Colleagues who have come back after being furloughed doing as little as possible.

[comfyslipers]

For clarification I was not furloughed and worked through having suspected coronovirus (my choice). It has taken me a long while to feel anything close to normal but wanted to do as much as I could to help my boss out during a difficult time. A lot of staff were furloughed and are only now starting to come back. The thing is, even though they don't do the same job as me they are doing the very bare minimum and it is so frustrating. They seem to be doing less than they were before and nothing is being said. They are meant to fill up the stationary so that it is available just to lift when needed - they are now just dumping it in a cupboard and you have to fight your way through a pile of boxes to find what you need and then open it and sort it out. I am getting really pissed off. Oh and they were chatting most of the day and they aren't even trying to hide it. Do some people have no work ethic at all? Really pissing me off.

I think it's pretty obvious op worked from home while unwell.

I have been back a few months and we are getting people coming slowly back in. I think to give them a break. Things have changed, some people have had no face to face interaction for a while and a lot of them have been pretty demoralised.

mellicalli, couldn't have said it better myself 🙌🏻 I have been on furlough since the end of March, due to go back on the start of September. I have been away now for the same length of time as my maternity leave! I have a lot of catching up to do and need to get my confidence back. I dread having to face this kind of attitude from people who have been working throughout. It wasn't my choice, the business had to use the scheme to keep the company going. But as a consequence by using this scheme, workers are not going to be as productive as they were before and will need to ease themselves back in.

I wonder if those furloughed have lost stamina. I think this may be a real thing with those who’ve not worked for a while

This is so real. Absolutely.

I didn’t get Covid but I was made redundant from a job I worked my arse off in and made myself ill over. When push came to shove they didn’t care about me. I won’t be made a mug of again. I’ll do my work and that’s it.

This too. Covid furlough made me realise both how stressed I was and how much work caused pain, and how little it was worth it when you are completely expendable.

Maybe people realised their jobs were dull as fk, and don't see the point.

I couldn't get enthused about stationery tbh. And, yes, I do have to order the stuff.

No one I know chose to be furloughed - having the huge weight of job uncertainty during an economic crisis, combined with a hefty pay decrease is not a pleasant experience. Combine that with the fact that you’re terrified to leave the house, homeschooling your children with little guidance, worried for loved ones that are isolated and you can’t buy a loaf of bread or toilet roll- oh the joy!

Being furloughed means being stuck in a terrible reality every day with no distraction. You essentially can’t do anything or go anywhere so it is far from the equivalent of a holiday. Also, being told you’re non-essential to a business when you’ve been dedicated is a huge kick in the teeth, especially if you previously valued your role and worth...

It will take a while for people to readjust, even to socialise again and to be used to the daily routine. But keep playing the martyr card for doing your job and you may realise how indispensable an individual really is to a business...

I was new at work and really getting into it when lockdown happened. Now I'm back its hard to get into it again, especially with all the changes now. My job isn't the same and the bits I enjoyed I can't do any more.

Not sure you're in a position to judge anyone. You could have knowingly caused deaths, you know that right?

I have worked throughout, much longer hours than before and yes I am jealous of my colleagues who have been on furlough and had weeks/months off on full pay and with job security (at my workplace this is the case). Particularly the few of us who have worked were told not to accrue extra time off in lieu as it would be unfair to those on furlough!

Also when they come back they will have accrued holiday they will have to take before the end of the year but I am struggling to get half-term off in October with DD as I couldn't claim the TOIl I had to work to get my job done.

If they come back and work half-arsed I will complain but I think most of my colleagues are quite professional so I am hoping that will not be the case!

I feel for you OP. Well done for working hard - you are not a martyr just somebody who is committed. Next time leave the stationery in a big pile and say who the fuck didn't put this away properly!

Do you usually post under another name, OP, or are you just trying to goad people with your first post?

Is this a reverse?

Anyway if not, you're a work martyr.

I am going to assume you were working from home so I wont mention the fact you worked with suspected Covid; a colleague of mine also had it and took minimal time off as I guess his wasnt a severe case.

Is the stationary cupboard the only way in which these colleagues jobs affects yours? If so, that doesnt even seem like a reason to complain to your manager about it. I am sure their jobs include more than managing the cupboard so maybe they are prioritising more important jobs on their to-do list. I am currently working from home, but we have been told that we need to bring our own pens, notebooks, mugs etc when we return to work at least for a bit. So maybe they have been informed to not open and touch all the stationary and just put it in the boxes that they arrived in?

