To ask for another week of furlough?

[Fasttrack321]

I was furloughed at the start of lockdown and have not been working since end of March. I have been looking after my 2 young children full time as my DP has been working full time. Luckily DP's job is secure and their employer is flexible with WFH.

My furlough pay is capped at the limit of £2,500 and has not been topped up so my income has been about half of my normal pay. I am very grateful to have been furloughed rather than lose my job.

My employer wrote to me on Friday and informed me my furlough was ending and I was expected back to work on Monday. I discussed this with my DP (who is classed as a key worker, not front line) as the kids are only in part time childcare. DS is 5 and in Reception, DD is 3 and in nursery 3 days per week.

My DP is working full time 9-5 and cannot change working hours this week at such short notice. So cannot do drop off and pick up for the children (nursery and school are about 15 minutes drive apart). DP also cannot WFH and look after DD who is 3 and needs constant supervision.

This week will be impossible to juggle, but from the following week we can manage with flexible working hours and the help of a grandparent.

AIBU in asking my employer to extend my furlough by one more week? I checked the government guidance and there is a specific provision for this which allows furlough for those with caring responsibilities. I would only want this for 1 additional week.

I am incredibly grateful my employer has asked me to return and I do want to return. I have been there years and have a good reputation for being one of their top employers and managers.

My only other option would be to use a weeks annual leave, but then I'd have none left for the rest of the year and summer holidays when I would need to take leave to cover childcare again.

Most of the company were furloughed and now being brought back bit by bit.

YABU - get back to work immediately.
YANBU - take an extra week furlough to sort your childcare out.

Just want to highlight for those saying "reasonable notice" is required that Gov have recommended 48 hours however you have to be ready to return to work at all times.

Obviously a responsible employer will try to give at least 48 hours however that isn't a guarantee. DP was given notice on the Wed to return following Monday and I gave my staff notice on Thursday to return following Monday. Technically I could have had them return on the Friday due to NS phase dates. That wouldn't have been fair but would have been perfectly legitimate for me to do.

I agree with PPs, I think it would have to be taken as leave. Those of us in the public sector were never eligible for furlough and we've had to look after children and work throughout lockdown. In our department we were told if we couldn't work our hours then we had to take them as leave - either annual or unpaid. Being able to ask for furlough would have been so m helpful for me, when I was losing my mind with three primary-aged children at home and along fulltime. I'm sure you can make it work for one week, when many many of us have been doing so for over 3 months!

I’m in the private sector and no-one in my field was eligible to be furloughed. We suddenly had to work from home with only a few days’ notice. Normally, working from home has never been allowed. Everyone just had to manage as best they could. The company tried to shift hours around to help out where possible.

We've had zero furlough money, grants, business support, nothing. Yet we've still paid our taxes.
You've had £180K joint income; have personally had three months on furlough paid for by me and now you want another week.

That's a tough one OP.....let me think.....

[quote Fasttrack321]@BabyofMine
I had to laugh at the idea that your partner couldn’t work from home for a week as the 3 year old needed constant supervision.

I’ve had to work from home since end of March with a two year old who requires constant supervision in a job that is customer facing all day long... for a fraction of the pay, because otherwise I lose the job. I’m sure he’d manage for one poxy week like myself and half the country have for the past three months.

Or is it just the women who are supposed to balance work, childcare and everything else

@ceeveebee
Totally agree. If the roles were reversed I bet there wouldn’t even be a conversation

Where have I mentioned anyone's gender in this scenario? You (and others) have made the assumption that I am female and my DP is male.[/quote]
Yes I noticed you were calling your DP "they". Apparently nobody else has.

Is it somehow beneath your partner to do for one week what many if us have done for 3 months?

Or is your partner incompetent at being a parent?

Two days notice for childcare is completely unreasonable, people saying the OP and partner should have arranged childcare weeks ago, I doubt those people would be employing new childcare and paying for them for weeks when they aren’t needed. Then there is the fact that for many children being placed in the care of a stranger isn’t at all suitable.

I would ask for an extension to furlough, if they refuse ask for annual leave, if they refuse take a week of unpaid leave.

I have the luxury of being able to WFH, I however cannot work and care for my son at the same time due to the nature of my work. Luckily I am allowed to work in the evenings, so I work once he is in bed. If I had to maintain my usual working hours I simply wouldn’t be able to work beyond the tiny amount of school hours my son is now doing.

I would like to know what work places authorise holiday with 48 hours notice, if someone did that where I work you would be laughed at. Even at the moment we have to give our standard 28 days notice in writing.

Many places allow annual leave at short notice. I can get the afternoon off by asking in the morning if I have no meetings, appointments or urgent work etc. Or the next day off, or whatever. Not every employer is that inflexible.

But I agree that it's not great to be called back in with effectively no notice, as in there's no 'office hours' working days before being required to go back to work. Sounds like the people making the decisions have never had think about arranging childcare.

Has there really been no back to work discussions or provisional start dates OP? If not, you might be reasonable in asking for more furlough, but you should also offer other solutions such as part time working next week, take some annual leave, your DP doing the same, or using emergency childcare.

The extra cost of this would be compensated for by you getting back up to your full salary and would also have the benefit of you being back at work like everyone else. Maybe you could ask for Monday as an emergency childcare day so you can make the arrangements from Tuesday onwards?

