Working as a credit officer at RBC keeps bringing me back to 2025.
I was unemployed for a year. Naum Marketing had stopped making money, and I watched what I had built stop being able to carry me. I used credit to survive, then more credit to manage the credit I had already used. Cards reached their limits. Collectors called. The distance between an ordinary day and another financial problem became very small.
It was harsh. I had no idea at the time that the experience would follow me into my next job.
Now I sometimes make the kind of call I once dreaded receiving. My work requires me to contact people about credit cards, mortgages, and other loans. I have a clear objective, and my experience affects how I speak to the person on the phone.
I remember that there is a person behind the account in front of me.
I know how a call can feel before it is answered. Behind a delayed payment there may be shame, calculation, exhaustion, and a person rehearsing how much truth they can afford to tell a stranger. A professional voice can sound like judgment to somebody who already feels exposed.
That knowledge changes the conversation.
I understand some of what they may be feeling. I can say what someone needs to hear, stay clear about why I called, and speak to them with dignity throughout the conversation.
I wish more people in positions of authority could remember what it feels like to stand where somebody else is standing. That memory changes how you treat people.
At work, it is easy to see categories: customer, balance, risk, delay, target. We need those categories to do the job, but over time we can forget the full person in front of us. Sometimes we become harsh simply because we have stopped imagining what their day feels like.
That difficult year made it easier for me to imagine.
Financial pressure can shrink your world. It can follow you into sleep and turn small decisions into serious ones. I am grateful to be on the other side of that season. I also remember exactly how bad it felt.
The experience left me with empathy that I use every day.
I sometimes wonder whether God was preparing me for this work. I have no explanation for why every hardship happens. In this case, I came out of it more aware of what another person might be carrying.
I know how to do my job. I also remember what those calls felt like when I was the one receiving them.
The person receiving the call may never know how much I understand. I hope they can hear some of it in the way I speak to them.