Behind WaMu's fall, drugs and serious lax lending rules.

[dixiegrrrrl]

From article:

As a supervisor at a Washington Mutual mortgage-processing center, John Parsons was accustomed to seeing baby-sitters claiming salaries worthy of college presidents, and schoolteachers with incomes rivaling stockbrokers'.

While Parsons, whose incarceration is not related to his work for WaMu, oversaw a team screening mortgage applications, he was snorting methamphetamine daily, he said.
"In our world, it was tolerated," said Sherri Zaback, who worked for Parsons and recalls seeing drug paraphernalia on his desk. "Everybody said, 'He gets the job done.' "

At WaMu, getting the job done meant lending money to nearly anyone who asked for it, the force behind the bank's meteoric rise and its precipitous collapse this year in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

More, much more, in article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008565733_wamu28.html

Makes you wonder about other banks and drugs, doesn't it?

[Citizen Number 9]

1. Not really.

Out of a couple dozen people from WaMu interviewed, the article turned up one individual who was involved in drug use. Although this was not a scientific study, the rate indicated would be about 4-5%.

In general, about 10-15% of the general population reports illicit drug use in the last year.

While illicit drugs are often the reason for employees' poor performance, the article does not support a culture of drug use at WaMu or any other large bank for that matter.

[sam sarrha]

2. thank you for a voice of reason.. got to yank em back to reality, they watch too much TV

[girl gone mad]

4. I've never worked for or with anyone..

who openly took drugs. And I've worked in bars and strip clubs.

Many things were going awry in these banks. Fraud was prevalent, known and encouraged. It doesn't surprise me that other illicit activity would be tolerated as well.

[Citizen Number 9]

5. I'm sure you can see how the manager or the "boss" could

get away with "openly" taking drugs in the workplace. It's their job to deal with issues like that in the staff. If they aren't acting up in view of their managers, it might last for a while.

I think it is going to take some time to find out what really happened with and inside of WaMu Mortgage Offices. It's a little hard to determine from the article what part one meth-snorting manager played and what part was corporate policy.

One thing is for sure and that the drug and alcohol problem exists everywhere. If you haven't experienced it, particularly in the "Entertainment and Hospitality" industry, then consider yourself extra lucky.

[jaksavage]

3. How blatant !

He had his staff trained to ignore it...
not in any biz I,ve ever been in...
getting high.