Furlough... yes or no?

This is a personal post and I am aware this might evoke a lot of opinion. I don't often post my personal views on social media forums, I'm much more a ‘silent watcher' and then I find myself gritting my teeth or face palming in embarrassment at what I am reading. However I find myself here writing about something that affects us all and that I've felt extremely passionate about and that is furlough…

Firstly, I think the principle of scheme the government proposed and implemented is extremely commendable during this crisis and, dare I say, ‘unprecedented times'. Whatever your political views or whichever party you find you're aligned to, for the government to step up and provide this level of support has been a bona fide lifeline for so many.

However well intended the scheme, there will always be people that look to gain and exploit the situation and that is the bit I find myself so passionate, and even angry, about. There is a huge amount of businesses which cannot function in these times; pubs, clubs, restaurants, theatres, non-essential retail, cinemas…the list goes on. Unfortunately, so many of these businesses run on limited operational budgets and do not have the funds to simply stop trading.

Just this week it was reported that nearly a quarter of the British population have been temporarily laid off, or furloughed, by some 800,000 companies and the costs projected to be in excess of £30bn which is where my frustration arises… just how many of these companies are taking advantage of the situation and exploiting the furlough scheme?

I'm lucky to work in an industry that has not been directly impacted by this virus. Of course there are indirect impacts: business spends are being reviewed; organisations are tightening their budgets; and of course there are 800,000 less companies to speak to, but we can analyse and adapt to these markets.

Remember, business has not stopped and if anything has potentially become more important in a time where our organisation boundaries are completely down, threat of attack is increasing as threat actors are also looking to exploit this situation. The whole of the IT sector is so important to organisations in these times, not just securing them.

When I hear and read of organisations who are unnecessarily (of course, in my opinion) furloughing staff, I get extremely animated. As we start to get back to normality in the coming months the government is going to look at ways to recoup this £30bn, this will likely result in funding cuts across the public sector and the impact on the economy is going to have a longer effect on the country far beyond the impact of this virus. Any organisation exploiting this scheme or accessing it unnecessarily, hang your head in shame, I hope employees consider the ethics of the organisation they work for, especially if work is occurring during furlough.

I'm proud to be contributing to our economy throughout the crisis and beyond, I'm proud to support all those businesses who had no choice but to furlough in the hope they make it to the other side and I'm proud to say that I'm a part of a business who can really say inwardly and outwardly ‘We are all in this together'.

Paul Starr is a director at sep2

This article first appeared on LinkedIn

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