vice president

branch manager

teller

software engineer

investigator

Bank of the West

Pros:
•	The 401K vests immediately and the bank matches up to 6% per year, which is very good for the banking industry. 
•	Good vacation time accrual (2-3 weeks a year or more).
•	PTO (Sick time) hours allowed is very good. 
•	Flexible with unpaid days off if you have a family emergency and are out of PTO hours. 
•	Most of my coworkers are friendly, smart and hardworking. 
•	Depending on job/department and manager, it may by Independent work with minimal supervision. 
•	Some jobs can be remote up to 100% of the time. 
•	My job can be fun and rewarding at times.
•	My former boss was amazing and was great at appreciating us as individuals, and as workers. 
•	My new boss is very nice and wants you to make remote work and work/life balance a priority.
•	The bank is trying to be more efficient with people, money and physical assets. 
•	A lot of different benefits are available to most employees. (Legal/Life ins./credit monitoring/tuition reimbursement).
•	There are a lot of choices of medical/dental/vision plans with varying costs. 
•	Lots of ‘new blood’ are hired often who bring in new ideas and new ways to do things.
•	Most employees get a raise yearly. 
•	The bank has finally decided to focus on its home state, California, to drive business growth.
•	Bank of the West ‘cares’ about its employees.
•	Bank of the West tries to invest in earth friendly projects and companies.
 

Cons:
•	The 401K MIGHT be the best incentive to work here. 
•	Employees have to take at least 1 week off consecutively, which may not work out if you have a family. Some positions must take off for TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS, which is just crazy. 
•	Some of my coworkers are lazy, rude, idiots. I’m not sure how some of these people have worked here for 5+ years, much less hold down a job, at all.
•	Having too many employees working independently can bring DOWN productivity and create ‘silos’, even unintentionally. 
•	Some employees in my own department have no idea what jobs other people, sitting 5 feet away, are doing. 
•	Many of the middle managers at the bank are like petty teenagers. They gossip and talk about the others behind their backs and will throw anyone under the bus to save themselves. Luckily for many of them, no one notices, because there is SO MUCH incompetence in the V.P. levels and up (in almost every department)
•	My job can be stressful, unnecessarily, when incompetent and lazy business partners try to blame you for their many failures.
•	A reorg caused the bank to lose many talented people, many who had been with the bank for years.
•	My former boss seems miserable in their new role.
•	My new boss works hard but seems ‘out of their element’ often. They are not very inspiring as a leader. 
•	The bank HAS NOT become more efficient with people, money and physical assets. Bank of the West make HUGE plans, and then rarely follows through, or gives up on those plans, often without notice.
•	Most of the benefits are pretty expensive, and the bank has made it much harder to qualify for some of them, (like tuition reimbursement).
•	All of the Health insurance options are very expensive, Bank of the West has never offered very good benefits, in my opinion. 
•	This year the bank decided to shift much of the cost of their health care costs onto their OWN EMPLOYEES. They have a new tier based system to offset premium costs on lower salaried employees. They are actually just passing more cost on to everyone. A few in the ‘low pay’ bracket will save some % annually, but the Bank is actually saving themselves millions by charging their own employees a large % more. This is the Bank basically cutting the salary of half their employees! 
•	Most of ‘new blood’ hired realize after a year that they made a mistake. They rarely stay for 18 months or more and then they find another place to work where they will get paid a FAIR salary.
•	Most employees get a raise yearly….. Of 1%. 2% if you FAR EXCEED expectations. They make you feel bad for even ASKING for more.. ‘the bank is having a hard time financially right now…’ What? Bank of the West made $540 Million in 2018 and also got a huge tax cut. Being cheap with employee compensation is one of the main factors as to why they will never be an elite bank.
•	I've worked here over 5 years and some new hires make more than me. 
•	The bank could pay employees for the skills they have to offer. Yet, the only way to get paid fairly is to leave the bank, and come back as a NEW EMPLOYEE. 
•	Now they implemented a new 6 point ratings system (for the annual review) which is designed to keep 85% of all employees in the Meets Expectations range (or lower). This will lower the average ratings overall and most employees rating, so they can pay out EVEN LOWER raises and bonuses (if you one of the lucky ones to get those at all). 
•	The employee Individual Development Plans (IDP’s) are a way to make you feel like you have to defend your job every year. You will need to track every document, email, project, training class, phone call, IM, etc. to ensure that you can prove you worked since your last review. If you don’t your job may ‘go away’.
•	The banks ‘Take California’ initiative took off like a lead balloon. I hardly hear about it anymore. California, has a massive economy, but the bank has failed to make it an asset. 
•	Bank of the West (claims that it) ‘cares’ about its employees. They do not, it is a lie. Don’t believe them. You are an easily replaceable cog in the machine… that’s all. They will underpay and overwork you and make you feel bad, if you complain. 
•	Instead of paying the employees and making them feel valued, employees are getting transferred, outsourced or having their jobs eliminated. 
•	A very smart, talented coworker was just eliminated last week, strictly to save money.
•	The bank continues to relocate staff to Tempe, AZ the last two to three years. This has led to losing many good workers. Will continue to have smaller scale layoffs in the future, which is further hurting morale and makes workers afraid to make a mistake, or even call in sick. 
•	The people aren't moving to AZ (as management had planned), they're taking the severance pay. So now they have cut that back by a lot as well.  
•	Expenses have been cut back so much that we have to wait months for software or even weeks for office supplies. Sometimes invoices come back unpaid and you have to PROVE why it was necessary to buy that office supply 2 months ago. 
•	Bank of the West is SO SLOW to change. They waste millions of dollars on software but never spend the money to make sure it ever works or is implemented correctly. Every system launch/rollout in the last 2 years has been a massive failure with huge down times and sky high promises, yet with minuscule results. Often the IT and Tech fixes for the systems take months to implement and are usually just Band-Aids. Also, adding new systems and processes, while moving most of the IT jobs to India will never work.
•	No promotion opportunities. They hire managers from outside and don’t promote from within, so hopefully you like your role, because you will be in it forever. More former managers are not there now than those who have been promoted. 
•	Management is becoming more heavy-handed and micro-managing employees, which is not how it was before. 
•	Turnover rate is high in most departments and abysmal for the bank, overall.
•	The people in HR do not care about the employees. They are only there to defend the bank. If you get harassed by your boss or have a disagreement with a coworker, they will do everything they can to blame it on you completely. 
•	Everything is dictated by BNP Paribas (the French parent company) they have noticeably taken over the bank and brought on many of their employees into the company. They hold most of the Sr. Management positions and have a blind loyalty to BNPP and expect all employees to also. They always say YES to BNPP and employees MUST work around the clock to catch up to unrealistic promises. They've brought on the ‘French way’, which is ‘not caring about your employees’. The French did not understand the American market as well as they thought they did, yet they override the local decision making.
•	There is a complete lack of direction, with a new initiative rolled out seemingly every week.
•	Leadership (including the CEO) don’t care about their customers or employees (who do the actual work). 
•	If the bank truly cares about the employees, management should address why many of the same issues, consistently brought up, are never corrected. 
•	Bank of The West is an awful, crooked, lying, greedy, cheap bank with no vision and no future.

