Furlough Time – How Our Team Kept Busy
The Covid19 pandemic has been a stressful time for us all: health worries for ourselves and others, missing friends and family, job security fears, not to mention the isolation and financial worries. This being said, the Furlough scheme introduced by the government has enabled businesses like us to find a path through the chaos and hopefully survive and thrive.
For APC Cardiovascular, utilising the flexible furlough scheme was all about managing costs against output. At a time when we couldn’t gain access to hospitals to see customers, we were limited as to our capabilities. Most discussions could be done over a quick Zoom call, so our team had more time on their hands.
As a result, APC Cardiovascular put everyone onto some level of furlough in January. Hopefully you won’t have noticed much of a difference – all the team were “working” for at least a few hours a day, and we have external customer service support which helped to manage ad hoc queries too.
As clinics and operations begin to come back, so too do our team, and we’re thrilled to be getting back to some sort of normality.
Before we look forward, we wanted to share with you how our team have spent their furlough time, as well as what they’ve done in their spare time during the recent lockdown period.
Alex has spent his lockdown focusing on self-care, and has lost an incredible 3 stone in weight since the first lockdown, an incredible achievement! He’s also enjoyed having more time to plan for his wedding in 2022.
Lucy has been volunteering as an editor for the local community newsletter. She’s also continued to do further training, completing two open university courses in the space of 3 months.
Libby has been helping at a care home in Trowbridge for people with Autism and learning difficulties. She’s also spent time developing new training techniques for her horses, as well as learning some new pieces on the piano.
David has enjoyed exercising in his make-shift home gym, and walking his beautiful Golden Retreiver, Murphy. He’s also been learning about trading Cryptocurrency (perhaps he’ll become the next Lord Sugar!)
Our MD Stephen has embarked on a 6 week programme to increase mental fitness, resilience and happiness. The benefit of being on flexible furlough meant he has been able to take the time to work on changing the way he thinks, identify the unhelpful thought processes and replace them with positive ones. You can learn about the Positive Intelligence, PQ here.
As you can see, our team have fully utilised their furlough time and lockdown experiences to develop their skills, improve their physical and mental wellbeing, and give back to their local communities.
We couldn’t be prouder of how Team APC have handled themselves throughout this pandemic, and we want to thank them for their flexibility and dedication in supporting the company.