This is an issue for management, not you. It’s not your place to approach colleagues about their work; if you have a problem, you discuss it with your manager and they will deal with it from there in the way they see fit.

It sounds like you are angry they were furloughed. From their perspective they have had to deal with months of uncertainty, had their normal routine throw on. It’s head. They might have had reduced pay and struggled to pay their bills. There would have been a very understandable fear of having no job to come back to. They have had a long time to think, to reevaluate what is actually important. Their jobs sound fairly unfulfilling, some of them will have decided to just ride this out and then move on once things have settled down, then all of a sudden -boom back at work, then expected to just switch on the old them immediately- its hard enough getting back into things after a couple of days holiday.

As a seperate issue, and perhaps of greater concern you need to look at yourself. Working through a serious illness (I assume that you were self isolating at the time). What does that say? Firstly you value your work above health and you need to re-evaluate this perspective, even if you’re silly enough to do this it adversely affects everyone else by creating an expectation to work through anything. Your own ability would have undoubtedly been affected by the illness, you put yourself and your company at risk through potentially substandard work. Any good manager would have stopped you working, it should not have been your choice (ask yourself was it really?)

I’m sorry, despite how you want to paint yourself as the hero of the hour compared with the slackers, it’s not that clear cut. There’s also a difference between having a work ethic and a work obsession. I would really concentrate on some of the questions this had thrown up about your own perspective and situation rather than trying to justify yourself and blame others.

Oh and by the way, I can almost guarantee your company would not give a shit if it needed to make redundancies, if your number fits, out you would go - unless you hold the secret recipe to Nando’s sauce I. Your head and there is none left in the world so someone can reverse engineer it no one is ever indispensable to a business.

Meh - if it's impacting your ability to do your job, tell your manager. If you are the manager pull your finger out and manage.

If it's not impacting your job and merely annoying you - just get on with what you're supposed to be doing.

You sound a bit miffed that you weren't furloughed. Remember all the discussions about redundancies and furlough? They must be worried, maybe they're not killing themselves to do a job they're about to be let go from (or afraid they're about to be let go from).

As for you working when ill. I'm going to assume you WFH and didn't go anywhere and isolated as per regulations. I thought, i had REALLY hoped, that this crisis would have finally drummed it home to employers and employees that it is fucking stupid rather than heroic to struggle on working when sick (unless very mild and all ok etc etc)

I sympathise with you OP. I suspected early on that people who worked through would get the short end of the stick and no extra time off once the furloughed came back

You'll just have to take solace in being considered important and useful enough by your employer to have stayed on rather than be marginal and unimportant enough to furlough. Hopefully those lazy lot will be first back out the door if the recession bites so keep working hard.

Marginal and unimportant because you’ve been furloughed ? What an unpleasant and imbecilic remark

You'll just have to take solace in being considered important and useful enough by your employer to have stayed on rather than be marginal and unimportant enough to furlough.

@BubblyBarbara You might want to work on your sour grapes towards your furloughed colleagues, and having an inflated importance of yourself because you continued to work is simply false.

Nobody was on furlough because they were lazy or unimportant, but because it was a necessity.

@BubblyBarbara

I sympathise with you OP. I suspected early on that people who worked through would get the short end of the stick and no extra time off once the furloughed came back

You'll just have to take solace in being considered important and useful enough by your employer to have stayed on rather than be marginal and unimportant enough to furlough. Hopefully those lazy lot will be first back out the door if the recession bites so keep working hard.

How insulting!

I'm longing for the days when the country had a "we're all in this together, let's help each other and be kind" attitude to return.

To be fair to some of the furloughed comments. We as a company have brought back the best and most useful workers first, so if you are still not back, there is a reason to be slightly concerned.

Maybe they're struggling with motivation after being told they aren't necessary to the business for the past five months?

Or maybe they have come to enjoy being paid for doing nothing!

Maybe after a few months doing other things they've realised there's more to life than putting stationery in a cupboard? They will have already known this. I manage a care home and ordering stationary and putting it away is part of my job too. If they don't like it or want to do it they can quit and give someone else the job. You can't seriously expect to be paid for doing nothing forever?!

@WaterOffADucksCrack

And have had all that time off and then come back and demand holiday. When those of us that worked have been told we can’t have any holiday for the foreseeable future due to business concerns - yep only been working everyday for months and yet can’t have a break when everyone else comes back to work. But it’s ok for the furloughed, retuning workers to ask for holiday......