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Some of you may have heard that we had some flooding Tuesday here in northern Minnesota. Lots of basements flooded, roads washed out, etc. The river in Cook, MN (a rural town of about 500) flooded to the point that their downtown is still under more than a foot of water, 3 days later. They say it still hasn’t crested, and we’re expecting more rain this weekend.
We closed up Tuesday night not thinking much about the heavy rain except wanting to get home safely. Wednesday we were closed for Juneteenth. We came back Thursday to find the basement carpets sopping wet. It seems the sump pump couldn’t keep up with the amount of rain we were getting. I don’t think the water was more than an inch deep at any time, and most of it had receded by the time we returned.
Normally, you would expect it would be the Branch Manager’s responsibility to make sure the mess was cleaned up properly. But he has moved into a different position at the main branch in the next state over. He’s only at our branch one or two days a week, if that. The bank has tried hiring a new manager, but no luck yet. And they don’t seem interested in promoting from within our branch. (but that’s a different rant)
BM had said he was intending to be back in town Thursday and Friday, but apparently his plans changed. We left him a message at the main branch, and he got back to us around an hour later. Meanwhile, we set up box fans and a dehumidifier to try to start drying things out. BM put me in charge of calling a cleaning service to get an estimate. He wanted me to send it to him to get approved.
The first place I called said it would be 72 hours before they could come out and give us an estimate. So I scheduled the appointment and then called a second place. They came out the same day, said they could get me an estimate by the next day (Friday) and start cleaning on Monday.
While I’m waiting for that estimate to arrive on Friday, the first place calls. They can come in within an hour. They make it sound like they’re ready to start cleaning. I let them know I’m supposed to be getting an estimate approved by upper management, and they sound disappointed.
But they arrived, I showed them around. They tried to send the info to their office for the estimate, but they weren’t getting cell service, so I haven’t gotten the estimate yet. I talked with them about what needed to be done and how long it would take (just a few hours). So despite not getting the estimate approved, I told them to go ahead.
We’ve been dealing with moldy smells for two days and I don’t want the damage / health consequences to get any worse. I’ll take the heat for not waiting for approval.
If it would have taken past closing time, I would have had to tell them to come back Monday. We’re not open weekends and I don’t expect anybody besides BM to stay late. And he’ll be out of town.
They finished up and left their fans and dehumidifiers in the basement. They’ll come back Monday and make sure it’s all dry and remove their equipment. The main guy (supervisor?) said he expected his emails would go through to the office as soon as he had cell service, but the office has been busy with all the flooding in the area.
With it getting late in the day, I emailed BM to give him the update. I wanted to wait until we got the estimate, but I also wanted to give him an update before the weekend. He called me soon after. He seemed upset that I told them to go ahead and clean without actually getting the estimate or getting it approved. “Hopefully it’s not totally out of line.” Well, it needed to be done! We were getting complaints from customers. And we could have gotten sick.
And if he wanted to be the one to make these decisions, he should have handled everything himself. He told me to take care of it, and so I did.
It’s not even an area customers can go, but you could smell it in the lobby. The cleaning guy said he didn’t see any mold yet, but if we didn’t have it cleaned, it would only be a matter of time.
It smells better already.
We closed up Tuesday night not thinking much about the heavy rain except wanting to get home safely. Wednesday we were closed for Juneteenth. We came back Thursday to find the basement carpets sopping wet. It seems the sump pump couldn’t keep up with the amount of rain we were getting. I don’t think the water was more than an inch deep at any time, and most of it had receded by the time we returned.
Normally, you would expect it would be the Branch Manager’s responsibility to make sure the mess was cleaned up properly. But he has moved into a different position at the main branch in the next state over. He’s only at our branch one or two days a week, if that. The bank has tried hiring a new manager, but no luck yet. And they don’t seem interested in promoting from within our branch. (but that’s a different rant)
BM had said he was intending to be back in town Thursday and Friday, but apparently his plans changed. We left him a message at the main branch, and he got back to us around an hour later. Meanwhile, we set up box fans and a dehumidifier to try to start drying things out. BM put me in charge of calling a cleaning service to get an estimate. He wanted me to send it to him to get approved.
The first place I called said it would be 72 hours before they could come out and give us an estimate. So I scheduled the appointment and then called a second place. They came out the same day, said they could get me an estimate by the next day (Friday) and start cleaning on Monday.
While I’m waiting for that estimate to arrive on Friday, the first place calls. They can come in within an hour. They make it sound like they’re ready to start cleaning. I let them know I’m supposed to be getting an estimate approved by upper management, and they sound disappointed.
But they arrived, I showed them around. They tried to send the info to their office for the estimate, but they weren’t getting cell service, so I haven’t gotten the estimate yet. I talked with them about what needed to be done and how long it would take (just a few hours). So despite not getting the estimate approved, I told them to go ahead.
We’ve been dealing with moldy smells for two days and I don’t want the damage / health consequences to get any worse. I’ll take the heat for not waiting for approval.
If it would have taken past closing time, I would have had to tell them to come back Monday. We’re not open weekends and I don’t expect anybody besides BM to stay late. And he’ll be out of town.
They finished up and left their fans and dehumidifiers in the basement. They’ll come back Monday and make sure it’s all dry and remove their equipment. The main guy (supervisor?) said he expected his emails would go through to the office as soon as he had cell service, but the office has been busy with all the flooding in the area.
With it getting late in the day, I emailed BM to give him the update. I wanted to wait until we got the estimate, but I also wanted to give him an update before the weekend. He called me soon after. He seemed upset that I told them to go ahead and clean without actually getting the estimate or getting it approved. “Hopefully it’s not totally out of line.” Well, it needed to be done! We were getting complaints from customers. And we could have gotten sick.
And if he wanted to be the one to make these decisions, he should have handled everything himself. He told me to take care of it, and so I did.
It’s not even an area customers can go, but you could smell it in the lobby. The cleaning guy said he didn’t see any mold yet, but if we didn’t have it cleaned, it would only be a matter of time.
It smells better already.
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