"One thing that hasn't changed is the community spirit"

I’ve worked for the Society for 30 years and in that time have seen an incredible level of change.

In 1980, everything was done manually. We didn’t have calculators, let alone computers. All the adding up was done in our heads although we did have one machine which had a tally roll on it. Each month Head Office would give us a mortgage quota of, say, £30,000. That would be all the money we could allow customers to borrow that month and, once it had run out, we couldn’t offer any more mortgages until the next quota was available.

And it’s hard to believe now but, in those days, we’d smoke on the counter. When a customer came in, we’d put our cigarettes in the ashtray and serve them – but we’d always remember our manners and offer one. If they smoked, they’d usually light up there and then.

Back then, uniforms were a matter for each branch and we all paid for our own. In the Barry branch where I started out, we wore brown smock overalls with little white daisies on them. Not the most flattering! It’s only really been in the last ten years or so that a standard uniform has come about. It started as a black suit and white blouse, with a peppering of colour coming from the red edging on the jacket’s buttons. That evolved into the fantastic uniform we wear today – red skirts, red jackets and a choice of either a white blouse and red and white scarf, or a red and white striped blouse.

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years, though, is the community spirit that exists at our branches. I remember a long-standing customer at our Barry branch who was blind and would come in every Monday with his stack of post. We’d go through this with him and help him deal with whatever needed to be actioned – bills to pay, junk mail to shred.

This sort of thing happens a lot and I think our customers value our personal approach. We often get chocolates, wine and other presents at Christmas and, in our Cowbridge branch, one lovely customer who is in her 80s delivers homemade cakes to us every week.

Not a bad place to work!

Posted by: Sue, Branch Manager, Cowbridge