“My whole working life is starting to become a memory.” That was the verdict of one technician in a long-running London theatre production.
When theatres were shut by lockdown in March, he was furloughed — paid up to £2,500 a month by the UK government through its coronavirus job retention scheme. Over six months later, his theatre remains closed and will not qualify for government money through a new job support scheme, announced last week by chancellor Rishi Sunak. So he is about to become redundant.
The notion of “furlough addiction” could not be further from the truth, he says. “It’s affected my mental health greatly. It’s been so long since I’ve done my job, [it feels like] it’s something I used to do. There’s nothing on the horizon.” Unable to disclose his name for fear of breaching confidentiality clauses in his redundancy deal, he is gloomy about the chances of returning to his old profession. “I’ll drive for Amazon or stack shelves at Tesco,” he says.