Great starter bank. Once you can get out, I definitely recommend doing so. I absolutely loved my job there. You meet great people in the company and out. If you have a problem my word of advice is just buckle it up and lock your problems away. Nothing gets taken care of at Bank of The West. Every job has its ups and downs but there are things at this bank that needs to be addressed.  At Bank of The West they protect the higher ups and fire anyone who who goes to HR or a higher manager. I had a friend that went to HR because our manager was chewing us out AND at the same time bragging about her 5k bonus. Now I personally didn’t care but he did. Not long after his reporting of her he was fired. He was under his probation period and let him go. There have been things I’ve mentioned to my manager to address and to possibly just tone down because the way things get handled is unprofessional and inappropriate. Management at the moment excepts the advice but within a week goes back to the old habits. If you happen to go to a higher manager such as the regional manager you will just get pulled into the conference room and chewed out by your current manager. There was several instances where this happened to the employees. I was once told by my manager after getting chewed out for reporting a situation via email to my regional manager that “our regional manager doesn’t want to hear from you at all. He can careless. If you want to get something to him you send the email or whatever to me first. Then we will forward it or decide what happens.” In my mind this is a sense of protecting your own behind and incorrect information that my manager provided me. 
Your job at Bank of The West. You’ll get hired on in a specific role but end up doing just about everyone else’s job but yours. What do I mean by this? When I was working at Bank of The West I was hired as a Service Banker and moved up to a Universal Banker. Now from the start of a Service Banker I did the job of my own, my manager (besides the in-depth stuff), my banker, and most of all our SSO/Compliance officer. I had to not only focus on my goals in the company but manager to focus on making sure our branch was up to code with retention and correspondence. Which of course if an auditor came in and something was wrong the management would throw you under the buss and flip out on you for the mistake that was not even part of your job. Now if you’re looking for a raise good luck. I know every situation is different. I know there are some consideration for stuff like this but all I can say is good luck. I once found a job with better pay and was pursuing it. I got the job just needed to accept it. I told my management and they said I was a valuable employee and held the team together. They admitted I did more work than I was required to do and I do it good. They mentioned they did not want to lose me so they wanted to “give me a promotion and raise” but they needed “reassurance” that I would accept this job opportunity I was given. So I turned down the job. They gave me a .20 cent raise and moved my job title up with the same job duties as before. They dangle job positions over your head and will retract it saying “it wasn’t approved”. 
Now if you do end up working for Bank of The West just let me tell you, when you call the “back office” for help or information take it with a grain of salt and ALWAYS get a second answer or opinion. The back office will tell you one thing, your manager will tell you another thing, and of course our auditors will tell you an absolutely different thing. There is no sense of direction or guidance there. 

