Stress in the Bank

Bankers are stressed, need services, APA official says


Banking is not the most beloved or trusted profession in the U.S. these days. The 2010 Gallup Poll on most trusted professions showed only 22% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in banks, a record low.

And although when most people think about banks, they think about large financial institutions that were bailed out during the economic crisis, the public tends to lump all banks, small or large, in together.

As a result, bank employees have been taking it on the chin. Like millions of other Americans, they are suffering from stress, depression and job burnout, says Nancy Molitor, president of Division 42 at the American Psychological Association.

We spoke with Molitor, a Chicago-area psychologist, this week for an article we’re preparing on niche marketing opportunities. She had a lot of good and timely ideas, which we’ll explore in an upcoming issue of Psychotherapy Finances.

One interesting tidbit: One of Molitor’s Chicago colleagues has carved out a mini-niche working with bankers and employees of other financial institutions. “He’s been very busy,” she says, because “they feel very under fire — everybody is sort of seeing them as the bad guy.

“People think they’re making too much money. But they’re doing the job of two or three other people, and they’re actually making less money than they used to make. So they’re very stressed.”

Molitor works with the financial services industry as well and adds: “They’re all very stressed. They don’t feel that the public gets what they do.”