Compare and Contrast

in the early morning on Tuesday, the 18th of October 2005 by Chad

A day in the life of different banks in Delaware…

WILMINGTON — Arkadi Kuhlmann got off to a late start at work Friday morning at ING Direct in Wilmington.

First, the chief executive of the nation’s largest Internet bank had trouble finding a parking space in the employee garage, and then he couldn’t figure out at which desk he was supposed to sit.

These aren’t, of course, problems the CEO typically has to contend with. But on this day, Kuhlmann wasn’t the boss. He was trading places with Allison Siwiec-Euker, a 28-year-old who works in the bank’s financial reporting department. Siwiec-Euker spent the day ensconced in Kuhlmann’s corner office at ING Direct’s building on French Street, overlooking the Christina River. Kuhlmann, meanwhile, was cubicle-bound at ING Direct’s building on Delaware Avenue. He spent his time rushing to finish up a financial report due before the end of the day.

Hey, you know, that sounds like a good idea. The top executive spends the day acting like a typical employee so he can see (as much as his handlers will allow) the challenges his people face on a daily basis.

And now to how MBNA handles its drones:

At Wilmington-based MBNA Corp., Delaware’s largest private employer with about 10,500 workers here, all top executives, including Chief Executive Bruce L. Hammonds, are required to spend four hours per month monitoring how call center employees handle calls from credit card users. Afterward, executives write up their assessments of how the calls were handled and those comments are sent to employees, MBNA spokesman Jim Donahue said.

Oh yeah, that is just what some poor schmuck making 20k$ a year but having to spend it on a “required” new car and living in “required” neighborhoods while “freely donating” to the United Way needs. Having the damn CEO listen in on your call and critiqueing you personally.

I have to wonder if the reporter saw the differences between these two companies.

A company that people truly want to work for vs a company that hires people to rifle through your desk every night after you leave work to see if they can find something to fire you over.