Recently I found out that Bank of America is replacing real, in-person bank tellers with video screens. These video tellers will spend their days in front of a camera, staring at customers through a screen. The bank plans to pay these workers a lower wage than in-person tellers, with far fewer benefits.



Being a bank teller is all about building a personal connection with our customers, something that I couldn’t do through a video screen. Often our customers have complex questions – a local business attempting to pay an overseas vendor, or a mother who needs to wire money to a family member. Some are elderly or speak English as a second language. My coworkers and I care about meeting the needs of our customers, and we deserve to make a decent wage while doing so.



I went to work as a teller at Bank of America because I thought it would offer me the opportunities I had not received in other industries, like paid vacation days, sick pay, and a decent wage—things that are critical to me as a student trying to make my way through college.



Bank of America tried to do this a few years ago, but scrapped its plans. It was a bad idea then, and it still is today – and we need to convince them of that. The fact is that you can’t downsize hands-on customer service. Bank of America’s future depends on the employees who represent the bank in our communities and meet the needs of customers every day.



Photo via Charlotte Business Journal (http://bizj.us/qxg6p/i/1)