Life as I know It

What is my life today? Helping victims of hurricanes get the monies they need to repair their damaged homes and damaged lives...

The time goes so fast at the office, it is hard to believe I am working 10 hours a day now--from 7 am to 5:30 pm (we are usually there early to check our business emails and set up the computer with the programs we want on call). Believe it or not they chose some select ones who are "producing well" to work longer hours and I was amongst them (surprisingly).

First thing is to check and see how many files you have in your Que. This is usually 15 or so. Those who are the "oldest" need to be worked on first. Most of my old files have been from Hurricane Gustav. More and more are from Hurricane Ike every day. Ideally you will complete a file every two hours. This means you will have made a loan decision of Approval, Denial, or Withdrawal and then zapped it (through the computer program) to your supervisor. If you did well, he will send it on to legal where they check for errors and then letters and documents or letters of denial are sent to the hurricane victim. If they are denied, they may be referred back to FEMA for help. This seems like adequate time but...

The aim is to be thorough, just, compassionate, knowledgable, compliant with the SOP (standard operating system) and complete the file before the clock runs out. All files are to be finished from application by victim, to verification of damage by the appraiser, to approving or denying in less than 14 days. By the time it shows up in my que it may already be 12 or 13 days old.

My job is to make the decision from all the financial and appraisal information (that has been fed into the system), communiating with the insurance company, seeking online for ownership of the property, checking FEMA records for distributions by them, checking their credit, talking to the applicant and eventually communicating to the applicant a decision they are hopefully happy to hear. It sometimes takes more than one phone call to complete this.

The hardest part is doing this all with a paperless file--reading everything from the screen, not being able to lay the credit report out in front of you, etc. Learning how the program works is still a challenge. You not only have to conquer the computer program, you have to know the rules of lending, etc. We have thick books and memorandums and fortunately supervisors to help.

The good thing is the very nice working conditions we have. Great chairs, desks, large computer screens, large desk space. The building is very lovely and is the same one I worked in all through Charley, Jeanne and Ivan.

And we come home to a great homecooked meal at the Homewood Suites and get sent off with good breakfasts. The Marriott Residence Inn people don't have quite the good meals we do.

My BIGGEST problem is falling asleep too early and then waking up too early, how do I break this cycle????

I just read that one of the reasons we gain weight is if we are sleeping 6 hrs or less--wow, that is me!

As I have written this it has just occurred to me that two hours should be more than adequate time--I have been doing 3-4 a day--I have to do better, I just have to get more efficient, more focused, and less frustrated with waiting for the computer to do it's thing--and never have to look twice at the same thing, that is the trick. Do it once and do it right...make notes you can read...onward and upward...