Originally Posted by
giggitygiggity
What exactly is a furlough? Could you call it 'forced unpaid leave'? Genuine question as we don't use the word over here.
As someone who grew up in England and has worked 21 years in America, I would say that’s a pretty accurate description. Furloughs are typically fairly long term - months, even years but don’t have to be. You are free to claim unemployment and seek work elsewhere. Sometimes you’ll be told you can’t work for a competitor but not always. Think of it as redundancy with a right to be called back, and callbacks typically happen in seniority order. If you do get called back you can say no if you’ve moved on to something better. An employer can also let you keep some benefits while you’re out, for example in the case of an airline they can let you keep staff rate travel etc. Hope that helps.