Alright - here is a pickle I am in.
Was furloughed a few weeks ago. I don't make tons of money like some, so my weekly unemployment check is like $600 bucks, minus taxes, (~50% of take home pay). My work just reached out and said that they have some stuff for me to do over the next several weeks until we plan on re-opening our museum (I work at a children's museum and I am still highly skeptical of their hopeful opening date of late June).
Anyway - the plan is that next week would be a full week of work, the following like 10 hours, the ones after that, unknown at this point, but some combination of part time and full time.
State unemployment benefits will make up for any difference between what I earn, and the $600 bucks I would get. So basically, if I work the 40 hours, I get my full pay. If I work 10 to ~20 hours, I get the same $600 I would get if I didn't work.
The kicker is if I get no state unemployment benefits in a week because I earned over $600, I get no federal benefits. I am not trying to game the system here, but there is a chance that my work will say, here - work these 22 hours this week (or whatever # I am just making it up), and I am left with making roughly half my salary with no way to increase (ie. get the federal unemploymeent check).
With the uncertainty (at least in my mind) of us re-opening soon, and the fact that I have hit a groove in homeschooling my 6 and 8 year old, I don't know what the #### to do.
And mind you - the only reason they are calling me back in is because me and my team are cheaper (design + fabrication) than the outside sources they have been using and they want to bank some cash (rightfully so for they are cash poor). This is a project for another museum that paid us X amount of money to develop, design, fabricate new exhibits. So, this isn't totally a compassionate "we want you back moops because we care"