Since the recession began, many companies have turned to furloughs to cut costs while avoiding lay offs. These unpaid days off were originally welcomed by many employees who would rather take the cut than be unemployed. But as the months have ticked by, many workers have been cashing their smaller pay checks without seeing that reduction in hours.

Yesterday’s New York Times uncovered this issue of less pay for the same work or, really, no pay for the same work, seeing as how these employees are missing out on entire days worth of pay but are still clocking in the hours.

“Some people take the time off but feel bad about doing so, out of loyalty to bosses and colleagues left to carry the workload. Others work quietly — and sometimes openly — through furloughs, because they fear for the long-term safety of their positions and hope their self-sacrifice impresses the management.

And some say the message from the management is unclear, leaving employees wondering: Is this real time off?”

“I think it’s a joke,” said Roland Becht, who works at the California Department of Motor Vehicles in San Diego. (More than 200,000 state employees are supposed to have two furlough days each month.) “I’ve tried to schedule furlough time and was denied because we’re short-staffed.”

“American workers are finding themselves at a new frontier, and the rules are being written on the fly. Some companies have strict policies forbidding work during furloughs, or close down for days at a time. Others simply tell workers, however unrealistically, to squeeze in furlough time when they can.”

A very interesting topic that I feel gets overlooked. With clubs, websites, support groups, and resources galore for the laid off, what happens to those that are working harder than ever but not getting paid? After all, they’re not volunteers.

“It’s not doing what it was designed to do. We were imagining three-day weekends,” a DMV worker in California told the Times. “There was some optimism. It was a trade-off for sure, but people were O.K. The mood now, I would say, is down. People are working in fear because they don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Read the article.