If she knows of your background, education and former success then she's intimidated by you (perhaps jealous) and has decided to denigrate you by referring to you as "her little helper". Then again, she may be oblivious that you find this pet name offensive. She probably thinks it is cool that someone with her limited education has power and say-so over you. I recently had to report to a younger man with less education, less experience, less success who made more money than I did, and who had more sway with the boss than I did and it was difficult.

If the bank's president avoids conflict then he will probably be of little help when he returns in addressing this problem. It is a mistake to have you reporting to her. Why must you do so? Why can't you operate independently? Why don't you report to the loan officers or the president? Why does the insurance manager say what you can and cannot do? This is a poor choice of selecting a boss for you -- unless she knows more than you do about your job and has had prior success in it (which I doubt).

You are either going to have to (a) bite your tongue and live with this situation as long as you can or (b) update your resume and discreetly seek employment elsewhere or (c) speak with the bank president when he returns about the possibility of reporting directly to him in the future.

If you elect option c, you need to be calling him at home and checking on him often, building trust and admiration with him, showing concern for him and his family, and offering to do whatever he may need to help during this time. Go by and visit if you can and take something thoughtful. Hopefully when he is back at work he will be predisposed to helping you succeed by re-arranging who you report to. This is not manipulation so much as it is relationship-building that will strengthen your future there.

I do not know if it will help you but one of things that I told my boss that helped me move out from under the less-experienced manager he had placed me with was: "I enjoy growing and learning new things. I like reporting to people who know more than I do. I don't think I will grow under this man. I think I would grow with you."

Within 2 weeks, I was reporting directly to the owner.

I wish you well.

Thank you for your comments HR Guy. As difficult as I know it will be, I think I'm going to bite my tongue and live with the situation for a while yet. Before I approach the president or owner, I would like to be able to prove my worth. Hopefully, (sooner rather than later) I'll have my own book of business and have sales and growth figures. Numbers don't lie, so I think I'll have a better window of opportunity to get what I want down the road. I want to have all the ammunition I can get.