Borrowing money from colleagues

TELLIT01

I would suggest to the lender that they draw up a formal agreement with the borrower on the timescale for repayment. If the borrower doesn't want to agree to that it will tell the potential lender all they need to know.

debtisnotme

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Some employers forbid lending money to colleaagues

z1a wrote: »

Who????????

Civil Service for starters

shortcrust

z1a wrote: »

Who????????

I think the civil service didn't allow it when I worked there. A sensible policy.

Edit: debtisnotme beat me to it. I would imagine banks would also have a similar policy.

z1a

debtisnotme wrote: »

Civil Service for starters

I was a CS employee for 16 years, never heard of this. !!!!!!'s it got to do with your employer.

shortcrust

z1a wrote: »

I was a CS employee for 16 years, never heard of this. !!!!!!'s it got to do with your employer.

Can you really not see how it might impact on the workplace? I'd have thought it was obvious.

z1a

shortcrust wrote: »

Can you really not see how it might impact on the workplace? I'd have thought it was obvious.

Sort of, but so can a lot of things.

Geoff1963

He had agreed to lend the money but was having second thoughts.

I am not convinced the debt will ever be repaid.

That means there may be conflict between the staff, which could affect the work ; which is a risk to performance like any other, so you are "involved".

Does the company have a policy forbidding it ?

The potential lender shouldn't have agreed, unless they were making a firm commitment. Are they suggesting you lend it instead ? Would you be happy to do that, with safeguards ? What is the proposed repayment time-scale : next payday / several months ?

Does the company have a mechanism to make a salary advance in case of temporary hardship ? If not, maybe HR should think about having one ; cheaper than days off with stress or "presenteeism". If the company has no spare money, any staff who wanted to support a 0% APR lending scheme, could contribute ; with anonymity on both sides.

Could a formal mechanism of salary deduction be set up, so the borrower wouldn't have to remember ( perhaps the repayment will be over several months ).

Does the company have a general "talking therapy" facility in Occupational Health, which the borrower could use ? If not, can I suggest one ? Needing to borrow money outside the finance industry, is an indication that something is wrong.

If the company does have mechanisms such as this, could HR send a bulk e-mail reminding everyone, which saves the borrower being contacted directly ? They were probably expecting confidentiality from the potential lender.

Geoff1963

Sort of, but so can a lot of things.

I think some employers forbid employees dating each other, if they work in the same area.

z1a

Geoff1963 wrote: »

I think some employers forbid employees dating each other, if they work in the same area.

That's how I met my wife, both in same dept. whilst working for CS. No policies in place frowning upon it.

System

If the company does not have a policy clearly stating that employees can't lend money to each other then you can't get involved.

if it becomes a problem between the two employees and it affects work performance then you will have to get involved and manage the situation.