Many hospitality workers are finding themselves furloughed or laid off and now looking for part-time work to hold themselves over during furlough or a new job. Cover letters can be an essential part of a job search, whether they are required for the application or not to help you stand out further from other applicants. 

Keep these pointers in mind when writing cover letters for your current employment situation. 

Furloughed:

• There is no set protocol for indicating that you’ve been furloughed either in a cover letter or resume. Some candidates opt to disclose this information only in an actual job interview. There is no right or wrong here. The decision is up to you. 
• If you do decide to disclose your furloughed status in a cover letter, as with your resume, make sure that all references made to your current position in a cover letter are in the present tense. You are technically still an employee of your company regardless of your current payroll and benefits situation. 
• Avoid going into detail about why your company furloughed you. Instead, state why you’re looking for work. For example, you might say that you are looking for supplemental income because you are currently furloughed. Remember your objective in writing this cover letter is to promote yourself, not to focus on your employer. 
• Talk about your accomplishments and responsibilities in your current role so that they align with the job posting for which you’re applying. You want to make the links between the two jobs clear for the hiring party in the cover letter since your resume will not make a direct reference to the open position. 

Laid Off:

• Do not lie about the fact that you were laid off. Even if the layoff was recent, you should not lead a potential employer to believe that you are still currently employed. If the hiring manager finds out you lied, it can easily result in getting passed up for the job or worse, getting fired from the position once you’re in it. 
• As with furloughed workers, addressing a layoff in a cover letter or resume is entirely up to the job candidate. But as your most recent job will have an end date on your resume, you may want to include information about your layoff in cover letters rather than leave employers or recruiters to make assumptions and exclude you from the pool of candidates invited to interview. 
• Whatever your feelings may be toward your last employer, you only need to say that you were laid off due to restrictions within the organization, and your position was eliminated. Then move on to why you’re sending the cover letter and resume. A staggering number of workers globally have lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 crisis. So, your next employer is even less likely now to probe deeply about a layoff. 
• Keep the tone of your cover letter upbeat, positive, and focused entirely on your abilities and successes. Your next employer wants to know what you can do for their business.
• While all references made to your most recent position should consistently be in the past tense, do be sure to make clear how your professional responsibilities and achievements are relevant to the job posting. 
• If you’ve been laid off for an extended period of time, causing a gap on your resume, be sure to include a mention of how and why you’ve been using that time. If you’ve been doing any volunteer work, this is where you want to say that the organization allows you to continue using your professional skills or is focused on a cause that you’re passionate about for a certain reason. If you’ve taken any professional development courses, detail how those courses make you even more of a standout job candidate. Similarly, if you’ve been doing freelance work, clearly state the parallels between that work and your professional background and how it’s allowed you to stay connected to the industry and on top of current industry trends. 

No matter the reason that you’re on the path to a new or part-time job, remember that it is a path forward. So, the details you should include in a cover letter should be about you and your stellar professional background. Cover letters should also convey two emotions: positivity and confidence. No one knows better than you why you would make the perfect hire, and this is your forum for telling your future employer just that.