This section is from the book "Manual Of Canadian Banking", by H. M. P. Eckardt. Also available from Amazon: Manual of Canadian Banking.
Except in the very small branches the manager has little to do with the routine work of the office. In the morning he opens the letters, and, after entering the items in the sundry credits book, hands the correspondence to the accountant. Then there is the cash book of the previous day to check and the vouchers to examine. Some managers call off the deposit and general ledgers in order to keep the closer in touch with their customers' transactions and the general business of the branch. There are the letters to write and drafts to sign. The discount and liability statements are to be revised and completed. The custody of the bills-collections, collaterals, and discounts-entails considerable work. Where the bank has a fairly large volume of business a good deal of time will be taken up in dealing with the succession of customers who wish to discount or put through transactions of a special nature.
A whole volume would be required to discuss in detail all the phases of the manager's work. That will not be attempted here. It will suffice if a short sketch is given of his relations with the staff, the customers, other banks, and with head office.
For the manager to be just and fair in his treatment of the men under him is of as much importance in banking as in other professions or businesses. Discontent and friction are sure to follow when favoritism is practised. In every office staff there is a variety of material.
The conscientious manager tries to make something out of all this. If the inefficient clerks are hopeless, he gets rid of them as soon as possible. The indifferent men he tries to stimulate and improve; and the good men he encourages to the best of his ability.
In some offices the clerks are treated all alike. When the increases come, all get the same; when a vacancy occurs, the man next below gets the place, regardless of what his merits are. This policy would be all right if the men were all equal. But they are not. It is apt to be heart-breaking for a bright and diligent employe to find that his intelligent and industrious application to the bank's interests apparently produces no effect whatever; and that his careless and inefficient desk-fellow gets just as much as he. If he persevere, he will, in time, out-distance the other; but young men do not, as a rule, look very far into the future; they are apt to be unduly affected by the circumstances of the days that are passing. No manager does his whole duty to the bank who fails to get for the specially good work of his good men special marks of the bank's appreciation. A good man may be spoiled through a too quick advancement. For him to develop into the very best senior material, his progress should not, therefore, be too rapid.
Briefly, the two things the manager is expected to accomplish with regard to the customers is to keep their accounts in such manner that they are profitable and safe for the bank, and to hold their good-will. To accomplish this latter, it is not necessary that he should aim at becoming "popular." As a matter of fact, the head offices are rather afraid of managers who are too popular; as they think the popularity may, perhaps, have been achieved partly through laxity in looking after the bank's true interests. A manager who freely loaned the bank's resources to all and sundry, whether they were worthy or not, and who collected cheques on other points, and did other things for nothing, would probably become popular in short order. But he would very soon pay the price, perhaps by losing his position Many able men, on the other hand, have shown that it is quite possible to properly guard the bank's interests and yet retain the good-will of their customers. They necessarily have tact and good sense. When the manager explains in the right way that the bank is in business, like its customers, to earn profits on the capital embarked, and that it has a very proper right to remuneration for the facilities it extends, just as the customers have a proper right to sell their goods at a profit, most business men will willingly pay commissions and fair rates in spite of the fact that an opposition bank may have offered to take their business on easier terms.
 
Continue to: