MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Angela give the old lady extra time to pay?

Muffcat

Oh for the good old days, many years ago, when I worked in a Bank and decisions about loans would be taken by the managers and not as appears to be the case here relatively junior members of staff - but perhaps I'd better not start this particular trip down memory lane!
But my main concern is first, what is a dear old lady (we are not told how old) doing with a mortgage at her time of life and second, and perhaps more to the point, who agreed it? Could it have been Angela's rather unpleasant boss which might explain why, faced with the possible consequences of his mistaken decision, is trhying to shift the blame on to someone else?

outofstock

flossy_splodge wrote: »

I do hope you find yourself on the other side of this sort of situation real soon.
What goes round comes round, soon I hope.

I prefer to live in a compassionate world rather than in an 'advanced economy'.

That's a disturbing thing to say.You believe yourself to be compassionate,yet in a hypothetical discussion you hope that I soon (in reality) personaly come to grief.

I don't agree with your view but I don't wish you any deliberate harm.

pineapple

Personally I'm more concerned that some seem to be assuming the boss is a man
The 'sweet old lady' is not likely to be a wage earner so why would a stay in hospital affect her mortgage?

pennypinchUK

A few points:
1. The boss can't add Angela to the redundancy list for this reason, unless everyone in the group of potential redundant employees is being assessed equally on this measure. That's backed by well founded and tested employment law.
2. Presumably, bank employees in her position are given some leeway on issues relating to clients debt resolution. So if Angela follows the rule book and gives the old lady appropriate leeway she's in the clear.
3. Lucky old lady - she's actually managed to find a human being to talk to. I thought banks only employed auto-answering machines and soul-less computers these days....

BigMikeyG

look after number one and claim back the house, end of the day she probably won't see the woman again and she will lose her house (if she has one) if she loses her job, and the person who takes her job will just reclaim it anyway so there will be 2 losers.

Stampede_2

My first reaction was how come 'a sweet old lady' has a mortgage ..there are rules and codes of practice about inappropriate lending and 'selling' of financial products ..

Next who has the authority to make the decision, provided Angela makes it rationally and with realistic expectations of it being sorted then no problem.

I'd suggest the 'sweet old lady' had independant advice from the likes of CAB, local free law centres, that sort of thing, some Age Concern branches have advocacy help schemes who are pretty good on the rules, rights and benefits.

Now is not the time to embark upon forced sales unless really necessary.

:j totally debt free, try never to pay interest charges whilst at the same time searching for best saving rates.
Mum's advice ( RIP ) always put money in the bank for that rainy day when the roof needs repairing

Fotoman_2

A couple of points here...

1. She has received a direct order from her boss.
2. She has been rather nastily threatened by her boss.

On the first point, she really has no option but to do what she has been ordered to do, or she will be disciplined. Life, unfortunately, is hard.

On the second point, she needs to get evidence of what has been said to her as this is cleary harrassment in the first degree.

I'd send a memo back to the boss, stating exactly what was said and agreeing to comply with the order. If the boss does not react, or refute what was said, then that memo is a good part of the evidence.

Has the boss said similar things to other employees? There's safety in numbers. If she get the backing of two or three other people who have been threatened in this manner, then there's a very good case to walk away from the bank and claim constructive dismissal. (With five years service though, Angela probably woudn't get that much)

Other than that, if Angela is in a Union, they may get on board to help.

The end result, unfortunately, is that this little old lady will get stamped on by the big, bad, bank who would then become cannon fodder for the press!

Of course, there is a third option...
Go off sick with stress! Angela will get full pay, provided she goes back to work for a week occasionally (to show willing) and she doesn't have to prove anything to show that she is stressed; it's a very easily complaint to fake. A friend of mine played this game for four years before eventually being 'paid off' with a generous package.

sephres

In a situation like this, Its not a case of having decision making power. Its your job to get the money back and more often than not, the employer would have covered themselves in the employment contract against "nice people". the decision is whether you want anew job or not. I used to work in debt collection but couldnt hack it for this very reason, I wasnt harsh enough, after all, the sheep we were collecting money off are a) still our customers and b) still human. I walked out after having my boss tell me a few that I wasnt bringing enough in to many times.
You can help one person but to make it work for you, you have drop someone else deeper in it...
It sickens me to see that debt collection is still a bonus driven industry.

analyst_2

If I were Angela I'd try and find a way to help this 'dear sweet old lady' by funding her repayment from the boss's next ill-gotten bonus payment 'for all those hours of hard work' he spent during the afternoons on the golf course.

I'd then tell the boss where to stick his job as I wouldn't want to work for a scurrilous scum-bag like him, no matter what they paid me.

The biggest cheats and thieves to beset our land do it for millions not petty amounts, and can be recognised not by striped jumpers, masks and a bag labelled 'swag' over their shoulder. They wear sharp suits (in corporate boardrooms, not on the golf course)

meher

MSE_Jenny wrote: »

Should Angela give the old lady extra time to pay?


Angela has been working in a bank for five years. Her boss says she’s too lenient with customers in debt, and if she doesn’t toughen up, she'll be first in line for the next lay-offs. She then gets a visit from a sweet elderly lady, who’s just come out of hospital and has fallen behind on her mortgage repayments. If Angela doesn’t give extra time to pay, the lady’s home will be repossessed, but Angela knows her boss is watching.

No. It would be unprofessional to go against their business protocol. What Angela could do instead would be to advice her on looking for mortgage protection insurance, suggest she seeks free independent financial advise and also to refer the lady to local legal services offering free debt advise or similar consumer credit counselling centres.