In conclusion of this long book of an rant for Bank of The West, it has its flaws BUT it has its pros. I’m guessing not all branches are terrible and the company is probably great to grow in. Just make sure you learn your managers and the ones around you. Never let your great talent and hard work be taken advantage of because it will be. Bank of The West is definitely a good starter bank to get into but other financial institutions offer more. 

A typical day at work I had to be there at 830am I had to secure check with a manager. Then we go in the building I turn my computer on sign on click onto teller 1, time tracker, touch point sales and service, and then lock my computer go to my coin vault get my coin out for the day, make sure everything is stocked at the desk station im at,go to the vault with a manager and get my drawer, Print out a night drop form from bank of the west info. fill it out time date name and go with the manger in dual control check if there was and night drops made if so open in dual control run with the machine and both signatures have to be on that deposit sheet for verification and write the bag numbers, then go into the computer still in dual enter each bag into the computer. organize the money, as a customer service rep. we had limits mine was 10,000 if I went over that I had to go in my computer and sell to the vault and go again with a manager both sign the recipt enter it in the book. At 9:00am we open I offer promotions and great products that will help the customers.. I make depoists, cash checks make money orders cashier checks, handle lawyer accounts with there buisness and personal and small buisness accounts personal accts.. the phone rings so we do take calls sometimes it can be another branch wanting to verify a acct, I know how to fax a signature card and help with that branch. I know how to check if a money or a check is fraud buy calling the number they have provided for us. Buy now it's lunch I go at 11am then I come back at 12pm Then I continue working and taking customers sometimes I work in drive thru that was fun. At the end of the day it was my job to help with atm so I would go back into bank of the west info print out a sheet that says atm balnce log sometimes the atm needs to be loaded so if so it needs a seprate sheet for that, me and a manager would go open the atm and load it and balance it then get any paper depoist if there was any made then set the alarm then open the envolopes and run the deosits in my computer and organize the money. Then its about 5pm we set pm we count our drawer down accurately and by denomination and print out ur form that you set pm get all the checks and work you did rubber band it put your name file it put it away. then count the vault write it down on the vault sheet. then do the nightly duties like shred, customer info put away, drawers in the vault, stock the front, credit card advance settlement, turn off computers. I have learned alot and love it had fun with the work I did and enjoyed my coworkers and managers.The hardest part of my job I didnt find that I challenged myself to the fullest. I enjoyed talking with the customers and helping and understanding and meeting there needs and printing out statements and showing them whats going with there accts.

I worked for Bank of the West for three years and left due to racist management and discrimination. The bank promotes itself as having an inclusive and diverse culture and making the top 100 lists for diversity and inclusion. This includes the bank promoting itself as being one of the best places to work for LGBTQ equality and diversity. I reported comments a colleague made in the lunchroom about another employee, ”looking too manly and not sounding like a real woman” to my manager. My manager never reported this to human resources or addressed the issue with an excuse of making things too complicated. The actual culture experienced by me, and many others is not representative of how the bank advertises itself. The bank’s main objective is to be recognized as a top employer for diversity and inclusion to make themselves look better to the public. What the bank should be doing instead is stop looking for recognition and start earning respect from their employees and allow them to have more influence in the growth of the company. Bank of the West’s senior leadership, middle management, and human resources do not listen to, recognize, support, or respect minority groups. Instead of respecting employees, management and human resources act in the best interest of themselves by keeping issues silenced, so their teams and the bank overall appear to be inclusive. The bank needs to allow and support employees to challenge the problems like racism and discrimination; then, the culture can improve and align with the company’s bare minimum diversity and inclusion policy. An inclusive workplace is one that treats all individuals fairly and respectfully. Individuals need to have equal access to opportunities and resources, and where each person can be a contributor to the bank’s success. Unfortunately, with the persistent racism, harassment, and discrimination, it doesn't allow employees to feel safe at work or feel comfortable being themselves. The bank excuses the high turnover of employees due to those who have left not aligning with the non-existent diverse and inclusive culture. Diversity needs to be respected and experienced between colleagues and teams rather than senior leadership, briefly speaking of it. During my time with Bank of the West working in consumer banking and commercial banking, I never felt safe with having racist managers for each position I held who silenced employees if disagreements arose. It’s a shame that Bank of the West advertises itself as inclusive when it’s clear they are purely using it as a marketing scheme to increase business and their bottom line.

