Finally, I have arrived … the exclusive or in some cases, the not so exclusive Furlough Club, “furlough” being a more American term and more exotic than simply saying “laid off”. I too have become a casualty of the current economic environment. Many of my friends in aviation have considered this almost a rite of passage and now I get to cope with the “do-I-stay-or-do-I-go” question. Some folk I know have had entire airlines disappear on them and pensions along with the disappearance, while others, saw their employer morph into another identity and pensions might have been salvaged, flight hours or measures of seniority more or less evaporated.
Just before I left for some time off my boss indicated he would like to chat with me before I left. Being the kind of person that deals badly with delayed gratification and delayed anything else, over to his office I trotted as soon as work permitted. His first statements were about my time off and I’m thinking … “Hmmm he is not happy with my whims of running off whenever I can ….” Not true! It seems my rather frequent absences were a positive influence on continued employment.
The news is, as far as I can discern, part time when I return. This saddens me as I love the job. Temperamentally I am well suited to parts and pieces … sales … well not so much, which sort of makes me more expendable than some of my peers. The good news, I won’t lose any benefits ….hehehehehe…. didn’t have any to lose.
So …. in order to keep the “woof from the door”, it is back to what I’ve been trained to do and I pray the good Lord sees to it that the phone rings and appointments can be arranged. With luck the tide will turn but I don’t think I will ever trust complete again and come to think of it, the people who really “know their armpit from a hole in the ground", don’t really carry on with gay abandon either …. now I know why and understand a little more, the sense of … what is it? …. the sense of “not-quite-foreboding” but for sure, always being ready to move on demonstrated by many. It is just the way it is …