Everything was going well, or so I thought. Most of our positions and pending offers were put on hold. With no roles to work on, I had no recruiters to assist and no need to source. At that point, I was adding candidates to projects, hoping that one day I would be able to reach out to them for the prospects of a potential opportunity.
Instead of working on roles to fill, I filled my plate with different projects, webinars, and virtual conferences. I helped create our first Talent Acquisition newsletter. I was a part of the team that developed the diversity recruitment strategy for the experienced hires team and spearheaded one of the subcommittees focusing on internal practices and accountability. Each week I was doing something new and adding a new project to my schedule. I thought I was good to go… That was until I had the meeting I new was coming, but just didn’t know when it was going to happen.
The last week of April, I was placed on a three month furlough from my position.
“This is a tough time, and we hate to do this, but take this time off for yourself and enjoy it,” I was told.
“I will,” I responded with a quivering smile, trying to hold myself together and keep from crying.
How could I enjoy something and relax when there’s nothing I can do? At the time, I couldn’t go to the beach, take a flight to another country, or take myself shopping. We were in the middle of a quarantine because of a pandemic.
After getting off the phone with my director, one tear escaped my eye. And after that, I got to work. I did my research on the unemployment system, gathered the documents I would need to file, then prepared all of my work materials to send to my boss who would keep them safe until I got back.
“It will be okay,” I told myself. And in all honesty, it was. I had my emergency savings ready to hold me over, a list of personal projects to focus on (definitely too many), and a new apartment to put together. My time off was productive, and I made sure to keep a similar schedule to my work schedule, so by the time I went back to work it wasn’t so hard (that helped a lot).
Each week, I joined calls with my coworkers to talk about updates, do team workouts, and have chats about our lives. Being connected with them was nice, and made me feel like I was still a part of the team, which I was.
The only thing I wasn’t anticipating was how awful, antiquated, and overwhelmed the NJ unemployment system had become. I submitted my claim on May 1st. I finally received a call from them on August 14th. It took them three months to officially approve my claim.
I shouldn’t have been that surprised, knowing all the people that were going through the same thing I was. But what was astounding to me was the fact you couldn’t get through to anyone. Not even an online chat to answer the simplest of questions. I used to start calling at 7:00am to be told on repeat to call when they opened at 8:30am. At 7:45am that message changed from “call us when we open” to “try again tomorrow.” No queue, no call back options, no way to get a hold of someone, anyone.
I was one of the lucky ones. I had my emergency savings, prepared to hold me over in a time like this. A family ready to assist if I just gave them a call (although my pride did not allow me to ask them for help). But what if I wasn’t so lucky? My mind goes to those who do not have emergency savings ready, who do not have anyone there to help them should they need it, who have other mouths to feed and children to take care of. What happens to them in situations like this?
But here we are, it’s August. My quarantine projects were about half complete (like I said, I had way too many projects on my list), but I focused on the blog and the podcast. I finally went back to work and was promoted to Campus Recruiter, received my unemployment payment, and our apartment is almost complete, we just have to finish the bedroom.
Being furloughed wasn’t easy. I was so worried about the possibilities of what could have happened if I wasn’t called back to work. Or if unemployment never got back to me. But luckily, with the support of my boyfriend, family, friends, and amazing work family, I made it through.
Naturally, Taylor 💙
TAYLOR LYNN 