How far would you go to support a co-worker?

I have worked with people I feel quite sure would have helped me if I needed assistance and they could provide it. I know I have worked with people I would have helped if I could. I haven’t given people money, but I have given people things I know they need. A young man I used to work with needed to go to an interview so I gave him a very good suit my husband no longer wore. I remember giving a friend who was sick the password to my Audible account so she could use my credit to get audio books to listen to. If someone I work with and care about needed money and I had some to spare, I’d happily help.

There are a couple of programs over here where they interview politicians in their home settings. Often, they feature politicians from different sides of the chamber yet they are friends. While I know their participation is about PR, I think it’s important to remember what we see in the news or in the political arena, isn’t the whole picture. Behind the politician is a real person with a family. Their whole life isn’t about politics. It may be different in the US. However, I’m not surprised when I hear of a Liberal politician being good friend with an ALP MP.

I cured a skin condition a co worker had. She had been suffering for about a year and after courses and courses of cortizone and hours and hours of lamp light therapy it looked a bit better, but she was still itching like mad and losing sleep at night because she was itching herself raw in spots. So….for Christmas, I gave her some soap (which she ended up giving me money for) and body butter I whipped up specially for her. She came into work the next Monday pulling up her shirt to show everyone…. ‘I’m not itching any more!’ That sort of made me feel good and I know she was feeling better because when she found me later in the changing room, she thanked me with tears in her eyes. Uff… I hate it when humans do that.

One of the guys I worked with had an 18 year old son suddenly diagnosed with a bad lymphoma. He had all kinds of conventional treatments but continued on the downward spiral. Our friend wanted to try non-conventional supplements but they were expensive. Five of us agreed to pay for them as long as he needed. His son died a few months later.
Even if the supplements were a total scam they really helped our friend feel like he had done everything he could. They were also a tangible expression of our concern and support. It was well worth the investment.

I have an employee that was hired 12 years ago specifically to manage the production of one very large customer. 4 years ago the amount of business this customer gave us began to decline to a point where our company was losing money by keeping this employee on the payroll. This employee is very well paid but the back story is he has a 22 year old son who at a very young age began to have seizures. Sadly this boy is a walking vegetable and his dad has devoted his life to take care of his son and his medical bills consume all of his salary and more. 3 years ago my partner petitioned me to fire this worker and I refused. On paper I knew my partner had a point but despite this man costing me thousands more to keep on the payroll I just couldn’t bring myself to fire this man as I knew I could grow the company enough to where we would need him to help out elsewhere in our company. In my heart I knew I would find a way to keep him on as employee no matter what. This past summer I had to fire my partner and low and behold this employee has stepped up and taken over as manager of our entire plant and production. The world truly works in mysterious ways.

I think it happens all the time. It seems only natural that someone with whom you work closely might become your good and cherished friend. Of course in this case, the offer was made by someone who did not put his own family at financial risk in doing so. I think the decision to help in a situation such as this is easy when you can afford it. Most of us would do it, and most of us have similar stories of being on one end or the other of a desperately needed helping hand.

As far as they deserve & I deem necessary.

I mean I don’t have Co workers in a real sense. I’m a sub. A temp so I don’t get invited to the Christmas parties and can be reassigned in a days notice. But I do enjoy their company while it lasts.

When I worked in a factory I took breaks with a woman slightly older than me who worked as the cafeteria janitor. I was passing friends with her daughter, although I’d never had any casual contact with any of them outside work. The mom and I were on 3rd shift, so thing were pretty low-key and quiet.

One day my phone rang, and it was the mother. She must have looked my number up in the book, as she’d never had occasion to call before. After the preliminaries, she got right to the point:
“If I don’t have $10,000 by the end of the week my husband and I will lose our house and everything we own. I know you have it, and I have no where else to turn. Will you loan me the money? My husband is disabled and we’re waiting on a settlement. When we get that, we should be able to pay you back.”
Pause. “Yes.” “When do you need it?”
“As soon as possible”

Long story short, I withdrew $10,000 cash from my savings account (probably ⅓ of my life savings?) and gave it to her in an envelope, no receipt, no IOU.
After a few weeks she stopped mentioning it, and I got a little nervous.
When I asked her about the money, she said her husband’s settlement was still pending.

Finally, one day she gave me a check for $10,000. No gush. No fanfare. No token interest.

Would I do it again? Hard to say. I’m older, and therefore more adverse to financial risk. $1,000 I probably wouldn’t have a problem with. But, geeze, $10,000!?.

@ibstubro That was a gutsy move. Glad to hear it worked out OK…would have been better had a thank you or token interest was attached.

I forgot to add one thing to the story above. The guy was a single parent. He used all his vacation taking his son to hospital visits. When things were going downhill we started covering his work. The guy was a wreck and felt he was wasting precious time.
We spoke to management and offered to donate some of our vacation days to him so he could do things with his son rather than leaving him alone. “Management” agreed. We donated about 2 months of our time to him and it was all approved. However, they in turn, performed an equally generous gesture – none of us were docked for the weeks we donated. This was intentional and not a mistake.

Yes, @Cruiser.
I loaned the money because I didn’t feel like I could live with myself if had the money to lend, refused, and they did lose everything. I wasn’t looking for a firstborn child or anything. And I know they were still strapped.
On the other hand, if someone loaned me, say, $1,000 cash, no strings, for months, I would find some way to show my amazed appreciation. If nothing else in case it was a bridge I needed to cross again in the future.

Maybe the whole thing just mortified her.

@ibstubro I understand the emotional significance of what you did and applaud you for that, but I will stop short of chastising you for not having some form of document of that transaction that you could at least lien the house if they “forgot” to repay you.

It was “yes” or “no”, @Cruiser. There wasn’t time for legal advice. I went with my instincts and personal moral code.

Never loan what you cannot afford to give.
I was debt free, and it would have hurt, but not nearly as bad as if I’d seen them lose everything.