In the week since her story made international news, Emily James, the banker fired from a U.S. Bank call center in Portland for a Christmas Eve act of kindness, has been “overwhelmed and emotional” from the outpouring she’s received.
On the day before Christmas, James had gotten permission from her manager to leave the call center and drive to a nearby gas station, where a bank customer was stranded. He couldn’t access the money from his paycheck at the bank, so James gave him $20 of her own money to buy gas, then went back to work.
The bank fired her a week later on New Year’s Eve, James said, calling her helpful hand an “unauthorized interaction with a customer.”
Then last week her account to The Oregonian/OregonLive went viral. She’s had several job interviews, including with other local banks, but hasn’t yet started another job. Several companies reached out over social media, wanting to hire her.
The bank, one of the largest in the USA, was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1891; and is now headquartered in Minneapolis.
Today, U.S. Bank is the fifth-largest bank in the country, with 74,000 employees and $467 billion in assets as of December 31, 2018.
Well, they couldn't buy the kind of publicity they're receiving now.
