We found out yesterday that one of the cleaning ladies here at the office has the habit of "borrowing" money from people around the office. She tells you that one of her sisters is sick, or that her mom is sick or that she doesn't have enough money to go home.
And we found out because the last person she asked money from is one of my direct CW she asked us if any of the cleaning ladies has ever asked to borrow money from any of us, 4 out of my 6 team mates said yes (including me). Turns out that she has gotten more than $600 pesos out of all of us and we don't know if she has asked money from other people around the building.
We are caring people that know that sometimes life can hit you hard and how difficult it is to ask for help sometimes. We all knew that the money was not coming back, we knew it from the moment we gave it to her, we weren't expecting her to pay back especially since she was in such a bad place; yet knowing that she ask everyone around for money made us feel kind of sad and cheated.
So my question is would you say something to her? If so, what would it be? We are not taking this to HR, if we do she might be without a job and that's not what we want.
First one was me and I think it was last year when it happened. And then about a couple of months ago to one of my female CW, then last week a male CW and yesterday the other female CW.
I agree, you must look at it in terms of the COL in the area not in terms of US dollars.
Anyway, I think I would just store it away in my knowledge bank. I do think it is kind of unprofessional to ask that of coworkers but that is by my standards and I don't know if that is frowned upon in your culture.
Technically we are not coworkers of her. She is an employee for the company that's hired to do the cleaning in the building. I do agree that it's unprofessional none the less.
Even more unprofessional then. I understand why this would be upsetting especially since no one in the circle has been actually repaid. It makes it start to feel like you are all being fooled. I know you should never give a loan without thinking it a gift but there is a point that you can feel like you were taken advantage of after the fact.
EmmDee: not really I was just sad that she was going through a bad time.
dqm: I agree it's less than that. And yet for us $60 usd is a bigger deal. I can feed my family with that for a week.
Even so I still feel sorry for some one that needs to ask FOUR people over the course of months to borrow money and all they they got was $43 (I looked it up)
So each person that lent money is out about ten bucks. I still feel sorrier for the person that needs to beg than I do for the ones who willingly gave. I hope she's able to pay it back but if she can't I have compassion for her.
