Commercial Loan Servicing Analyst Kathy Tetzlaff marks 30 years with the bank this month.

Kathy Tetzlaff has held at least five positions in her three decades at North Shore Bank — much to her surprise. “Before I started, if someone had told me I would be here for 30 years, I would have been like, ‘No way,'” she says. “But I guess I’m kind of old-fashioned — in you have something good going, why change? I like the people I work with, and the bank is pretty flexible with schedules. There’s been really no reason to leave.”

What part of your 30 years at North Shore Bank are you most proud of?
That I have been employed here for 30 years. I started out full time as a traveling teller for seven years. After my daughters were born, I went part time as a teller at Brookfield Capitol for 10 years. I was then hired in the Investment Real Estate department for two years. Then I was transferred to Accounting as a senior accounting clerk for a couple of years. I then transferred back to full time in the Commercial Loan Servicing department, which is where I’ve been the past five and a half years. I liked all of those jobs.

Was it a conscious decision to move around so much?
It was just to try something different. If opportunities came along that seemed like something I wanted to do, I just took them. You gotta start at the bottom and work your way up.

What would you do differently if you could change anything?
I wish I had taken some business classes to understand everything going on behind the scenes in the banking industry. I know now how to talk with customers and all that, but I probably would have learned it sooner if I’d taken any classes.

How have you balanced your career with your life outside of work?
Getting along with my coworkers is very important to me, because of the amount of time you spend together at work. And working with a lot of great people is one main reason I’ve stayed at North Shore Bank for so long. The team I work with now has a lot of fun at work. we all get along and help each other out.

Away from work, I spend as much time as possible with my family. My husband and I have two daughters — ages 24 and 20 — and a puppy that keeps us very busy. Some recent family trips have taken us to Colorado, Nashville, and Florida. Fall is my favorite time of year, and we try to get in as many weekend getaways as we can.

What kind of puppy?
He’s a 1-year-old Cavachon. His name is Remi. We’ve always had big dogs, but we decided to try a little one, and they are hilarious.

Who taught you something really important, and what was it?
My parents! They taught us five kids that nothing you want will come easily, but that if you want it enough and work hard for it, it will come — and you will value it more than if it had been just given to you to begin with.

What are you glad you didn’t know?
How the U.S. housing market crash would impact the economy and the banking business! Because that’s when I was in the Investment Real Estate department. A lot of our really good customers lost everything. We saw all these great customers getting loans and doing really well, and then literally losing everything. I also never imagined how fast time would fly by.