Nothing is clear cut...

So, I have found myself in this situation before when I worked at the Baby Home.  Painstakingly taking time to think of and write fair, reasonable and manageable company policy, only to be faced with the day to day reality of what that means for people's lives.

Can you imagine a time in the UK, US, Canada or whichever developed place you were lucky enough to grow up in, that you would go to your boss mid-month and ask for an advance on your salary...or more than that, a loan.  Well, that is commonplace here.  It happens regularly, and depending on the size of your staff it happens daily.  It is not sustainable to have $10,000 out in small loans to your staff, it is not helpful to them as they often borrow and spend beyond their means because they have not been taught otherwise, and it means that in some cases a large amount of your expenditure budget is tied up in loans - on which you make nothing.

I have sat for hours thinking of the best way to approach this, only one loan a year, no more than twice their monthly salary, a 'loans budget' which the company/organisation has set aside for loans and the individual must apply and be awarded on merit, only given for death and funeral costs.  No matter how much time you spend on it, no matter how much you think you have developed a fair system, the reality is much harder to deal with.

Today one of my staff came to me to ask for a loan.  We have a no loan policy, it is a dangerous route to take and before you know it everyone wants a loan.  Here is his story:

Last night three men broke in to his family home where his wife and three young children were sleeping, he was away working for us out in the bush.  The beat up his wife and threatened to kill her.  They stole anything of value and all their money, a total of $35.  The door is now broken, there is no secure wall, and he is worried that because he is always away working for us, his house will now be a target and his wife and children are in danger of this happening again, or worse, being killed in a robbery.  Can I please loan him $2000 to build a wall and get a new door?

So, what do you say?  'I'm sorry, we have a no loans policy...I am quite happy for your family to be at danger and it will not weigh on my conscience should anything happen to them in the future'...