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TIM CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Co-workers Colm Boer, left, and Kris Andrzejeski flank Helen Kollias, the inaugural Mid-county Community Builder. Kollias, who lives in Argay Terrace, has worked for Wells Fargo for more than 30 years, most of it in Mid-county. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran |
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| First Interstate Bank co-workers gather at Helen Kollias's Argay Terrace home in December 1990. Helen, standing, left, with her son Spyros in front, hosted this holiday party for fellow 122nd Avenue and Halsey Street First Interstate Bank branch tellers. COURTESY HELEN KOLLIAS |
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| Helen Kollias poses with her friend and co-worker Kris Andrzejeski. Bank staff dons fashionable neckwear on Bow Tie Thursdays at the Northeast 122nd Avenue and Halsey Street branch of Wells Fargo. Andrzejeski, branch service manager, has worked with Kollias for more than six years. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran |
Who are they? They prepare and serve us food in restaurants. They deliver our mail; check our groceries; do our banking; minister to our spirits; schedule our appointments; do our taxes; repair and maintain our homes, streets and cars; build our homes; protect us; haul our garbage; grow our food; sell us myriad necessities and teach our children.
They are key, longtime employees of Mid-county businesses who have performed their jobs efficiently and remarkably well for decades. They enjoy and take pride in their work, care about the people they serve and are loyal to the people who employ them. These community builders usually live in Mid-county or near their place of work and are mostly native Portlanders.
If you know someone who fits this description, share his or her story with us at editor@midcountymemo.com, or call 503-287-8904.
The inaugural community builder is Helen Kollias, lead merchant teller at Wells Fargo's 122nd Avenue bank branch (1610 N.E. 122nd Ave.).
A Portland native, Helen began her banking career in 1972 as an entry-level payroll services clerk at First Interstate Bank headquarters downtown shortly after graduating from Jefferson High School. She later transferred to the Human Resources Department.
Transferred again in 1975 to the 122nd Avenue and Halsey Street branch office as a new accounts representative, she and new husband Spyros bought a home in the Argay Terrace neighborhood of Parkrose. She has one son and four stepchildren.
Helen loves her job. “It's my life,” she said. “I go to work every day because I have friends at work, and I have customers that are also friends. It's a social thing for me. The customers aren't just customers, they're friends.” She has built deep and long lasting relationships on the job. “I've known customers since their kids were born,” she said. I've met their kids. Now, they've got grandkids. I know the neighborhood, I know the customers.”
She took a leave of absence in the early 80s to rear son Spyros, returning a few years later to First Interstate's Parkrose branch as a part-time teller while their son attended Shaver Elementary in the Parkrose School District. “It was great. I loved Parkrose,” she said. “I don't know what it's like now, but I loved the comfort of the teachers and principal at Shaver. My son still has friends from high school.” She added, “He never knew I was working because I took him to school and picked him up.”
Returning to full-time work in the mid-90s-in 1996, Wells Fargo bought First Interstate bank-Helen garnered a promotion to lead teller and moved to the now closed Airport Way Business Banking Center in Parkrose.
Moreover, since Helen considers co-workers her second family, she was profoundly moved by the way Wells Fargo handled the business banking center's dismantling-her favorite career posting-when it closed. “I wasn't happy it was closing,” she said. “But Wells Fargo actually placed everyone from that building. No one was fired; nobody got unemployment; nobody got a package; everyone was given a home to go to. Which for a big company like Wells Fargo, to me, that is impressive … very impressive. People go, 'Oh, Wells Fargo, it's a big bank.' But it's a big bank that cares.”
When it closed in 2002, Helen returned to the 122nd Avenue branch where she is today and will likely stay until her retirement, which won't be anytime soon. Her retirement dreams were put on hold when the stock market nosedived in 2008. “There is no dream,” she said. “2008 hit and the 401k went this way (pointing down), because I had it all in one particular fund. I'm not planning to retire … I'm here as long as they'll let me stay.”
Co-workers love Helen back
Wells Fargo Service Manager Shawna Parsons has worked with hundreds of tellers in her Wells Fargo career. She said working with Kollias, albeit a relatively short time, left a lasting impression. “Helen is by far one of my favorite people I've worked with at the bank,” she said. “She's so steady. She's was the one person I always knew I could count on to get things done.”
Parsons remarked on Kollias' relationships with people. “Her customers adore her. She remembers people; she remembers details about their lives. She makes them feel important and makes them feel like they're not just another number to the bank.”
Parsons said she stays in touch with Kollias. “When I have a day off work, I make it a point to stop by and see Helen; see how she's doing.”
Employment Branding Manager Aaron Kraljev, who was Kollias's manager for more than four years of his 17 years at the bank, thinks she is a valuable asset for her superb customer service skills, her calming influence when it got hectic and her willingness to be a mentor. “She's such a bright spot in the community. It was a pleasure to watch her interact with everybody that came through the door. She has a genuine concern for everybody she meets.” He added, “She was always willing to take people under her wing; she has kind of a mothering instinct for the younger team members. She is also a very calming influence, and Helen always brought a certain amount of levity to the room.”
Customers love Helen too
In 1968, when Ollie Lund and his partners opened one of Portland's first McDonald's franchises just down the block at Glisan Street, he opened an account at the 122nd Avenue branch and has been there ever since. “Everybody can look to Helen for guidance and no nonsense; everything is there to help the customer,” he said. “She's been very very helpful over the years. She's the most stable person at the bank. I think she sets the example for everybody else in the bank, for customer service.”
