Only person not Furloughed but doing other Furloughed staff work

ladyh0

I work for a small law firm ( 3 solicitors and 3 secretary's.  I deal with areas of law that are able to progress and others deal with property/ conveyancing which is (apparently on hold) boss has fruloughed all property department and allowed me to work from home... for 2 days then decided that I had to go into office.  He is now progressing sale/purchases of all the property staff who are furloughed...and I am having to "help out" ie doing the job of the furloughed lawyers ( he is topping up so they are sat at home on full pay when their jobs are still there and busier than ever)  am I wrong in thinking that this is abusing the Furlough scheme (and me) 

Thrugelmir

Without this financial plan you may well not have a job in the future. Seems totally above board. These are exceptional times. Those businessess that survive will be the result of everybody pulling together to do whatever is neccessary. Those that fight over the lifeboats will sink. Going to be a dog eats dog world for a period of time.

M_anonymous

Answering just your subject header text "Only person not Furloughed but doing other Furloughed staff work" - I'd say is pretty standard at this current time. Of course you should help cover BUSINESS needs where necessary. The point of furloughing is to keep people getting income. Not everyone will have a job to come back to. 
The business is right to save money where possible in order to get through and out the other side. 

gary83

You could take it as a compliment and feel reassured that if redundancies were in the offing you’d already proved your worth to them.

PixelPound

I guess the fact that their wages are topped up to 100% adds to the grievance. If they were on 80% it might be more palatable? 

You could keep track of all this for when it comes to pay rise time and it could be an argument for giving you a raise? Also by getting exposed to all areas it could be used either for new positions or argument to have a senior role for which you would then have experience.

Grumpy_chap

Is this for real?  The OP is a solicitor, yet still needed to ask the question?

sharpe106

Grumpy_chap said:

Is this for real?  The OP is a solicitor, yet still needed to ask the question?

The OP works for a solicitor, and seems to work in area dealing with property, so completely different area to employment law.

superbigal

In these cases to be "fairer" it may be worth suggesting that the Furlough is done on a rotational basis. 1 person in for 3 weeks then changes to another etc.   
Imo your boss must think your are the most "valuable" member of the team.

Biscuit49

I would say if you are busier but managing to get their work done too, then there is likely to be questions asked about staffing levels and the fact you are back in bodes well for you.

Im picking other peoples work up too while they are on furlough, i would expect nothing less really, if it gets to the point I cannot carry out the tasks within my normal working day then of course questions need to be asked about the number of staff on furlough.

Better to be working than not.