Life during furlough: Challenges to dignity from a changed employment status

Hamilton, Peter; Harness, Oonagh; Griffin, Martyn

doi:10.1111/irj.12384

Life during furlough: Challenges to dignity from a changed employment status

Hamilton, Peter; Harness, Oonagh; Griffin, Martyn

Authors

Professor Peter Hamilton p.m.hamilton@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Oonagh Harness

Martyn Griffin

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 virus, the UK government introduced the Job Retention Scheme in March 2020. The scheme, a novelty in the United Kingdom, provided income support to those furloughed from work. In this paper, we examine how individuals in several occupations and organisations experienced furlough and how they were treated during this enforced period of work absence. Beyond describing their experiences during the furlough, we examine how these experiences threatened and challenged their sense of dignity. Experientially we report on furlough as a time that elicited both delight and despair. The analysis of dignity relates to how treatment based on their employment status rendered many employees marginalised and cast adrift.

Citation

Hamilton, P., Harness, O., & Griffin, M. (2022). Life during furlough: Challenges to dignity from a changed employment status. Industrial Relations Journal, 53(6), 523-544. https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12384

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 11, 2022
Online Publication Date	Oct 24, 2022
Publication Date	2022-11
Deposit Date	Dec 21, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Dec 21, 2022
Journal	Industrial Relations Journal
Print ISSN	0019-8692
Electronic ISSN	1468-2338
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	53
Issue	6
Pages	523-544
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12384
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1186466

Files

Published Journal Article (201 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.