● Pay & benefits
Pay is very low for what is being asked from you. Definition of slave labor. Having a second job or spouse with a second income is a must (unless you live in your parents basement). 15 an hour won’t cover cost of living in the Tacoma area.

● Job security and advancement
During interview I was told 6-12months I would be promoted. First year I hit over 100% ever quarter. Manager told me to hit 200% 4th quarter to move me up and I did. Manager lied and told his boss I wasn’t ready, and continuously finds reasons to not promote. There is job security because most people leave due to the small pay, and have trouble retaining employees for long periods of time.

● Management
Management is helpful but not in helping you grow. Also my manager is fine to work with if he can sit and play Star Trek Commander on his phone and do anything else he wants. If he gets stressed out he uses his employees as a “punching bag”. He parks in 1 of the few customer parking spots we have. Constantly playing his game on his phone and will do a terrible job trying to hide it when you come into his office. Great seller but doesn’t know anything about operations or being a teller and avoids working on the teller line (he made a policy to have a backup teller when one teller is one lunch so we always have two tellers, but once our ABM resigned and it was his turn to be back up teller he won’t do it). Constantly needs to have a smoke break (5-7 times) banks have a 2 person policy to always have two people in the branch for safety reasons. My manager would leave me by myself to go smoke.

● Culture
Good culture and is one of the first banks I worked for that did not have a toxic team, which was nice. There are some moments where there are crystal clear double standards but for the most part it was good.

● Overall
Overall, great bank that barely keeps a roof above my head and food on the table. I would suggest working a second job for additional income if you don’t have a partner bringing one in. Unfortunately, HR will shoot down jobs like mobile notary, real estate jobs and/or some sales jobs because it’s a conflict of interest.

I was really happy working for Bank of the West to begin with but then the partnered company BNP Paribas began to overwhelmingly incorporate all their regulations and policies with the company and it has went down hill substantially not only for employee's but customers as well. Minimum balances were increased, fees were increased, fees were placed on products there never used to be fees on and it is a nightmare having to deal with the back lash of it all from the customers in the branch. Not only that but Bank of the West is very behind on all things banking, they are not very user friendly for the customers and everything takes a good 7-10 business days not to mention the "new" system implemented in branches for employees to work off of they are painfully slow and it can take up to an hour just to open a basic checking account and half the time the systems don't work. It's stressful and embarrassing and they give me so much anxiety. Besides all that your job is constantly being threatened by upper management for not meeting goals or even minor mishaps I'm constantly warned if I don't do something it'll be a written, verbal, then termination. After multiple attempts of moving up I'm unable to get anything and the pay isn't worth the stress I feel. Managers are only hired out of desperation and it's unfortunate because some branches have very under qualified branch managers or branch managers who were brought back into the company after a leave, disregarding very negative claims and history records of their prior employment with the company.  It's all around a depressing company. All this company cares about is money and to think it didn't just about a year ago... 

The culture at Bank of the West is very reliant on their marketing and how it appears to the public. The actual culture and how management acts is the complete opposite of what the bank promotes itself as. My manager inappropriately touched me, and when I reported it, I received harsh criticism like it was my fault. I was shocked by the cynical way my manager’s supervisor handled it. He brushed off my report and did not contact Human Resources or attempt to speak with my manager. Instead, it was never spoken of again, and I was expected to continue working like nothing happened. I reported it to Human Resources, and I was met with the same reaction. They barely bothered with an investigation and treated me as if I was the one harming others and the company. After experiencing two adverse reactions from people who were supposed to be supportive and understanding, there was nowhere else to go. I was forced to continue working with my manager and expected to forget it all. Bank of the West does have a “zero-tolerance harassment policy,” but the bank doesn’t follow it or appears only to follow it when it’s convenient for them. I’m severely disappointed in Human Resources since it’s obvious they encourage this toxic work environment. I hope other victims start speaking up, so Bank of the West will have to face these issues rather than brushing them off and expecting victims to move on and get over it or find another job. Is it fair that victims are the ones who have to find new jobs just to feel safe again? I encourage anyone who is looking at Bank of the West as a potential employer to move on and not waste your time interviewing.

