a year, but going from a teller to senior teller to lender to asst branch manager in 3-4 years is palpable!

The management is very understanding and for the most part, tend to be "hands-off" with a little coaching here and there because it is required, not because you are doing bad (once a month, typically). I've come across a few petty, snooty, micro-managers during my years here but they come once in a blue moon. They don't last long here because the Arvest culture just isn't a good fit for those types of people. It is way too family-like and laid back.

Overall, its a great place to work both full-time and part-time, as a custodian or as management! Everyone is treated with respect and given opportunities to grow!

Most days were very busy which can be a good thing.  Our goals for the day were very clear, but as the day progressed, could become overwhelming with many interruptions.  I value the team work I learned and experienced and overall, I believed that management was as supportive as possible, but their work load was consuming as well.  The workplace culture for the most part was supportive, but could be intimidating as there was an expectation of wanting you to continue to advance and I really wanted to remain as a support member.  Since I did not have a college degree, I felt I could best serve in a supportive role remaining where I was.  I liked the work but could tell there was always a push to reorganize positions to require degrees and or upward advancement which caused many seniors/employees to be let go under the guise of position dissolution.  I think the hardest part was keeping up with the work load and time management to do so.  I truly enjoyed the comradery of fellow employees and we were treated to special activities during 'appreciation weeks' on an annual basis.

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