Furlough: Day 1
I’m not sure how I am meant to feel about this, nor about what I should generally be doing. But as it stands, I have now joined the Furlough scheme.
We were informed in mid-April by our company that some of us would be placed onto the furlough scheme as there is not enough work to be done in the next couple of months.
Being in events, and following the cancellation of numerous events, I can understand that for a business this is a necessary step to take. As in times of difficulties it is always important to look out for number 1. The business itself. Human beings come a close second as they are split into various seniority levels and job functions; required to maintain the business.
In the UK, this means that the government will pay up to 80% of our salaries, as long as it is only up to £2500 a month, which is more or less what I earn in total each month, due to National Insurance, and other means to steal money from the workforce.
Taxes should not be considered part of a salary. What is the point of telling someone they earn £50k a year, when in reality after tax cuts they probably make less than £40k. The system was established to exploit fellow human, keeping them in the believe that they are doing better and earning more, when in reality, they are earning much less than what is promised. It’s all a facade to keep the workforce, a workforce.
“It’s interesting to see what thoughts boil over, deep from my insides. When I am starting to wake up. It feels like I have been in a deep sleep, a deep coma, just like Disney’s Sleeping beauty. But now I see more clearly.”
Not sure how credible I sound, quoting Sleeping beauty up there, but hey!
Other then a paid vacation and being a wake up call, being on furlough allows you to refresh your mind and do some self-reflection on what has been working for you and what has not.
What needs to change going forward to make sure that you lead a fulfilled life?
For me this means, trying to address some of the things that I have been doing in order to relieve myself from the day to day stress of pursuing a mundane job. Working for someone else can be a pain, if it is not contributing to the world in the way you wish.
Although I have changed my role to enable me to contribute more in the way i want to, the organisation I work for is not one I can work for in the long term. It simply does not do anything that aligns with my core values. It is just a place to make good money. So definitely a great place to start off at. Now I see why so many people left my company.
But in order to rid myself of the bad habits I have built through this toxic lifestyle, I need to figure out what my ideal life looks like. Funnily enough, my first thought is of the ideal that has been fed to us by society.
A nice house, a married partner and kids. Regular family holidays, working to enable my kids to grow up and replace me in my contributions to society. Honestly WTF is what I think, re-reading this. It feels like all I do is to keep the economy going. Yet, regardless of how hard we work, as individuals we will never reap the many benefits we wish and live the life we desire. Because that life is too expensive.
The only way to feel fulfilled is to be independent. This doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the wider community. It just means that I feel that individuals should reap benefits, not only corporations and those that treat us like puppets.
It’s the end of a puppet show for me! Question is what we do in this spare time to improve our state of life.
If we do nothing, then we risk simply falling back to sleep.
