Jealous of Furloughed Co-workers

[RollercoasterRita]

70% of my company have been furloughed, on 95% pay ( 80% from the government and 15% from our company) I have been sitting at home, working all day for 3 weeks now, for 5% more pay. It's hard and I haven't been able to spend hardly any time with my children. Whenever I look on social media, all I can see are my furloughed co-workers having fun with their children, sunbathing in their gardens, catching up with chores. AIBU to feel so jealous, given that when this is all over, hopefully my job will be safe?

What about all the poor sods who changed jobs after the Job Retention Scheme cur off date. My friend has worked for years and years for them same company then decided she want water a better job a cd switched jobs after the 28/2 She can't get any help at all. There are thousand and thousands of people in her situation. One of the other new starters at her work moved across the country to start the job so is even more fucked.

My friend left her job with us just before the shit hit the fan and the day after she left the new job withdrew their offer due to c-19. She is absolutely devastated and supposed to be getting married in June. Poor girl.

LEM that’s really shit for her. But did she really not see that coming?

I’ve just been furlough, £2,500 after tax/deductions barely covers my mortgage and service charge. Until yesterday I had been doing unpaid overtime and had met my daily targets everyday during lockdown.

My boyfriend has lost his job, he was six months from qualifying, when he gets work again he will have to start the process from the start.

You have no need to be jealous!

I feel this too a bit, but I also want my company to do well, so I want to work hard.

At least furlough people get something. Self employed people earning over £50k get not a penny whilst an employee furloughed who earns £1m a year can still get this free money of £2k a month!

Let us hope to reflect the unfairness next year we who got nothing get our taxes halved..... although I won't hold my breath.

At our company, some staff are furloughed and some still working but 20% pay cut so we are all paid the same whether working or not. We will be rotating some staff too. It's shit for everyone but we all want a job at then end of it

officially I’m a key worker. But because I’m not NHS I’ve been advised to close. So I’ve both abandoned all my patients and lost my business. I feel horrible.

Where my sister works some of the furloughed staff are volunteering to come in and work anyway. She says the smart ones can see the writing on the wall and want to be noticed as dedicated and hardworking when the redundancy notices come later.

I don't know, this week is no 'school' for kids and no work for me (I've taken annual leave) and it is hell. We all need something to do!

@hotcuppatea, is that allowed? When I was furloughed 3 weeks ago, I volunteered to carry on working on projects that get deemed none essential as they don't draw revenue for the business. It seems like the perfect time for us to get on top of it.
According to my manager, it's not allowed as that's a misuse of government funding? And if HMRC get wind the money would have to be paid back.

I know what you mean, but this is a large well known company and it's happening. It must be something about the volunteer status that leaves room for individuals to interpret differently.

If people are volunteering to go in that means there must be work to do, which means they shouldn't be furloughing people. What it seems they are doing is taking advantage of the fact that people are worried about their jobs and letting the government pay their wages. I hope businesses like that get caught out.

I'm the only member of my extended family who is still working (from home). Dsis is furloughed. Other dsis likewise isn't working. Dh now furloughed till mid-May. I however seem to be spending my days in back to back conference calls and have for even busier. I'm a little envious too if the truth be told...

Furloughing issue aside I'm curious about where it's hot enough to be sunbathing? The same with all the talk of paddling pools. Here we have had only two days this year that I haven't needed a cardigan on with my jeans and t shirt. I'd freeze to death if I tried sunbathing or paddling. Most days I still need my big coat on to go for a walk.

Can I just mention that Sunka has now changed the rules again to catch people (to benefit from furlough now) who had more recently changed jobs. I have not remembered the new cut off date (some time in March) but it will help those who had just changed jobs and are under PAYE IF their employers choose to use furlough and put them in it.

DrC I have been out in my knickers in the garden on most days from about Easter for about 20 mins. We are outer London and the garden is a bit of a nice South facing suntrap with house or trees providing a wind break on all sides. Whereas in the NE where I am from it was always a fair bit colder so it will just depend where people are. I don't do it to get brown as I don't really tan much but to get a little bit of vit D each day and I do my yoga stretches in the sun which for some reason makes me feel good - a little bit of peace in a busy working day ( I work from home) .

Xenia
We're in the same boat being self employed and getting nothing. It makes my blood boil that I know of people earning £100k+ , furloughed, and going to get £2.5k per month to help them out. Actually, they both work, so will get a household income of £5k.

So very very unfair.

• and we will be the ones having to pay it back through our taxes.

For all the people saying that being furloughed doesn't necessarily put you at greater risk of redundancy - I don't really understand why you would say this. Surely the whole point of furlough is that it enables businesses to keep people on the payroll that they would otherwise have sacked? So it's in fact an absolute understatement that you're not at greater risk of redundancy - in fact you would be redundant now. It's just that the government in desperation to save the economy, has stepped in to retain you.

*that you're EVEN at risk of redundancy

i absolutey feel for you - i too am hacked off of seeing my friends sunny pics whilst we all work our arses off!

@JovialNickname It depends on your role and what your company does, surely? I work in marketing. No point doing any of that right now as nobody is undertaking any new projects of the kind of company does. But when the current projects dry up they'll need marketing more than ever (to generate new work) and it'll be the people who work on the projects that will be at risk of redundancy.

@jovialnickname you are really badly uninformed or ignorant. Furloughing the most amount of people they can without a heavy or covid related workload is making my company £4millionper week in hard cash. As we have retail space closed and only online, I physically can't do my job. Once the space is open, my job goes back to full steam. This is a classic example of "I'm jealous of my furloughed colleagues so I'm going to pretend I'm more important than them". It's shitty behaviour and nasty of you to your colleagues. Oh yeah; I'm also the highest paid of my immediate team, so it works for the business but not for me! Also, if the weather was shit no one would give a fuck.

No wfh here. I'm still working.
50% of us (small family business) are still in, the others are furloughed.
I've come off the work whatsapp group as I cannot stand any more of the "ooh a nice beer on furlough time" and "so grateful to be at home" interspersed with bitching about the bosses as they're "money grabbing" for staying open.
We've diversified to keep the business running so that those off will have a job to come back to!
And breathe!

Some people aren't being furloughed and can't work so are not being paid anything. A lot of low earners combine self-employment with PAYE and don't qualify for any support. There are serious loopholes.