Just that really, genuinely curious.
I work in a small team as a key worker and apart from 1 other staff member, I am now the only person still working. My colleague works in a different part of the country so it’s now only me covering this area (the north west).
The rest of my team decided to self isolate when lockdown began, even though there was still work to be done and enough hours to go around. This has now resulted in me pretty much working 6 days a week and I am absolutely shattered beyond belief. Not that I would be able to do anything during my day off anyway, but it’s just nice being able to stay in bed and lounge around, have some time to myself and actually get time to go and do a bloody food shop!!!
I am still being paid my normal salary and I am extremely grateful to still have a job, I know there are many people who are much worse off. My boss has thanked me and shown his appreciation (sort of) but I can’t help but feel slightly frustrated about the information thats been passed onto me today. One of my colleagues (who is at home) has been told she’s being furloughed as is everyone else on the team who decided to self isolate. Now, I would completely understand if there wasn’t enough work to be done, but that is just not the case as mentioned above. There is plenty of work to go around and this would mean that I wouldn’t have to work myself into an early grave if the work was spread out fairly across the board.
I would also understand if my colleagues were high risk but that just isn’t the case either. I spoke to one of my colleagues today as she phoned me to discuss something about work, and she mentioned that she’d happily come back to work as “she’s so bored at home” but that there just isn’t enough work to go around. At this point I had to stop myself from screaming down the phone “WELL THERE IS, IT’S JUST BECAUSE MUGGINGS OVER HERE IS DOING IT ALL!!!”.
I love my job and get on well with my team (most of the time) but I just feel like I’ve drawn the short straw massively. I am 100% confident that there jobs are still safe even though they have been furloughed, as moving forward there is no way I would be able to cope with the work load. I am just about managing now. My boss had made a comment the other day about how he feels “some people are treating this as a national holiday, not a national crisis”. I have no idea if it was directed at my colleagues but it very well could be a possibility. If I decided to follow suit and self isolate, he would not have anyone else to run his business.
AIBU? As an employer, will you remember who kept your business going so to speak?