Does FURLOUGH really mean departure lounge?
I wrote recently that furlough was as dangerous as a drug and that if left to rampage unchecked, it could destroy office cultures and even whole companies through resentment from the non-furloughed toward the furloughed.
It got me thinking…. Is furlough also a Trojan Horse?
It’s been a tough few years for agents who have faced all of the uncertainty and negative sentiment that Brexit could muster and now a global virus that only a Chinese wet-market sushi chef could have seen coming. Just when we start to recover from one dog’s dinner another is served up, actually literally, and which pulls the rug from the property industry once again.
Yet at least in this, the corona crisis version of economic hardship, we have the crutch that is furlough, a name now so familiar to us that some people are naming their pets after it and, who knows, maybe even their children?
But furlough, drug analogy aside, may not be the warm and cosy comfort blanket that we think it is...
Imagine the boss of a property firm that’s held things together until now, just. When I say held things together I mean with sticky tape and blue-tac in that things have been somewhat shaky for a while. Then after only three months of increased business comes CV-19 knocking on his door and, well, that’s it potentially – it’s probably all over, he thinks. Yet, like a Savile Row suited Archangel Gabriel, Rishi Sunak pops up on to his TV and throws him a bone. ‘Send your staff home and we’ll pay them’, says Rishi.
If said boss was on the edge anyway, he was likely to go-bust and lay off his staff. Now he can pass the cost and the responsibility to a virus that gives him cover – and time.
The question is, when lockdown ends and furlough is no more, with a depleted pipeline of sales, rent to catch up on and, of course, a Rightmove bill restored to its former glory, might he just fire everyone anyway?
I’m afraid that furlough may not be the saving grace that it is intended to be. But hey, I’m a recruiter and I’m biased, right? Well, that doesn’t actually mean that I’m wrong necessarily ;-)
I think there's an awful lot of anxiety for many furloughed workers. The relationship with your manager/boss through this period will tell you most of what you need to know to assess their motivations. Many of the first tranche of furloughed staff are already back on the tools too.
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER at Genesis CTE Ltd
4 å¹´Interesting question! I think it is a pause button for some conpanies in trouble before the lockdown. Some may have used the time wisely/strategically regrouped, but many be forced to let staff go when furlough ends.