I work in DC and was on-call or on assignment for every furlough, sequester, and shutdown prior to this. While I enjoy what I do for a living, it sucked working without a paycheck then, as much as being on furlough this time. It is frustrating not being able to plan for tomorrow in either time or budget. Deadlines will still be in effect when this is over and new assignments from the shutdown will be added to the backlog we already had. I would work on my backlog reports and such, but due to the Anti-Deficiency Act, I have been told to not even check my work email.
Obviously, our area has more Fed employees than anywhere else. I was speaking with a senior management friend tonight and he is fed up with entrusting his familys' financial future to an employer which has for years frozen salaries or kept increases to less than the cost of living, sequestered pay (cut pay by requiring unpaid days off), and now furloughed employees again. When we started 25+ years ago, Government was a steady employer and the annual budget process was a non-event. Neither has been that way for a while. My friend has always been a hard worker and is the corporate memory for his department, but he is going to take an early retirement and accept a job in industry.
During these days off, we've personally been using our time to get things done, such as house stuff, errands, and getting outside. I was wondering if this is what retirement must feel like, but when you are retired you know what your income is and will be. We've stopped spending, because we don't know when we will have an income and there is a good chance that we may have to carry all of our own expenses for a long time after we do get recalled.
What is more visible is that everybody else in the area has also stopped spending overnight. Talking to the manager of a siding/roofing contractor today, he related that their phone traffic cut 50% when the furlough started and sales have been slowing a bit more each day since October 1. Employees at a clothing store and a Pep Boys were talking about how noticeable the reduction in customers has been and how far their sales are off.
If you think this doesn't affect you in states far from DC, you are wrong. Since the 1980s there are fewer Fed employees for what needs to be done and the contractor numbers grew. The lack of FAA funding a couple of years ago showed that the direct contractor workforce is about 10 to 1 for each Fed employee. The Government contractors have been giving lay offs across the land and the indirect ratio of people affected is even greater. People sell to Fed employees and contractors and those people work at grocery stores, as car mechanics, at restaurants, etc. This lack of spending tax dollars cuts about a BILLION dollars from the economy every third day and it is a rippling loss of paychecks that is coming your way.
Trying real hard to keep any politics OUT of this, that's the answer to what I see.
What I believe is that the problem isn't the politicians, even if it is us who picked total ******* (or not) to represent us. Like Pogo said in the old cartoon:
We as voters increasingly buy into media messages, left or right, to think that we need extremists and hard-liners. When we vote, it's easy to forget the great church quote that "A person may try to be so holy that he is of no use to us on Earth." IF my vote or your vote goes to somebody who is so hardline that he/she can't play well with others, then we all suffer.
Obviously, our area has more Fed employees than anywhere else. I was speaking with a senior management friend tonight and he is fed up with entrusting his familys' financial future to an employer which has for years frozen salaries or kept increases to less than the cost of living, sequestered pay (cut pay by requiring unpaid days off), and now furloughed employees again. When we started 25+ years ago, Government was a steady employer and the annual budget process was a non-event. Neither has been that way for a while. My friend has always been a hard worker and is the corporate memory for his department, but he is going to take an early retirement and accept a job in industry.
During these days off, we've personally been using our time to get things done, such as house stuff, errands, and getting outside. I was wondering if this is what retirement must feel like, but when you are retired you know what your income is and will be. We've stopped spending, because we don't know when we will have an income and there is a good chance that we may have to carry all of our own expenses for a long time after we do get recalled.
What is more visible is that everybody else in the area has also stopped spending overnight. Talking to the manager of a siding/roofing contractor today, he related that their phone traffic cut 50% when the furlough started and sales have been slowing a bit more each day since October 1. Employees at a clothing store and a Pep Boys were talking about how noticeable the reduction in customers has been and how far their sales are off.
If you think this doesn't affect you in states far from DC, you are wrong. Since the 1980s there are fewer Fed employees for what needs to be done and the contractor numbers grew. The lack of FAA funding a couple of years ago showed that the direct contractor workforce is about 10 to 1 for each Fed employee. The Government contractors have been giving lay offs across the land and the indirect ratio of people affected is even greater. People sell to Fed employees and contractors and those people work at grocery stores, as car mechanics, at restaurants, etc. This lack of spending tax dollars cuts about a BILLION dollars from the economy every third day and it is a rippling loss of paychecks that is coming your way.
Trying real hard to keep any politics OUT of this, that's the answer to what I see.
What I believe is that the problem isn't the politicians, even if it is us who picked total ******* (or not) to represent us. Like Pogo said in the old cartoon:
We as voters increasingly buy into media messages, left or right, to think that we need extremists and hard-liners. When we vote, it's easy to forget the great church quote that "A person may try to be so holy that he is of no use to us on Earth." IF my vote or your vote goes to somebody who is so hardline that he/she can't play well with others, then we all suffer.
