Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
There’s a new word in the lexicon of many of my friends and former colleagues: “furlough.”
A furlough used to be a good thing. If you were in the military and on furlough, you were on vacation. Today, if you’re working and your on furlough, you’re one step away from “jobless.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has a well-done story today explaining just how widespread the furlough has become as the nation and its employers continue to deal with the deepening recession. It makes me wonder if we’ll be hearing more about furloughs from local governments, state government and other employees. Guess we’ll have to wait and see…
From the AJC:
While corporate giants continue to jettison workers by the thousands, some manufacturers, media companies, doctors, dentists and plenty of other businesses have instituted or are considering shorter workweeks or unpaid time off — anything short of layoffs, which can be expensive and heart-wrenching.
..
Many industries that have been immune to downturns in the past are now scrambling to figure out ways to deal with this recession.
Take Gannett Company Inc. Hit by declining advertising revenues, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher recently told workers to take an unpaid week off by March.
“We would expect to see furloughs mainly where an economic downturn is substantial, broadly based across the economy and not expected to be permanent,” said Barry Hirsch, an economics professor and Usery Chair of the American Workplace at Georgia State University.
Employers who use furloughs aren’t as worried about losing workers to other jobs when a downturn is as severe as the current one, Hirsch said.
On the other hand, companies that don’t expect to see their business rebound are more apt to make permanent cuts such as layoffs, he added.
The worsening economy has forced state and local governments to use furloughs more now, given the decline in sales tax revenue and falling home values.
Many folks will be subject to maybe not outright unemployment, but furloughs. And we’ll be expected to just be grateful to have jobs — even though we won’t be able to pay the bills in some cases, and we’ll be expected to produce just as much if not more. It’s like getting flogged and asking the torturer "thank you sir, please sir, may I have some more?"
I want to start a national blog campaign to pressure all of the lawmakers in Washington to be required to take a 3-month furlough on their pay. A very high percentage of these people are millionaires already. It won’t make a dent on their lifestyles and just think of the money we could save.
It should be required. They are no better than the bank CEO’s. The lawmakers brought us into this mess and they should be required to take some kind of financial hit until this mess is cleaned up.
But the only problem with this is, at the Newspaper everyone lives paycheck to paycheck. Lose one paycheck and it takes a while to catch up.