How to Unfurlough: A Professional Development Perspective and Tips
Conceived, researched and written by Lou Shackleton and Emily Bazalgette (emrosebaz).
What a time it has been for learning — it turns out a crisis can be quite the rocket fuel for learning and professional development. Taking a moment to pause or injecting new capacity helps us to reflect on, recognise, and embed that learning. People returning from furlough can provide this learning pause and capacity for organisations.
This post includes tips for approaching the return from furlough with a professional development perspective — whether you’re welcoming colleagues back from furlough, or coming back from furlough yourself.
These tips are built into our Unfurloughing Return to Work Trello board which you can adapt and implement in your own team. You can also read about the thinking that led to these two tools in our Introduction to Unfurloughing.
If you’re welcoming colleagues back from furlough:
You’ve been working hard — making difficult decisions, adapting services and ways of working, supporting your colleagues.
- A fresh perspective is really valuable
- Ask for their help — their observations and noticings. We often pay external consultants high rates for their expertise and their external perspective. Employees coming back from furlough will be able to offer some of this valuable insight.
- Be realistic and set clear expectations — help them to work out what your new, shared priorities are and what they can leave on the back-burner for now; help them to figure out how to maintain any caring responsibilities they may still have.
- If you’re in a leadership role, meet with your returning staff. This doesn’t have to be frequent but it helps if it’s regular. They can share their observations and noticings.
- In setting up these sessions, commit to address (rather than fix) everything that is raised. Get into a rhythm or ritual to allow these observations to be heard. Make your own ‘Blue Tape’ list based on what they say.
- Explain decisions that may have been made in their absence. Not all of them, but the key ones. E.g. decision making and planning cycles are now every six weeks rather than every quarter; you used to attend those meetings and now we need you to attend these meetings; and so on.
- Furlough can show up other things in your org that need work. Where are the tensions as people come back? What is causing friction? Add these to your ‘blue tape’ list, and follow the same principles — you don’t have to fix them all, and you don’t need to address them all right now.
If you’re returning from furlough:
Wow. You’ve been away from work for weeks. You might have had to deal with the emotional fallout of being furloughed. Depending on your circumstances, you might even have enjoyed the time and space. You might have been bored, and struggling to find ways to bring structure to your days and weeks. You might have been busy with other commitments and caring responsibilities. And now it’s time to go back.
You’re in a unique position. Unless you’ve previously taken a sabbatical or a long period of leave, it’s unlikely that you’ve stepped away from a role at an organisation and then returned weeks later. This means that it’s also an opportunity. Because you’ve been away, you will notice every little thing that is different than before. And you’ll also have an outside perspective, a certain amount of objectivity that can bring helpful insights.
To make the most of this objectivity without getting overwhelmed, try the ‘Blue Tape list’ approach from RandsinRepose. It’s designed for new starters, and will work just as well for you. Here are the main points:
- When you notice something that needs attention, write it down. List it all — no matter how big or small
- Don’t raise everything as soon as you notice it — you will overwhelm yourself and your colleagues
- Some of the things on the list will fix themselves. This will feel like magic — celebrate it when it happens
- Check in on the list after a week or so, cross off the things that are resolved
- Keep updating the list — adding things, rephrasing things, refining things
- Discuss the stubborn items that seem to keep coming up with those around you
- Find a rhythm of meetings for these reviews with your colleagues or line manager, and ensure you are clear on what you’re sharing and why
- Use kind communication — Consider phrasing such as ‘I have noticed…’ or use questions, like ‘How might we…?’ or ‘What if we…?’ This is not about pointing out everything that’s wrong, or complaining to your colleagues. It’s about trying to find simple solutions, to make things easier or more streamlined, to help you all find new ways through together
It’s ok to:
Triage
Not reply to all your emails/ Slack messages in Week 1
Put on an email out of office explaining that you are catching up on an inbox backlog and letting people know how to contact you if they need your input as soon as possible
Feel
All of the emotions — guilt, embarrassment, overwhelm, relief, concern, shame
Powerless or helpless
More tired as you find a new routine and get back into working again
Confused and need to ask questions
Annoyed if people frame your experience as a “break” or a “holiday”
Left out of decisions that have been made while you weren’t around
Unsure about where to start or what the most important thing is
Be realistic
Have done zero reflection or professional development
Have lots of things on your mind
Have reflected on things that could be better here
Want to catch up on everything straight away — but know that we absolutely don’t expect you to, you’re here to help us now, not with what has already happened
Notice everything that is different or new — your brain is wired to notice every detail that is different than before
Focus
Avoid talking about what you did on furlough, if you want
Ask your team: “What’s the most important thing you can help with right now?”
Document
Write down everything you notice, so it’s out of your brain and documented somewhere if you need to refer to it later
Inspired by GDS’ It’s Ok To Say What’s Ok