Barbara Singh, former owner of Bill's Steakhouse and Silver Buckle Lounge in Parkrose, has known Kollias for more than 15 years and appreciates her institutional knowledge. “Helen knows everything about everything about running that bank. She's very meticulous. She will get things done for you no matter what.” Singh added, “She's a great asset to Wells Fargo and it has been great knowing her.”
Helen doesn't know everyone approaching her window, of course. However, she makes an effort with everyone. Even with grumpy customers. Her ineffable optimism is genuine. “Sometimes you get people who don't want to talk. I care they're there because if they're not there, we're not.” She attempts to figure out how to please them before they leave the bank. “I want people to be happy. I try to always make them smile.” When Helen asks customers how they are, it's not a perfunctory salutation as a prelude to doing business; she genuinely cares and wants to know.
Perfect Portland
George and Zaga Nickoloff immigrated to the United States from Macedonia shortly after the end of World War II. Because of relatives, they ended up in Portland where oldest daughter Helen was born, followed by sisters Olga (Nicki) and Nada.
Raised in the sweet spot of what locals call the Perfect Portland, or Beverly Cleary era-the 50s thru 70s-Helen and her sisters had an idyllic childhood. “I had a childhood kids don't have anymore,” she said. “Everybody knew everybody. Nobody locked their doors; we played all day and nobody worried. It was safe. It was kinda like the Donna Reed Show and Ozzie and Harriet.” She added, “I still have friends from my childhood.” She is correct; Portland arguably was the best city in the best state in the best country in the world, during that time.
Helen's parents nurtured her self-respect, instilled a strong work ethic and passed a strong Greek Orthodox religious heritage on to her. They owned George's Corner Bar on North Interstate Avenue that Helen's Dad ran, “It [the bar] was just down the street from our house. I saw my dad all the time. I knew many of his customers.”
On her first day of kindergarten, Helen befuddled her teachers. With little or no English spoken at home, combined with the previous six months spent in Yugoslavia, Helen was speaking Macedonian to teachers, which they mistook for a learning disability until phoning her parents. Portland teachers had little to no experience with English Language Learners unlike today, where it is commonplace. Helen quickly mastered English, matriculating through Ockley Green Elementary, and then graduating from Jefferson High School with honors.
Confidence instilled
Kollias said her parents imbued their children with confidence, which led to competence. “When we would whine that we couldn't do something, my dad would always tell us, 'No such thing as can't; you can do any-thing you want.' He believed in us.” She took a long pause, and then added, “So my dad … yeah.” Helen's father died last October; her mother and youngest sister Nada are also deceased. Helen's sister Nicki also works for Wells Fargo.
Going from her parents' nurturing environment Helen got lucky with Marie Bullitset, her first supervisor at the bank. Bullitset not only instilled confidence in her, but also believed in Helen's capabilities. “She made me believe. 'You can do this,' she'd say; three months later, I was training new hires.” Helen's second supervisor, Marcella Knocker, believed in her even more. “Every manager I worked for cares,” Kollias said. “Especially Marcella, she'd even pick us up for work when we had to go in at midnight because the computers broke down. She didn't want us riding buses that late.”
Worst days on the job
“There were six,” she said. “The six times when we were robbed, and I remember every one.” The spate of holdups began in 2007, occurring over an 11-month span.
Held at knifepoint during the most harrowing stick-up, she was saved by former Assistant Branch Manager Michael Chau, who picked up and brandished a teller stool at the robber like a lion tamer, which gave Helen and her co-workers a chance to run out the back door. Police told her she could have been seriously injured, but she was lucky; “I had just returned from gall bladder surgery; so much was going through my mind like, 'Oh god, please don't let him stab me where the incision is; stab me in the heart.' It was a nightmare.”
Using a bicycle for his getaway, the robber was easily apprehended.
The rash of robberies prompted the installation of bulletproof barriers at the branch to guard tellers. Since then, zero robberies. “It's safer for us; safer for the customer,” Kollias said.
However, being held at knifepoint wasn't the worst pain Kollias ever felt on the job. That pain came two years ago attempting to catch a 50-pound bag of coins a co-worker was passing to her and missed. She got one hand on the bag and then tried to catch it with her other, which got under the sack of coins just before it hit the concrete floor, crushing her thumb. Ouch! “Stupid me, I should have let it go and hit the floor, but I stuck my hand out and it flattened my thumb.”
Career do-over
If Helen could have one career do-over, she would have stayed in the bank's Human Resources Department (HRD). She applied for a permanent posting when temporarily assigned there early in her career. However, the HRD head dissuaded her. “'You can't because you don't type,' he told me. So I said, 'OK John, turned around and walked out and then thought, 'I can type 60 words a minute.' Back then, I wouldn't talk back, I wouldn't question.” She regrets not being more assertive. Moreover, she never let the HRD head forget it when he visited her branch. Whenever he greeted her while typing up a new customer's account information, Helen replied sarcastically, “Not bad for a girl who can't type.” “You're never going to let me forget that are you?” he would say. “Nope, I wanted to stay in HR. I'm not going to let you forget it.”
Asked her definition of 'making it' she replied, “I think making it is being happy and having your family and friends. I have my job, my church (Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox), my friends I work with and my customers. I think that's making it. It isn't about making a lot of money; it's about the people you have in your life.”
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