Bank Call Center vs Policies
At what point is breaking the rules more ethical than company policies that are intractable and lack humanity? Who trains the policymakers to know the difference? This is the dilemma that Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Bank Andy Cecere is currently facing. He had better tread lightly here, because The New York Times and many other news outlets are closely watching his actions.
Where is Compassion?
Banking has never been known for an abundance of compassion. Whether we are talking about the economy crashing in the first decade of this century or the shenanigans at Wells Fargo a few years ago, the banking industry seems to have remained consistent in its disregard for the consumer.
So, it is with this thought that U.S. Bank is reviewing the case of two, unnamed U.S. Bank employees who were recently fired. Indeed, the firings have been treated as “exhibit 1” in understanding “how some companies have lost their souls.”
The employees work at the bank’s call center in Portland, Oregon. The employees were on duty Christmas Eve, December 24, 2019. A customer called in a panic. According to The Times and Oregon sources, the customer “couldn’t get cash because his paycheck from a new employer was held up in a verification process that wouldn’t be resolved until after the holiday.”
The complaint sounded legitimate and, of course, as the customer had to verify all of the account information, passwords and personal information, after a back and forth, one of the employees took it upon himself to drive to a service station from where the customer had called. The employee met the customer and shelled out $20 of his own money so the customer could make it through Christmas. When the bank found out about it, they fired the two employees. Apparently, there is a company policy in place that “seeks to limit customer contact to branches and offices.” U.S. Bank fired the employees on New Year’s Eve.
Going Viral
Not unexpectedly, when the news of the firings “hit the street,” it went viral. Then, when the Times wrote about the incident, the story took off – and so much so that CEO Cecere called the Times and allegedly said “This is not who we are.”
This led to U.S. Bank publishing a statement on their website:
“It is important to acknowledge our mistakes and when we fall short of our own high expectations. I take full responsibility. We will also conduct an immediate review of our policies and make appropriate changes to them that align with our values and our commitment to both customers and employees.”
Cecere has reached out to the employees he fired, but it is unclear if the employees will get their jobs back. Interestingly the bank has consistently boasted of their high ethical standards.
However, this is a case where the employees received a whole bunch of mixed messages. On one hand the employees may have been thinking “Our company touts how ethical it is. Here’s our chance to take a chance on someone who is caught in the middle of a huge problem.”
The employees did not use the bank’s money to help the poor soul get through Christmas, they used their own. Nevertheless, because the bank held to its policies about a lack of contact between call center and customer, they were fired.
Said the Times, “When young Americans say in polls that they react more positively to ‘socialism’ than to ‘capitalism,’ it’s because of the hypocrisy of institutions like U.S. Bank…(we) understand why companies put holds on checks so that they reduce the risk of fraud losses (and why) they have policies banning call center employees from meeting customers, but companies also need a bit of common sense, a bit of heart.”
Where is the “Ethical Soul”
The bank could have “counseled” the call center employees internally in any number of ways, including a warning as to what could have happened. They could have even amended their policies in such cases, to allow an existing customer to borrow $10 or $20 to see them through a holiday.
It needs to again be said that the call center employees knew the first paycheck “was held up in a verification process.” They saw the check, they undoubtedly knew the employer, they knew the customer. In other words, the employees saw the customer as a person rather than a number.
It was an unusual problem and the employees saw an ethical solution to helping out someone waiting for a check to clear. Where is the “ethical soul” of U.S. Bank? It is with two low-level employees. It is the higher-ups who never got the common sense message.
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