I worked for Bank of the West from March of 2008-August 2013. My different job titles during my time there were teller, banker, and assistant branch manager. Duties/functions are below: 

-Supervised teller staff up to 7 employees. 
-Responsible for scheduling, hiring, coaching and overall efficiency of teller workflow.
-Developed methods to streamline daily functions and improve branch productivity.
-Conducted monthly audits of all cash, negotiable items, and all branch specific general ledger accounts. 
-Investigated and recorded all discrepancies. Used good judgment to escalate when necessary.
-Pursued new business and opened new accounts, while adhering to bank and federal policies.
-Responsible for growing relationships within the bank from sales and service of loans and deposit products for new and existing customers and business customers.
-Generated new business through in branch selling, outside calls, telemarketing and targeted direct mailings, and expand existing customers through cross-selling products and services.
-Adhered to the regulations implementing the Secure and Fair Enforcement Act (S.A.F.E.).
-Participated in events that demonstrated support for the community and increased business opportunities for the bank.
- Responsible for the quick and efficient handling of frontline banking transactions.
Transactions include: deposits, withdrawals, cashier’s check, and general account inquiries.
-Strong emphasis placed on promotions, campaigns, and elaboration of bank services.
-Maintained a balanced drawer while complying with bank policies and federal regulations.
-Ensured positive public perceptions of the bank by extending accurate and timely customer service.

Culture:
BOTW was sold as a innovative, changing, and fun environment when in reality it is highly political, extremely conservative, and the more resistant to change than any other financial services company for whom I've worked.  The very same people asking for change, were those preventing it from success.  Most anyone who has worked for the bank for more than 4 years, is in a "click" of people who just want to keep the lights on.

BOTW is a very passive culture.  Stated another way: lacks accountability.  This is good for those who enjoy sticking to the status quo and bad for those who enjoy working with high performance colleagues, continuous improvement, and getting things done.

Compensation:
BOTW comps below 50th percentile of market and managers are only given 2-3% per employee per year for merit increases.  This means you need to come in above the compensation level you want, because you won't achieve it through performance or promotion.  

Conversely, SVP and above are compensated extremely well.  

Benefits:
BOTW does have excellent non-cash benefits such as insurance, 401k matching, vacation, etc.

Opportunity:
BOTW is trying to catch-up to where other banks were 10-15 years ago...not current, not future, just less outdated. This means poor employee experience laden with repetitive manual tasks using archaic and unreliable systems (read: rework); and little opportunity to learn and grow to remain competitive in the employment market.  This is not an environment in which you will learn the right way to do something, but you will learn what not to do.

I worked for Bank of the West, from 05-2010. During my five years there, I worked for a supervisor, who was not qualified to be in a management position. She had no leadership skills, nor communication skills, our VP had no back bone and was never around, and did not know anything about the work we were doing. I worked, in a small department with co-workers that were miserable and unhappy and constantly complained about management and ect. We went to Human resource,  with our complaints and were never taken serious, nothing was ever resolved in that department. Eventually the supervisor, was forced to retire, and a new person took over the department. That supervisor, was a tyrant who  bullied, all the people who reported to her, on a daily basis,including myself.  She had numerous complaints, from other departments she managed, but nothing was ever done, to reprimand her behavior.

Eventually I was let go, but I have to say that was one of the best things, that happened to me because, I moved on and found my dream job (career). The were some pros,  I met some really good people, while working there, who I kept in touch with, now I consider really close friends. 

I walked away from that experience, knowing life goes on, and there 
better job opportunity out there, with companies, with more opportunity for growth and pay and minus all the drama.

 I heard  recently, from people who still work there, which is not many, that the supervisor was demoted, due to her behavior! But she still has a job there?

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Vice president 3 salaries reported	$146,667 per year
Branch manager 3 salaries reported	$60,667 per year
Teller 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$27.50 per hour
Investigator 6 salaries reported	$63,667 per year

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