The Agonizing Purgatory of Waiting to Have a Job Again

They might be going back to work, or they might not. Why furloughed workers embody the uncertainty of the next phase of the pandemic.

A worker tapes up paper in the windows of a closed restaurant in Boston. Photo: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

You know the world is deeply off-kilter when it’s considered an act of compassionate mercy for a CEO to temporarily kick thousands of workers off of…