Furlough - go for it or not?

[ASeaViewPlease]

I work in research employed by a charity. Have been offered furlough. Don’t know what to do - I have a few key papers to progress and other projects (one a review). Furlough is attractive and saves charity money but 2 months of inactivity (apart from a few voluntary hits and pieces) will result in an outdated review and more stress later. Have kids and juggling home school - very hectic but just about manageable with dh input. Would you take furlough if offered? Should I jump at this offer? Or should I keep going and get papers out now that I have more time due to suspended projects? Advice very welcome.

[parietal]

do you have a permanent job? Or will the furlough extend your contract so that you get more time when you get back to normal work?

[ASeaViewPlease]

Thank you for asking parietal. Unusual situation - have been in role for several years but soon to move to fixed term fellowship at uni funded by charity (agreed but no start date or contract yet). So I will in future need to compete with others for permanent position. It does not effect time that much; it’s just the though of putting academic stuff on hold and letting it pile up when it is already so competitive and stuff can go out of date or become irrelevant (or collaborators loss interest when your work is not being progressed). Have been advised that volunteering is not an option on furlough so it would be tricky to progress a few key papers.

[parietal]

hard to say then. if your work really is going to become out of date in 2 months so you end up losing time (rather than pausing things), then maybe it is better to keep going.

[googlepoodle]

If you were on furlough you would still get 80% pay.
I don’t see why you couldn’t continue to write papers. By the time you had done that and sent them off everything could be back to normal before publication (although depends on how quick publication is in your field).

[ThereIsNoSuchThingAsRoadTax]

I don’t see why you couldn’t continue to write papers.

Because if you go on furlough you are not allowed to do the work that you would otherwise be getting paid for.

[Tempjob]

How would anyone know what youre doing at home? I would take furlough and woek on those papers :-)