Would loan money to your helper?

[Sage]

Having said that, I would also talk about the fact that I think it is not a good idea to have an outstanding loan between us as it eventually can create difficulties in the relationship - which is the reality.

Hi snagito - I have been wondering about this. I'm not comfortable with my helper taking a loan from us but I figure that it is the better of the two devils. I don't want finance companies chasing her down and I'd want to get clued in, at the very least, if she's having dire financial problems. Lending her money when she needs it for emergencies helps me understand her situation better and in turn, I can be prepared and also help her, if needed.

So far, our relationship hasn't changed (yet) although I find that she gets lazier and more absent-minded these days but I've been told that this happens sometimes and I just have to deal with it.

Thus, I'm interested to know, specifically, what kind of difficulties that can be created from this relationship. I hope that me, lending her money is not making her more absent-minded and lazier.

 

[Portia]

It depends on how much money. I have given advances on salary of a few thousand to most of my helpers, but my current helper needed to borrow $35K to repay a loan. We said no as she was new and we weren't sure whether she would be sticking around long enough for us to get repayment by instalments from her monthly salary if we repaid the loan for her.

 

[mel_g20]

Thanks for all of your honest replies. I respect and trust my helper, but then still cannot be 100% sure that the money is for what she says it is for, or that I will get it all back. But saying that I will give her the benefit of the doubt and probably lend her the money.

I agree culturally we are in different positions from our helpers, and I personally cannot completely understand how it feels to live so far from home, family and children, and what the pressure of putting food into those mouths must feel like. Saying that I have to believe that the majority of people are good and honest, and hope this is the right thing to do.

 

[aussiegal]

Portia, wow a $35 k loan. That's some cheek even asking for it. It's a ton of cash by any standards let alone for a new helper. I completely understand saying no.

Sage, this is probably a horrible thing to say but our first helper got wind that we were going to fire her so she came up with a story about needing money for her sick father (who she had already told us was dead...). We figured it was her way of ensuring we wouldn't fire her. i.e we'd want our money back and keep her on as long as it took.

Needless to say we didn't give her the loan and did fire her a month later for unrelated matters.

I have found that of the three helpers we've had in 18 months (yeah not much good at hiring!) the first two got lazier the more generous we were- figured we were easy touchs. The third is the only one who doesn't take the extras we give her for granted or as a sign she can slack off but rather as an indication that we are happy with her current level of work. We are very happy to have found her and were always surprised by the two previous employee's who reacted in the exact opposite way to what we had intended when we gave the gifts and bonuses!

 

[Sage]

Aussiegal, why yes. How strange. Her laziness and absent-mindedness started after I increased her salary. I decided to increase her salary after three months of hiring her as I was happy with her. But then, things went downhill from there... particularly in the loan department.

Yes, I get the part about ensuring that we wouldn't fire her. Which is why I gave her only a month's salary. She wanted about HKD10,000. Once she's repaid her current loan, I have no doubt that she'd be expecting another loan. In my helper's case, I think it's just pure bad fiscal management. She has the latest iPod and a very snazzy cellphone so, I don't think she's in dire straits where money is concerned. I think she just doesn't plan for emergencies and/or impulse purchases.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

It depends on how much money. I have given advances on salary of a few thousand to most of my helpers, but my current helper needed to borrow $35K to repay a loan. We said no as she was new and we weren't sure whether she would be sticking around long enough for us to get repayment by instalments from her monthly salary if we repaid the loan for her.

That`s funny, nearly her whole year`s salary - that`s like asking our boss at home for a loan of a half million dollars.

 

[fingerscrossed]

We had the same request...father in hospital, etc. and we asked that she show us a copy of the hospital documents first. It's easy...a diagnosis, an in-patient form or anything like that will do. After a few days, she said the prob was solved and she didn't need the money anymore (ta-daaa!). If she solved the prob through a loan shark, she'd be fired on the spot, which she knows as we stipulated that in the rules we set from day one.

So far, she has asked for half a month, one month etc. on one or two occasions and we did agree to that but said no more in future.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

My former cleaner asked for a bit of money one day as she said her son had been scalded by hot water before she came and they didn`t want to take him to the public hospital bc the wait was too long and so needed to money for a private doctor. I actually didn`t have the money to lend her at that time so I refused her (and felt guilty about it later). I never heard from her again after that.
I wouldn`t lend money to my helper (if I had one), sob story or not. I`m not a bank. The only thing I might do would be to advance her wages a bit, but that would mean she wouldn`t get salary at all for that time period, so she would have to work out her personal finances herself.

 

[LeahH]

I've lent money to our helpers several times, to send home in emergencies and before their trips home. Their families all have their hands out for money as soon as they arrive.

We haven't done more than $10k for one loan, they know we couldn't afford to do more than that and wouldn't ask.

I trust them and if they say it's an 'emergency' then that's sufficient detail - I don't want or need more information. They are sisters and support a large number of people back in the Philippines - if they say they need it then I am very sure they do.

I'm not a bank, but they don't have access to actual banking/legitimate financial services so better that it's me than some of the unscrupulous loan sharks operating here.

 

[canadienne]

Why don't they have access to actual banking and legitimate services? (I'm not being snarky, I genuinely don't know the situation)

C.