A bank employee from Portland, Oregon lost her job due to the fact that she gave her money to a client whose paycheck was delayed, just before the Christmas. This was reported by the Daily Mail.

Emily James worked as a senior specialist at the bank’s call center. She received a call from a client that goes by Mark Eugenio, who said that due to a delay in transferring his salary, he would be left without money for the holidays. Eugenio talked with James for more than an hour, but she could not help him: a payment of more than a thousand dollars could be made only after Christmas. The client complained that he had no money to get home, and that he was stranded on a gas station, unable to even fill his tank.

‘I wish I had just $20 bucks to get home,’ ” Eugenio recalled. “And she said ‘Wait, hold on.’”

Eugenio was not far from the office of the call center, and James decided to do a good deed and help him. She took leave from the manager and arrived at the gas station where the client was.

“I handed him $20 in cash, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and went right back to work,” Emily said.

But on New Year’s Eve, she said, the regional service manager was waiting for her when she arrived at work.

‘We’re sorry, we cannot keep your employment,’” regional manager said. The reason was because of her “unauthorized interaction with a customer.”

The manager who allowed her to leave work was also fired.

At first, James wanted to get her job back, because she felt that she had been treated unfairly, but later changed her mind. She said she did not want to continue to work with those who did so.

When reached for this story, a spokeswoman with U.S. Bank said the company does not comment on employee matters.