Deane Goltermann Mar 26, 2020:

Isn't it furlong? Horse races are measured in furlongs ... another one of those old English oddities lasting into our time...
But I've seen from several sources 'learned' types saying that US English is more like 1700s British Eng than modern BrEng. Which makes sense, that's how languages work -- always going the way people use them!!

SafeTex Mar 26, 2020:

@all Q: What did the horse say as he entered the knacker's yard?

A: And we're into the final furlough now

Yes, no need to tell me that I'm cracking up :)

SafeTex Mar 26, 2020:

@Diarmuld Maybe it has got something to do with Coronavirus and half of Britain being laid off :) :) :)

Diarmuid Kennan Mar 26, 2020:

Me too Funny, since this question was asked I have also noticed the word appearing 2-3 times in British media.

Adrian MM. Mar 26, 2020:

Furlough, as used by the UK HMRC (& accountants) I've just received this email from my UK accountants in Croydon (Greater London/ Surrey borders). My hunch is now that the term of furlough has come back 'home' to the UK - via the British (and Irish/ Indian) Armed Forces - from the USA (and Canada) to seep, filter and trickle down (semi-intelligibly!) into an employment context.

'25 March 2020 – The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme *Furlough* Guidance (update) – with extracts taken from the ICAEW guidance

Notes to illustration based on an extended understanding of how the scheme will work:
......
1 *Furloughed* members of staff must not work for the employer during the period of furlough.
2 Furlough is from 1 March 2020 ... a firm will only be eligible to claim the grant once they have agreed the furlough with their staff and staff have stopped working for the employer.
.........
8 Scheme will be administered by the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs):
• Relevant employees must be designated as *furloughed* employees.'

Charlesp (asker) Mar 24, 2020:

Just a note to say thanks for your participation and contribution.
I will keep this open for a while longer, and let's see how things develop.

Deane Goltermann Mar 21, 2020:

@furlough_2 Language is wonderful!

Adrian MM. Mar 21, 2020:

SafeTex to follow furlough Thanks for that. Funnily enough, I was surprised to watch the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, utter that sentence and furlough - as a verb and noun - another few times on TV just the other day https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8136939/Chancellor-...
I assumed a connection with British Army in India, but his pedigree is in fact East African (likely to be Uganda) and as a City of London and US investment banker and hedge fund manager....

SafeTex Mar 21, 2020:

Article in the Independent Just read an article in the independent which had this sentence in it

An employer with 10 employees might have enough work to keep them all occupied half-time. This policy gives a very clear incentive to ***furlough*** half of them and keep half of them on full-time.

Last week, this would have had me scrambling for a dictionary :)

Adrian MM. Mar 18, 2020:

Garden leave in a no-sacking scenario & furlough I put garden/ing leave in brackets for discussion purposes, plus it is not always a prelude to a sacking in the UK /the City of London cf. the Wiki definition: 'The term can also refer to the case of an employee sent home pending disciplinary proceeding, *when they are between projects*, or when, as a result of publicity, their presence at work is considered counter-productive. It has also been used in British football.'

The spelling is furlough and not forlough and I suspect some of us Brits may not have been at a posh school with a CCF - Combined Cadet Force where we used to play soldiers, airmen or sailors who used to go on summer 'corps camp' with built-in furlough.

SafeTex Mar 18, 2020:

Gardening leave, short-time working and forlough Hello
I checked them both out and they are really not the same thing are they? Surely "gardening leave" is wrong if I've understood the Swedish correctly.
As for "forlough", I don't think I've ever seen it before.

Deane Goltermann Mar 18, 2020:

@furlough And I thought it came from the UK... very interesting... Dutch and German.

But everyone should understand 'temporary leave' (of absence) -- I haven't looked into this, but the 'lay-off' says it's without pay (and can be confused with the US lay-off (which = redundancy). The Swedish 'leave' is with pay (now subsidized by the government). Short-time working seems to apply to this Swedish description ( https://www.regeringen.se/artiklar/2020/03/om-forslaget-kort... ) Garden leave seems to be entirely different -- when you're quitting or fired with x months notice, the employer says stay away from the office for those months, but you still get paid. My son has got this a couple of times, quit working at the bank for a new job, essentially gets three months off. They don't want him to access any info during that time.

Anyway, did you find this? Kinda very UK(ish) with definitions to compare to your Swe term

https://www.gov.uk/staff-redundant/layoffs-and-shorttime-wor...

Charlesp (asker) Mar 18, 2020:

Thanks Chris. that's pretty much what I thought; thanks for the explicit confirmation.

Christopher Schröder Mar 18, 2020:

I’m not sure what furlough is. How is it different from laying off staff? It certainly isn’t readily understood in BrE. The forces have a language of their own.