Case Opening Case

8/10/2019 Case Opening Case

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OPENING CASE

It was past seven in the evening but Ruben Reyes was still up to his neck with work. The rest of

the staff had left hours earlier, with their desks all cleared up for the day. Since he joined the

bank seven months ago, Ruben had not been able to go home earlier than 7:00 PM. He did notmind though. He enjoyed his new job at the bank. Besides, his new office was just 20 minutes

away from where he lives. This certainly is a better arrangement than when he was working in

Quezon City. Then, he had to struggle daily with the heavy traffic between Quezon City and

Makati.

Ruben finds his new job as Executive Assistant at one of the countrys largest private

commercial banks challenging. As Executive Assistant to the Office of the Bank President, he

takes care of all the papers that go to the President, reviewing, often times giving his comments

and recommendations on some of them. He has been working with Mr. Avelino de Jesus, the

Bank President, for over 4 years now. When Mr. de Jesus was appointed Bank President, he

brought Ruben with him to his new job, an indication of Mr. de Jesus high regard for Ruben.

After all, Ruben is qualified. To his credit, Ruben holds a bachelors degree in Economics, which

he took in a well-known university in Quezon City and an MBA degree also from the same

university.

Ruben not only likes working in a bank, he also likes working with Mr. de Jesus, a respected and

highly regarded person in the government and business circles. He has gotten along very well

with Mr. de Jesus who trusts him even with the most delicate matters. Mr. de Jesus, more

often than not, agrees with Rubens views on certain issues and often asks him to draft his

memos for him. Indeed, Ruben gets to go over all the papers that go to the Presidents desks,

perhaps to the envy of the other technical assistants assigned to the Bank President. This is notlost on Ruben, who on one or two occasions, felt being given the cold shoulder treatment by

them particularly those assistants who have long been employed by the bank. There are six

other assistants in the Office of the President who has worked with the bank for over five years

now. Of the six, only Cesar Mirano, a graduate of Rubens alma mater seemed to welcome

Ruben. Ruben observed that the other staff members do not seem to have much of a

workload. As a matter of fact, Ruben is not sure about their assignments. He has noted that

hey are punctual, regular in their habits and always seems to be busy with whatever they are

doing. With the exception of Cesar, the other technical assistants keep to themselves while at

work. They also take their lunch together at the banks canteen. Several times, Ruben tried to

reach out to them but no one among them seemed predisposed to welcome Ruben to theirgroup.

Ruben looked through the remaining papers on his desk and eyed that there still are four

documents that he has to go over. He promised Mr. de Jesus he would look through all these

documents and would have them all ready for his consideration the following day.

One of the documents is a letter marked confidential and signed by 15 employees of the

banks branch in Divisoria. The letters second paragraph says:


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The following day, our branch manager, Mr. Acosta confronted one of the

tellers, Ms. Reyes, and in the presence of other employees and clients, told her

in a loud and angry voice to make sure that check deposits are properly

examined before they are stamped. Ms. Reyes was, of course, embarrassed to

reply. She figured that if she said anything, it would only embolden Mr. Acostato proceed and embarrass her before everyone else. He did the same thing to

one bookkeeper who attempted to explain his side when he was confronted by

Mr. Acosta. Mr. Acosta gave the bookkeeper a tongue-lashing and even

threatened the bookkeeper that he will be charged administratively and

reported to the Head Office. Mr. Acostas mercurial temper, his arrogance, and

his talent for using vulgar language show how very little regard he has for us.

We have always tried to do our best but our efforts are never appreciated. We

feel we do not deserve the way he is treating us. Please, Mr. President,

someone has to put an end to Mr. Acostas reign of terror.

Ruben recalled the case of another branch manager who was also being complained about but

for a different reason. This branch managers reported indifference and lack of attention to his

job have affected the employees who believe they deserve a better leader.

Ruben drafted a memo addressed to the Vice President, North Metro Manila. The message was

simple: Please look into this. I would like a report not later than 30 June 2011. Rubens

arrangement with Mr. de Jesus was that he (the Bank President) would sign all the memos

issued by his office.

The second document was a memorandum addressed to the President and signed by the Vice

President for Domestic Branch Operations. The memorandum was the VPs response to thePresidents request for an investigation of the reasons for the delay in the submission of the

Daily Report on Transactions by the banks Cubaobranch. Attached to the memorandum was a

10-page report, which Ruben had to go through. Ruben later summarized the report as follows:

The delay in the submission of the daily report seemingly is due to the conflict

between the tellers and the bookkeepers. At the end of the day, the tellers

prepare their reports, which they pass on to the bookkeepers. The bookkeepers,

in turn, put together all the tellers reports. The bookkeepers, therefore, have to

stay way beyond office hours to complete their own report.

The conflict started when the bookkeepers complained that the tellers reports

are not properly prepared, thus, making it difficult for them to put the reports

together. There is a prescribed format for the preparation of the tellers reports,

which the tellers do not follow. One of the bookkeepers called the attention of

the tellers about such format. Apparently, the tellers resented the bookkeepers

remarks on their report. Since then, the tellers reports started coming in late.

This irked the bookkeeper who decided to bring the matter to the attention of

the Branch Manager. The Branch Manager assured the bookkeepers that he


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Documents

Case Opening Case