What It's Really Like Being Furloughed

I was working for a Southern-based sports and outdoors retailer when the first cases of Covid-19 were reported. I didn’t understand much about the virus at the time, but it soon became clear that the virus was going to personally impact me soon. The news said to stay home if you didn’t need to be out, and many people did. There were restrictions put on how you could shop, and many businesses were closed or closing. Some people were opting to wear masks, but our state had yet to mandate them.

The store I worked at began limiting the number of people who could shop to twenty-five at a time, which meant less business for us. Some of my coworkers had already disappeared before these restrictions started taking place, they were either too scared to come to work or they had loved ones urging them to stay home. Some workers wanted the store to close and for us to be paid, like some of the other big-box retailers were doing, but that never happened. My employer fought to stay open, claiming that we were an essential business because we sold ammo, freeze-dried food, and inflatable mattresses. They even went so far as to print up a list of ‘essentials’ that we carried in case the police decided to stop by and ask them to close.

One day, the store manager was calling people to his office one by one. When it was my turn, he told me that the company had decided to furlough more than half of its employees, and I was among those being furloughed. He told me it was what the company had to do to keep its doors open, and that they didn’t know when or if we were being recalled. He informed me that I’d be eligible for unemployment and that he’d heard we’d be getting paid more than we were in his store. The statement the CEO wrote on our work app made similar statements, although it did add that they were going to freeze hiring, stop advertising, and cut the pay of his remaining employees.

We were required to finish out the week and then tossed into a world of uncertainty. I had always hated my job, but now I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to support myself. I had been working forty hours a week, sometimes more, and suddenly, I was ‘free’. I wasn’t sure how to manage all the time I had gained, since I’d only ever spent a week away from work. I struggled to establish a routine, but that proved difficult since so much of my life had revolved around my work schedule. I made a list of all the things I wanted to do but never had time for. My list consisted of simple things, like lose weight, learn a new skill, organize my home, and even finish the novel I’d been working on. I wanted to enjoy my time off, but there was always that nagging feeling that they’d call me back, or maybe not call me back at all.

I applied for unemployment but knew I might have to find another job altogether. Luckily, I was approved the week I applied. Unemployment did pay me more than my job had, which caused me to realize just how little my workplace had been paying me in comparison to what I needed to survive. I was disgusted with my job, but not as disgusted as I was when I saw a commercial for them before they called me back to work. At that moment, I felt that my employment had been terminated and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Was I going to get a call to tell me the bad news, or were they just going to get rid of me without notice?

It was about a month before I finally received a phone call, which I let go to voicemail. I wasn’t ready to be let go, but that wasn’t why they call. I was being called back to work, but I didn’t feel refreshed or like I’d accomplished anything during my time off. I had spent too much time worrying about my job when I should have been completing the items on my list instead. I asked if I could return in a week instead, and my store manager begrudgingly agreed.

When I returned, the entire store staff were required to wear masks, and there was a plastic shield ‘protecting’ each register. There were also some new hires at the store, further proof of my employer’s lies. The new hire in my department ended up catching Covid-19, and the only thing the store staff did to stop it from spreading was to start taking our temperature every day until he returned. They didn’t clean the store or require anyone who had been around him to quarantine. They also violated health laws by telling everyone that he had covid-19.

I had always thought the company I was working for was shady, but the way they treated Covid-19 cemented the way I felt towards them. Working for that company filled me with such stress and anxiety that I was unable to relax during the short time I was furloughed.