ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that there were significant work organization issues. While there were some fulfilling jobs in the office, there were also unsatisfactory ones, and stresses and problems in the work organization. There were commonalities in the work organization of the branches. In every branch there were workstations where cashiers managed tills and were the first point of contact for customers. Also in every branch, at the "back of the office", was the "machine room". At this stage in the application of computing to branch banking, customer accounts were held in large computer centres, but only a few online terminals, located in the machine room, provided continuous access to these accounts. A study of branch banking was commissioned, and a team of five researchers spent a week in each of four branches—one in central London, one in a London suburb, one in a provincial city, and one in a small country town.
