Furlough - An opportunity builder's gift, undervalued in its current form.

Ready for when the rubber hits the road, post C-19?

Amidst all the metaphors (uncharted waters/changing winds/new ground/keeping powder dry/, etc.) one includes 'When the rubber meets the road'. This is about understanding how our government/world ensures there something to build on once C-19 passes, the greatest asset focused on should be fast (re)activation.

This cannot happen with total-break furloughs - the old meaning, and even included in the current legal definition, which is frustrating the care sector, the new vital service-sector and volunteering. Yet it should also be very frustrating to all, especially everyone with an eye to the post-C19 era.

 We need a new definition of furlough, something concerned with 'on maintenance and update', a definition describing how we keep a ship seaworthy, current and ready for action in whatever the world looks like as we come out of this crisis. We need a place where employees and employers can stand to ensure necessary and sensible actions are accomplished supporting fast re-activation when it happens. 

So, furlough, an old word applied to a new AND evolving situation could need a change in meaning. If our government is to help us ready ourselves to hit the ground running after C-19 one might expect furlough to include enough flexibility to support companies/organisations not only staying alive, but even evolving during staff 'absence'. The very best picture is that employees and employment continue to evolve through this crises, coming out fitter and even stronger.

To hit the ground running, the very best for UK-PLC (all sectors/all sizes) is to facilitate employees keeping up-to-speed, to ensure organisations are oiled & ready-to-go, and know that when the all-clear whistle blows there is not a back-log of re-training, catching-up and changes to be addressed.  

For their 80% public money, our furloughers might be expected (they are currently not even allowed) to do some work-related tasks (today we do have remote technology) which would prevent the inertia slowing the return to whatever industrial, commercial and community world - new or old - we find ourselves we re-inheriting. There really are some great opportunities to address.