Attempt 3: Furloughing Hard or Hardly Furloughing?
There’s an interesting tension between the wish to do something and the wish to do nothing. I’ve been thinking a lot about how appealing it is, when you’re busy and stressed, to dream of a time when you have nothing to do. Thinking about finally putting your feet up, watching endless TV or films, the trashy kind you’ve seen before, playing computer games, lying around. I think lying around is the main thing, really. It’s the main component part to chilling . But… is the dreaming about it nicer than the doing it? I have a guilty secret, which is that I was glad to be put on furlough. I felt close to burning out in January and February, and I wanted to do something about it but didn’t. I’d just started a new job and was worried about asking to take time off and I didn’t know if I’d have the confidence. And then I was furloughed, and I was handed the time and space I needed to rest and think and recover. Or this is how it might have felt, if it hadn’t been prompted by a pandemi...