An Open Letter to Furloughed Workers

It’s hard to imagine that we seemed to have celebrated the strongest New Year economically in 2020 and sweethearts flowed around the globe for Valentine's Day. And then March Madness hit the Coronavirus; within weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds our lives came to a screeching halt!

Words like unprecedented, unimaginable, quarantine, social distancing, PPE made its debut into our everyday lives. Before we could get used to these words in totality, we had to get used to another word – FURLOUGH.  

Like the term COVID19 has changed our world so has the word furlough. What does it mean? When I Googled the word Furlough, here is what populated: leave of absence, especially that granted to a member of the armed services. "a civil servant home on furlough"

Then I Googled the difference between lay off and furlough because to me they were one in the same. Here’s what populated: A furlough is “a temporary layoff from work.” People who get furloughed usually get to return to their job after a furlough. People often encounter the word furlough during government shutdowns, in which nonessential public employees are told not to go to work. Private companies, however, also furlough employees.

The words/terms I didn’t find connected to Furlough are: “How are you doing” care, checking on you, “we miss you”…. These are the essential words that people furloughed need to hear and feel. For those who are still blessed to have a job, please don’t feel guilty. Guilt in this regard often leads to awkward situations. You might not have your colleague's home address, but your HR Dept. does; send a card through your HR or send flowers or send a text. It will go a long way. Furloughed employees were given a hard blow, so as much as they might want to join in the “helping first responder efforts or virtual happy hours”, they can’t do that. The new job of the furloughed employee is to fight long lines for food, spend endless hours on the phone seeking benefits and resources, teaching children who are home from school for the rest of the school years, fighting back tears and anxiety of how bills are going to be paid. The furlough employee may not physically go to their ‘job’ as they knew it, but their new job is harder than ever and it came without warning and no training.

Dear Furloughed friends, you are on the front line too and we care about you; we want to know how you’re doing. Although we don’t see each other as we used too, we still think of you or laugh at our corny jokes. I cannot trade places with you but I can help you in the place that you’re in. I know that my text or call may come at a somber time and you might not feel like talking. I’m reaching out not to make you talk, but to let you know that you matter and that I haven’t forgotten about you. If you feel like reaching out or not, I totally get it!

In your honor, I stopped by your house and took a picture it says “Heroes work here.”