@CottonSock

"government employee so no furlough"

You do have job security though, unlike so many on furlough who may well be made redundant as soon as they are un-furloughed. Two friends who are government employees locally are not furloughed (so on full pay) but working from home with the documented understanding from that they "just do what they can" around childcare/home schooling responsibilities, so not expected to actually work a full day.
A local government employee we know who is furloughed is on full pay, as are the whole of his department.

OP, I think being told on Friday that you must return to work on the Monday is piss poor planning on the part of your manager or whoever is deciding these things.

"My partner is able to wfh/my partner simply cannot wfh and look after our 3 yr old" HOW ELSE DO YOU THINK THE REST OF US HAVE BEEN MANAGING?

@CottonSock

Work what you can, the rest annual leave. Some of us have had to carry on working with kids that age, government employee so no furlough

And this thread isn’t about you.

OP you have made the mistake of posting on a board where people can’t stand to hear about furlough.

Ask your employer.

I’m a little puzzled as to why an individual earning £90000 a year and a well respected manager and employer within their organisation has so little internal connection/communication not to have realised that they were due in the next wave of return to work? I am not even a manager yet but in the leadership team and I’d have strong enough connections, especially after as you say “years” of good reputation.

The way you’ve written it here you definitely implied that furlough was capped at half your pay, £2500. If your take home pay was not normally double that it wouldn’t be worth mentioning there, would it? It £5000 is your salary not take home, you’d be on £3400 a month which is NOT double furlough. And even so, still gets you to the £60k mark and my first comment about management, good reputation, long loyalty still stands.

It’s nothing to do with views on furlough or op’s monthly household income (not for me anyway), I’m just perplexed at why there’s any discussion of there not being enough time to get childcare.
Back in March and for months after THERE WAS NO CHILDCARE and all other working people just had to get on with it. Including me and other pps who are wondering just why op’s DP is so special that the taxpayer needs to pay extra so he doesn’t have to do, for one week, we’ve had to do for months.

And yes, it’s harder if there’s only one if you, but it is doable. There are many many single parents who can attest to that.

So yeah, not much sympathy.

Sorry OP but you’re going through what a lot of us have been through, you cannot expect tax payers to pick up your earnings for a day longer than it has to. I was furloughed for 3 weeks at the start of lockdown and that was it! I was given 48 hours notice to return to work with 2 children and a partner who is a key worker. We struggled but found a way, my friend had to pay nursery double her wage for a few weeks to take both her children (baby and school age) as she had to return to work. We have all struggled, not once did it ever cross my mind to expect tax payers to pick up my wage for a further week. And I earn nowhere near what you and your DH do.

Family, annual leave, unpaid for DH, beg the nursery to take both your children, emergency childcare, you have to struggle for one week. Most of us have struggled for 2 months. Hope you get sorted anyway.

You are getting a hard time. I think they should have given you more notice when they knew you had caring responsibilities and would ask for an extra week. But presumably they think you will be in tomorrow? So time is not on your side.

Take leave.

You take home 8k a month between you, and you want an extra week of furlough....?

Give me strength!

I am a single parent to a 14 year old, an 11 year old, and a 7 year old. I work 3 days a week, and have throughout the pandemic (NHS). I have had to manage by leaving the eldest at home, and using lockdown school and a childminder for the others. School closed twice, at no notice due to sickness, meaning I had to use the childminder more. This cost me a fortune. I take home roughly £990 a month. No WFH, no flexitime, annual leave cancelled.

Stop complaining, put your hand in your pocket for some decent childcare, and go back to work.

YANBU at all.

I think it's pretty poor to give you less than week's notice that you're expected back. Less than a full business day is fairly outrageous.

Surely they knew well before this - how on earth have they made the provisions for everyone to work safely if they haven't been planning for more than a day?

So many shitty responses, totally uncalled for! None of you know what the OP's DP does for a job, & they have already organised to be the main childcare provider/facilitator after this week.

OP it's ridiculous to give you such short notice, it would NOT be unreasonable to say you need a couple of working days to sort childcare, not at all.

However, it should be relatively easy to find someone to come to your house to look after the DC as your partner will be at home it's not such an issue who does it. Your DP might have to hideaway in a wardrobe though to stop DC wanting them instead.

Even a teenager you know would be fine, it's only a week & DP is home.

So many people are panicking now furlough is coming to an end, and they seem bewildered that they are expected to cope with working and childcare at the same time.

It makes me realise how totally invisible those of us who have been doing this for months are

If Friday really is the first time your employer has mentioned this, giving you less than 1 working day to sort childcare, that is unreasonable.

I’d give them a call and say what the problem is. Maybe you can agree a solution together. For example, could you take AL Monday and Tuesday and work We’d-Fri?

@beela I say this as someone who has been trying to work from home and look after a 2 and 5 year old. It totally depends what your job is. Some jobs simply cannot be done from home/flexibly. You can’t take your two year old to the construction site/retail job.

Sorry - annual leave as far as I am concerned.

The furlough scheme wasn’t invented for this issue. It’s shit, but it is what it is.

This was always going to be an issue with the government trying to encourage everyone back to work at a time when they still can’t always get childcare.

I think your employer is being really unreasonable here, up to a point. They really should have given you a week's notice that you were due back to work to enable you to sort childcare, especially since many of the usual childcare facilities are either shut, restricted or overbooked. However, with the income that you say that you normally have, my advice would be to ask for a week's unpaid leave, you can't expect them to pay you additional furlough if your job has reopened.