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 not
mind 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 not
lost 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 their
group.
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:

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. Acosta
to 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 the
Presidents request for an investigation of the reasons for the delay in the submission of the
Daily Report on Transactions by the banks Cubao branch. 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

would discuss the matter with the tellers. To this day, the tellers continue to
delay the submission of their reports.
At the end of the summary, Ruben suggested that this matter be taken up in the next meeting
with the EVPs and the VPs. Ruben felt the issue was a critical one that it needed a discussion
among the top officers of the bank.
Ruben read through the third document, a report from the Executive Vice President in charge
of bank operations. The reports Executive Summary says:
The continuing decline in foreign currency deposit over the last six months is
due primarily to the Banks policy of charging our clients with service fee for
deposits being made. This policy has effectively discouraged clients from
depositing foreign currency. It has also affected inter-branch relations since
branch managers have become less and less enthusiastic about responding to
other branch managers requests for assistance when clients withdraw foreign
currency. The charging of service fees has resulted in a decline in deposits
which, in turn, has affected the branchs ability to service clients foreign
currency withdrawals. While previously, branch managers responded positively
to other branches requests to borrow foreign currency, now the situation has
changed. Branch Managers, as may be expected, tend to worry about servicing
their own clients and, thus, hesitate to lend foreign currency to other branches.
More than anything, there is a need to review our policy on service fees. It is
suggested that this matter be taken up in the next meeting.
Ruben could only agree with the suggestion and included this issue to be put in the agenda of
the next meeting of the Executive Committee.
The last document was the report of the Vice President for Finance and Administration. Now
this report particularly interested Ruben for it discussed the VPs recommendations on the
banks rewards and incentives program. Ruben recalled that Mr. de Jesus instructed Mr.
Singson, VP for Finance and Administration, to review the banks incentive program in light of
talks going around that employees will be asking for a meeting with him about the alleged
disregard of the bank of the employees welfare. Ruben decided to bring the document home
as he felt he needed more time to absorb its contents.
It was past 9:00 PM when Ruben prepared to leave. He placed the papers on Mr. de Jesus
desk. While inside Mr. de Jesus office, he suddenly remembered that among the assistants in
the Office of the President, only he could freely go in and out of Mr. de Jesus office. This, he
though, could be a reason why the other assistants seem to resent him. Ruben could only sigh.
He was too tired to analyze his relationship with the other assistants. By 10:00 PM, he was on
his way home.