Did you know there are people inside banks, not just ATMs?

Because I have a sarcastic sense of humor, people regularly refer to me as being cynical. I consider this unjust, because I think I'm an optimistic realist. I try to see things clearly and not get caught up in what other people want you to think. And I think people who spend time with me find me to be a pretty upbeat, positive person.

Part of the problem is my marketing background. Marketing is all about manipulation, developing communications that affect people's behavior. That's why it's fun, getting people to try something new, or keep doing what they've been doing even though they might want to make a change, or whatever. It's always about understanding who you're communicating with, what they think now, and what you want them to think when you're finished with them. This kind of background doesn't make lead one to unthinkingly take things at face value. Everything done in a good business is done for a reason, and I'm always looking for it.

I understand that it can seem cynical, but it's not. I won't even say that the people crafting the messages are cynical. It depends. Sometimes people really should stop behaving in one way and start in another. However, I gotta say, there's something about going at PNC Bank, anywhere, but especially in Bryn Mawr, that sets off my coded message detector.

I'm not sure what's gone on there, but beginning about a year ago, when I walk into the branch, I am besieged with friendly greetings in a way that seems suspicious. Oh, Frank, you may say, there you go taking a cynical view of people being friendly. Au contraire, mon frère. I have no problem with people I know or am acquainted with being friendly. I'm friendly to people sometimes myself when it suits me. But I'm not friendly all the time no matter what. And I don't effusively greet people I barely (if at all) know every single time one walks through the door. And keep in mind that while I never found it unpleasant going in the bank, the level of personal interaction never really registered with me. But now it's a minimum of 4 or 5 enthusiastic "hellohowareyoutoday?" people every time.

So here are the possibilities that I can think of: (1) Something changed markedly for the better in the lives of all of the people who work at PNC and made them all more friendly and cheery and they're just all living the dream. (2) They fired all the normal people who worked at PNC and replaced them with Stepford (I'm sorry, that was cynical) genuinely friendly creatures. (3) Or everyone miraculously got the same idea about how to reach when customers come into their place of business, or (4) There was a corporate directive that noted that people were a) starting to really hate banks, b) beginning to especially hate huge banks like PNC, and c) seek other places to park their money, and which told everyone who work in the branches that they'd better be friendly to the customers or else.

I'm not faulting the people who work at the bank on this. They do a reasonably good job of being friendly, and it helps that I always try to talk to customer service people as if they're real people, not machines that take care of stuff for me. It's just kind of creepy, that's all.