F is for Furlough

furlough

• noun: a period of time that a member of the armed forces is allowed to be absent, especially to return temporarily to their own home. 

A particularly positive term, essentially a holiday period for members of the Army, Navy or Air Force.  It is also widely used within The Salvation Army to refer to their officers' periods of leave.

However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the term has been applied generally across all employers, and it is used for those workers who were laid off because a company couldn't employ them - quite a different scenario, and much more negative...

• noun: the period of time when a company stops employing someone, because the company does not have enough money or enough work

The term comes from a Dutch term verlof, meaning "leave of absence".