Hi everyone:
As of tomorrow morning, much of the federal government will have been closed for two full weeks. If you’re a federal employee, how has this affected you? Federal Times is working on an article about the shutdown’s impact on the federal workforce; if you’d like to share your story, please email Staff Writer Sean Reilly at sreilly@federaltimes.com and let me know how to reach you. Thanks very much!
Sean
3 Comments
I waited until the last minute. But I had to request a hardship loan from TSP in order to pay my bills. I will be getting a 10% penalty on the amount I withdrew as well as loosing the future earnings of that money. That is just the icing on the cake after 3 years of no pay raises and thus far a two week furlough. If anyone in my agency pulled any of the shenanigans Congress has been pulling they would have been let go. All I have to say is that Congress should have term limits, none of this filibustering in which what is spoken has nothing to do with the issue (TALK ABOUT GOVERNMENT WASTE) and there should not be any lobby groups allowed.
I am sorry to say they are all pathetic, self interested and care only about their own agenda and how much money they will have after leaving office instead of caring about the country. I hope those responsible for this debacle get what is coming to them!!
I have been furloughed since Oct 1 (that day, I used 3 hours to engage in orderly shutdown activities). Thus far, the shutdown has allowed me to get some much-needed rest. We are blessed in that we have substantial savings and will not need to tap into TSP – so long as the shutdown does not last more than six months. I encouraged my supervisees to file for unemployment insurance last week, so they should start getting benefits soon. I am a fiscal conservative and sincerely hope that any budget deals also address the out-of-control spending. Though, I do feel for the government employees who do not have the resources to weather this shutdown. For their sakes, I hope EVERYONE comes to the table and negotiates because that’s the only way our system has ever worked. Let’s pray the 100 (Senate) + 435 (House) +1 (White House) demonstrate the leadership to which Americans have grown accustomed.
Other than the furlough hurting the budget, the long term affect, for me, is that I no longer feel secure in my employment, I have no confidence in the elected leaders and I know that each time it comes to talking about cutting the budget, the first place they are going to look is at the Federal employee and Military Retiree.