and hoping for that soft landing…

I have been reflecting on the movie “Up In The Air” which I saw a while back and which motivated this – my very first blog of 2010.  I have concluded that the movie’s plot had a lot of parallels and intersections to my own lifetime profession “bill collecting” – one which is populated by the two camps of people who owe and people who are owed. 

The relevance of “Up In The Air” to our financial struggles?  If you know the story, Ryan Bingham was the protagonist who spends 322 days a year travelling in a job that makes even my work enviable. 

 His role is that of a hired hand brought on board to fire people.

Yep, his job was to sack them, superannuate them, send them packing, downsize, rightsize, elimi-size them.

I realized the inevitable while watching the on-screen responses of the unhappy, even unwitting, victims of job loss, that these people would shortly be entering my world.  Soon enough, the bill collectors will be calling.

These unfortunates – depending on the depth of their pockets – will find themselves on an assembly line of despair …a long, slow-moving belt which inexorably feeds people through defined stages:  the creditor’s collection department, then assigned to third-party collection agencies, these agencies attorney, and finally the courts.  A slow, painful, protracted process.

Other characters in supporting roles will appear.  The Credit Repair Firm (careful!) Credit counseling by the creditor (self serving), forced (and again self-serving arbitration for the creditor) and the priest, minister or Rabbi (reaching for higher assistance).

Advice will come from the neighbor, friend or relative who has “been through this.” Barnes & Noble shelves will be lightened of copies of “Bankruptcy for Dummies.”

What role do you, I and my website (WOAA) and twitter have in this “reality show?”  

We both have a job here.  I see mine as that of helping to make sense out of this unwanted and oftentimes unneeded pain and to provide much-needed information and healing.

Your job doesn’t have to start with being fired, although that will be the case of thousands of workers every month!  You may, instead, be a victime of suddenly jacked-up interest and payment terms set by your credit card issuer.  Or, it could be that “variable rate” mortgage suddenly doubling, or an unexpected and devastated illness, long hospital stays, and days lost from work. (Medical collections, for your information, comprises 40% of all collection activity of the traditional collection agency.)

We are here because many of us – whether creditor or debtor – are in deeper trouble than we have ever experienced.  We are here because no one has provided us with a Survivor’s Manual that will help us cope with the Great Recession.

WOAA intends to serve in that capacity.  Not written just for the “debtor” (I hate that word). WOAA intends to help the hard-working bill collector to better do his or her job in bringing in the money which their company needs to pay its bills. 

Who is the source of this worthwhile information?  All of us, with me as a thirty-year veteran of credit, collections and customer service to solicit your story, winnow out and provide you with the best practices and instructive stories, and coach both side to reach the best, most respectful and humane way in which accounts can be settled, collected, or written off.

WOAA – thanks to “The Wisdom of Crowds” – will give you entirely current information, tools…and even hope.

As for “Up In The Air” the movie, it doesn’t end well for the protagonist.  Ryan’s misfortune is that he never received a  packet similar to the one he handed the employees helped to discharge.  After all, it contained “all the answers you need to know” to help people to move forward in life, to leave safety and security behind.

Ryan?  His circumstances found him at the airport staring at arrival and departure boards without a clue as to where he was going, or why.  Isn’t that true for so many people involved in the struggle to keep or find a job and pay those bills?

Written Off.  Not a wonderful feeling or reality.

Consider employing WOAA as a survival guide. Real-world instruction for people who, in so many senses of that word, are learning how parachute .

Count to ten, pull that ripcord, and watch out for the crosswind.  You’ll have your feed solidly back on the ground soon enough.