I work at the same Nationwide where I started 33 years ago and know that local banks MUST stay open

Not everyone who enters the branch is initially happy to see me – even though I’ve known them as a donkey for years.

I started working at Nationwide in Macclesfield straight after school at the age of 18. I still remember showing up on my first day in my new navy blue suit and tie – I was so, so scared. I’m still here 33 years later – although it doesn’t feel like half of it.

I’ve been working in the branch for so long that I know at least a thousand customers by name; those whose names I don’t know are in the minority.

I can measure my own life by their stages of life. As a child, I helped some open their first accounts – and then, in what feels like the blink of an eye, I help their children open their first accounts.

For about thirty years, like clockwork, a couple would come into the branch to check their transactions.

They questioned those they didn’t recognize and checked them off their statements until they were all accounted for. They did that until they were too old to do it themselves. I then helped their daughter with the takeover with a registered power of attorney. She is now in her sixties and recently came by to tell me that her parents had both sadly passed away within a week of each other.

But last week, a customer I’d known for years came in to pay a bill, and she got quite frustrated with me.

She wanted to pay a bill of around £1,000 from her builder. She thought this should be easy, because she had already transferred money to him before. But when I tried to make the payment, the bank details didn’t match the builder’s.

“I’m sure it’s okay, Michelle,” she kept saying. “Put it on.”

But knowing her well, I asked her what she thought would happen if it turned out to be a scam, and I passed it on even though I had suspicions. How would she feel then?

She agreed to call the builder to check – and discovered the invoice was counterfeit.

Her builder’s real invoice had been intercepted by a scammer and the bank details had been changed. If she had sent the money, it would have gone straight to them. She was over the moon when she realized what I had done, and she went out and bought me a bouquet of flowers.

Customers sometimes do that, they come back with cookies or chocolates, if we prevent them from losing money or help them with something difficult, such as registering a power of attorney.

When I started working here in 1991, there were so many banks on the high street. But over the years, Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Barclays have all closed.

And Lloyds is closing its branch in January, so we’re getting a steady stream of customers wanting to open an account with us – I helped with four yesterday.

Some people think that branches are simply no longer needed, but from what I see they have never been more important. Most people like to do some things online, but they still come to us for reassurance.

When I started there weren’t any scams like there are now, but we’re seeing more and more of them, so people want to come in and talk to someone they know definitely works for Nationwide, not someone calling who could impersonate us.

They trust us mainly because many have known us for so long.

Sometimes I notice changes in clients before they or their families do, because I chat with them so often.

There is an older man who recently started asking the same question two or three times – I could tell his memory was starting to fade. I put a note in his file saying he might need a little more help, and gave him some extra support.

And sometimes people just prefer to do things in person.

Last month, 40 percent of new national checking accounts were opened in an office. That share is rising.

However, so much has changed since I started.

I remember there were rows and rows of files all over the branch – so much paperwork. Now it’s all digitized. I used to work at the front desk, where I had a big wooden drawer where I put all the money. Now there is so much cash.

And I spent so much time dealing with checks. Now when we process one, we don’t even have to send it, we just scan it.

The uniform also changes to match the times. For a while it was white and blotchy – and it looked terrible. Then there was one with a detachable collar that you put on the blouse – it looked nice, but was not fun to wear.

I like the newest one because it’s still neat and navy blue, but you don’t have to wear a jacket.

Of course, the attitude towards money has changed a lot. There are concerns among customers

less careful, but I don’t think that’s the case.

Maybe it was before the pandemic, when credit was cheap. People took out loans to buy new cars, kitchens and vacations.

But during Covid they took a step back and thought about what actually mattered, and since then I’ve seen a lot more people coming in to set up savings accounts and not so many personal loans.

Kids come in every day to open checking accounts – I’ve probably helped thousands over the years – but I still love seeing their enthusiasm in saving for a new video game, bike, or vacation.

I have two sons, aged 22 and 25, and they always found it strange that I always worked in the same job. When they made decisions about what they wanted to do in life, they were under the impression that what they chose at age 18 was where they would have to stay forever.

But I think they understand now why I do it.

If you can get up in the morning, after so many years of doing the same job, and really want to be there and see your customers and colleagues, I don’t know why you would ever want to leave.

As told to Rachel Rickard Strauss.