Being given furloughed colleagues workload

[amymel2016]

I’m after a bit of advice. I work for a large UK organisation, we were told today that 2 members of our team are being furloughed (admin). We were then told that we would need to take on their work over the next 3-12 weeks.

I thought furlough was for people whose work has dried up or who can’t work in the current conditions, not just a chance for the company to save some money?

Don’t get me wrong, I know I am incredibly lucky to still have my job but I don’t think this is in the spirit of what the Government set out to do. After being told this our boss then followed up with what a great year we’ve had, there is no cash flow problem and there is nothing to worry about

I can't answer your question but I have also been wondering about this very issue.

If there is work & funds available to pay the staff as normal then they shouldn't be furloughed.

However, your employer isn't the only one trying to take advantage of the scheme.

My DH is in the same situation plus has had a pay cut, however the reality is that (in his company anyway) there is far less to do so although he is covering other people’s work (all from home) it doesn’t mean he working excessive hours, if that makes sense.

Appreciate it may not work like that for all industries though.

Do you have less work to do than usual?

I am not sure that these employers are taking advantage of the scheme .... the reality is that there isn’t enough work/money for all the employees to be working productively and getting paid.

Difficult too - furlough is either on or off for each employee. So they may only have 10% workload and therefore company reasonably has to send them off. But they can't just do the 10% that still needs to be carried so someone else has to. In a team of 10, furloughing 2 might be a reasonable reflection of the reduced work/revenue but does mean the remaining 8 have to have some of the capacity...

The policy is essentially too blunt an instrument. Especially because half the people on furlough would love to have something to do. But given how quickly it was patched together I'm not sure whether /how it might be updated.

Purpose should be an alternative to redundancy. OK for it to be ‘money-saving’ if revenues have dried up and they would otherwise lay people off. It’s not about the amount of work that needs to be done.

Kinda sounds like your employer is taking the piss. Some will do that.

Some companies are taking advantage.

I work for a global organisation and the UK are looking to furlough half of their work force because "they would be daft not to take the offer and protect everyone from long term redundancies". When I say half of their work force, I'm talking over 200 employees being furloughed.

The sector I work in is ramping up now as a result of the virus, not bloody slowing down.

I dread to think of how shit it's going to be and what our income tax is going to increase to in the coming years.

We have furloughed some staff because approximately 85% of their work has dried up, so it not viable for us to pay them full salary when we only require 15% of their usual time. There is therefore that slack to pick up amongst those of us left, who have about 80% of our normal workload and hence bandwidth to pick this up.

I do accounts, payroll, and HR for 2 companies.
I'm now doing the purchase ledger lady's work aswell. And I've been busier than ever furloughing manufacturing staff. Sending letters. Applying to HSBC for Covid Interruption Loans. Yet apparently another employee suggested I too should be furlonged !

It's basically the employer version of hoarding surgical masks. Some really need it, so those abusing the system are putting a strain on their workers and the system itself.

What's worse is that it could be decades before a government tracks down all these cases of fraud, and by that time the culprits will have moved on to bigger and better things while companies recorded higher profits under their reign.

@Oblomov20 - Does nobody want paying then?!! If our staff have to be furloughed, then the MD & I will be the only two not as we have to keep payments going out and money coming in and paying their wages.

Quite RedDiamond!

Thanks all, it’s actually our busiest time of the year (we have a legal deadline we have to hit next week followed by annual invoicing).

It absolutely makes sense for other departments where they don’t have any work to do but not for ours. We do something very different to the rest of the business.

This week I’ve worked 7.00 - 8.30 every day and I need to log on at the weekend, however, I expect that level of hours at this time of the year. To then give us all the extra work on top seems a bit rich.

I’ve raised my concerns with my manager but he just said that he was told to do it by the wider business.

It’s very tough for nearly everyone (except footballers?), like many people I have been furloughed and would much rather be working, I am seriously worried that I will not have a job to return to. My DH has not been furloughed from his job (pay cut) although many of his colleagues have been and I take that as a sign that he is probably seen as someone who is willing to multi task and do whatever’s necessary to keep the company going (I may be wrong of course)

It’s a difficult time for a lot of businesses and this isn’t something that most business owners will have had to deal with before. There is so much uncertainty both in terms of how long lockdown will last and what impact this is going to have on the economy at both a macro and a micro level.

The primary concern for most businesses will most likely be to ride out the storm and still have a business left when it things start to return to normal.

There will be very few businesses that get everything exactly right through this process.

After being told this our boss then followed up with what a great year we’ve had, there is no cash flow problem and there is nothing to worry about hmm

I suspect that this is meant to be reassuring, in that they hope sending people on furlough because there isn’t enough work is temporary and that the business will ride out this massive economic shock and give you hope that you’ll all still have jobs this time next year.