Customer care specialist Kathy Johnson began her banking career when she was 16, with a job at First Savings in 1974. “Those were the work-study days, when you went to high school part time and a job part time,” she recalls. When First Savings merged with First Financial over a decade later, her bosses asked if she’d be willing to move to headquarters in Stevens Point. “I didn’t want to transfer, so they asked me to stay on in Milwaukee and said they’d find me another job when they didn’t need me anymore.”
And they did! For about six months, Kathy — who had worked in First Savings’ accounting department — stuck around, doing the books for the bank’s service corporations and taking care of an odd assortment of jobs. “I did some work for the leasing company, and at one point they had me dismantling a bar,” she says. “It was so much fun just to do something completely different!” Then, in 1987, as promised, her bosses got her a position at Badger Bank.
“I’m not sure why they needed me so much,” she says, noting that she didn’t know of any other employee who received similar treatment. But she’s glad they did. Badger Bank, of course, merged with North Shore Bank about a decade later.
When you started, how long did you think you might work at the bank?
I never really thought about it. I started with Badger Bank, and of course we merged with North Shore, so that’s like two jobs! I started out at Badger as a supervisor in guess what we’d call the savings department. But it was so different than what we have today. First of all, it was just a real small group — only about five of us. We didn’t usually answer questions for customers; we just helped the employees at the branches. What our CSC does these days is just so much broader.
And since then, I have had many different positions and worked at different locations; each position and location felt like I changed jobs, too: supervisor of our savings operations department at the East office (which moved to the basement of Milwaukee Capitol); teller supervisor at Milwaukee Capitol; assistant branch manager at Jackson Park; branch manager at Fox Point; personal banker at East and Pewaukee; and now customer care specialist at Corporate.
What, in your 30 years here, has been one of your biggest accomplishments?
My husband, Manny, would say meeting him! He was doing some landscaping work for the Pewaukee office in 2003, and was also a customer. Maintaining relationships with many of the customers and co-workers I’ve crossed paths with along the way has been a blessing.
How have the tools and technology you’ve used changed over 30 years?
Wow, has it changed! In my previous job, I did the books for some of the bank’s service corporations manually. We used typewriters to type up signature cards. We had a old typewriter in Pewaukee we still used periodically, and one of the younger employees asked what it was! So much easier correcting your typing errors on a computer!
What has been an interesting challenge you’ve faced, and how did you solve it (or not solve it)?
I think it would be balancing work with my personal life. I’m still working on it!
Who taught you something really important, and what was it?
A friend told me that taking care of yourself is the greatest gift you can give your family and friends.
What might you have done differently?
I would have furthered my education. I had an associate’s degree in accounting. I would have probably gone for a business degree or something like that.
What are you glad you knew?
Sometimes you can’t please everyone.
What are one or two of your favorite memories from the last 30 years?
There are so many memories. A fun one is when I worked in Pewaukee — some customers brought their pets with them. Not just dogs. We had one customer with a bird and another with a pet rat!