In order to try and stem a wave of coronavirus-induced unemployment, governments around the world introduced job retention schemes. Many of these are being rolled back or withdrawn and Elizabeth Hotson asks whether the interventions got people out the habit of work or opened up new opportunities. We speak to three workers placed on furlough - gardening enthusiast, Carol Peett; single parent, Naomi Empowers and keen baker, Chinelo Awa. Plus New York law firm partner, Greg Rincke tells us about some of the unexpected consequences of the CARES act in the US and Sarah Damaske, Associate Professor of Sociology at Penn State University, tells us that furlough wasn’t necessarily a chance to relax. (Picture of Naomi Empowers via Naomi Empowers).