Furlough-a-go-go
____
“Did she say ‘Hello?'” my boss’s boss queried.
Like other Zoom meetings, odd salutations flurried.
Hanging up, letters read and furlough granted,
I decided then and there to bloom where I’m planted.
____
I always liked that saying. “Bloom where you’re planted!”
To me, it represents love and patience and faith and hope and growth. Beautiful things arising from little more than a seed. When it comes to planting and cultivating, I plan like an almanac and research with a fervor of a downpour. And like a farmer, rain or shine, I will not stop until the crops are in the ground and that first flower blooms.
That’s why I enjoy(ed) my work as a Project Coordinator. My responsibilities were to gather projects from the Marketing team and set them up for the Creative team of graphic designers and copywriters. I should mention, my genius boss – noted in line one of the ode – crafted all the schedules, I merely followed her direction, made the schedules pretty and gently nudged people to finish their assignments on time.
However, with the project coordinator job on hold for a bit, I will be looking for other opportunities to bloom.
A Furlough is not a Layoff
____
“A furlough’s not a layoff.” I was optimistically assured.
However, amid this CoVid pandemic, our new normal’s blurred.
Luckily, for me, home life suits my introvert psyche.
I like my husband, kids and poodles, despite occasional “yikie!”
____
In case you’re wondering, a furlough feels a lot like a layoff.
This is my fourth downsizing experience; the other three were layoffs. On a scale of one to ten in job satisfaction, one being the position I was just relieved of and ten being the messy layoff where I had to go to federal court to get 15% of my promised layoff compensation, I’d say this furlough rates a six. Probably because I’m older and more of a realist now.
So ya know, layoffs and furloughs are both an extreme reduction in staffing and in each case the let-go-ee can file for unemployment benefits. However, furloughs and layoffs differ in one key way.
A layoff means you lose your job forever.
A furlough is meant to be temporary. Like your company called a dibs on you for later. When market conditions improve and they are ready to staff back up.
Still, more than 10 million people in the United States filed for unemployment insurance last week! That statistic is staggering to me. So many families are being impacted by this ding-dang pandemic and economic downturn because that number isn’t just one person in every case; it’s all the people who rely on them financially too.
Please stay in touch with your friends.
Sheltering in Place
____
With time on my hands, I’m spinning a second whodunit
and starting this blog since I have a mind to run it.
In conclusion, I look forward to returning to work’s tasks.
Until then, I’ll write stories and sew non-surgical masks.
____
As we navigate our new normal and face our challenges, let’s see about using all this manure to create compost to help our blooms grow and flourish.
Personally, now seems the perfect time to take stock. Improve on the things I can. Finish projects I started then abandoned due to lack of time (or energy). Master new skills like writing odes (when it’s clear the pandemic will subside long before I’m even a novice poet). Perhaps while sheltering in place, make a routine of writing blog posts and finishing the second novel in my COLOR BOOK MYSTERIES, BLONDE Death in North Dallas. And pick a random friend daily to message a hello.
Read an excerpt from my first novel AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country by clicking on the .
