UK 
United States
October marks the end of the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which will see employees return to the workplace, likely thanks to the help of the recently announced Job Support Scheme, which has been designed to protect viable jobs in businesses who are facing lower demand over the winter months due to the pandemic.
While these schemes will help to bring staff back to the workplace, tension may have started to build between employees who have continued working and those who have been left to their own devices as a result of being placed on furlough. Research from the ONS revealed that on September 20, 2020, 9.6million employees in the UK were placed on the scheme, clearly indicating the high volume of workers who have been left without work. But for those employees who have been asked to continue working throughout this time, it is possible that a bad taste could be left in their mouths.
While this may be the case, HR leaders now have the difficult task of re-uniting furloughed staff with non-furloughed staff, which could cause some friction. For example, furloughed staff may feel frustrated that they haven’t been given their full salary from their employer for months, while non-furloughed employees may believe they have picked up a lot of the slack while the co-workers have been away from their jobs.
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This is echoed in data shared by Perkbox, who this year found that over one in ten who continued working throughout the pandemic felt resentful for furloughed colleagues’ time off. 21% of furloughed staff who were interviewed by Perkbox also added that they felt guilty for the extra work co-workers may have had to take up as a result of their absence. Elsewhere, 19% of those who kept their jobs during the pandemic stated that they felt they had to work harder.
