Have been through a previous shut down as Fed employee & if you are designated as someone critical (forget the term they use, fibro fog brain), you have to come in & work anyway. We got used to the constant shutdown threats by politicians, you spend most of the year just being anxious about your job
This always hurts more than just the federal employees. They will have less to spend at local stores and restaurants. The domino effect ripples through their communities
My husband had a job interview at the White House a few years ago. He had to fly himself out there for the interview and the govt shut down like, the day before. So we just lost all that money. Plus had to stress out about not getting paid. The GOP does not care about working people.
Exactly! And the restaurant staff, food carts, etc. who mostly serve federal employees. So many are hurt by this and in the end it costs the government a lot.
Last month I left the Federal Government for a long-term detail, partly because my family is not in a position (sole wage earner, new house, medically complex kid, oldest in college) to weather a protracted shut down right now. This is how we lose good people.
My HHS colleagues (I'm a contractor) are incredibly dedicated to our mission to protect public health, also ultra experienced, skilled, and capable. Every one of them could make more $ on the private side. They stay for the mission and purpose. They deserve a reliable paycheck.
I’m a contractor at an agency and my colleagues (government employees and contractors) are very devoted civil servants. Doing this to us is a slap in the face but probably not the worse thing coming down the pike. Evil people like Comey, Musk, and Trump revel in destroying the lives of good people.
It's vile. And right now, everyone-EVERYONE-who has use or lose leave is about to take their leave that they NEVER get to take because they're overworked and they need to take their leave before Jan 11th (the last pay period of 2024). If the government shuts down, they will NOT get reimbursed later.
Yes, many people do - we get paid for all unused vacation days when we leave employment so this is a way to keep from paying out "too much" to departing employees by preventing them from saving it up. :(
We get our annual leave paid out as well. But it continues to accrue if it's not used and there are no limits to it.
Plus, we get long service leave. In South Australia at least (not sure about other states) if you've been employed for 7 or more years by the same employer you accrue +
an additional 1.3 weeks of leave per year and that also does not expire. You either take it or it's paid out when you leave.
We have minimum employment standards which mandate at least 4 weeks' leave a year for permanent employees. And if you work you get paid. No ifs ands or buts. +
And Australia has far from the most generous entitlements. Nordic countries are leaps and bounds ahead of us.
America brands itself as the land of the free but from the outside looking in, from here at least, not so much. It seems like America doesn't like or value its regular citizens much.
It's terrible that you aren't able to take the time off! My husband usually has to take off 2-3 weeks off in December becuase he can't take time off earlier in the year. One year he managed to donate his leave to someone in need when he had 40 hours of use or lose that he was going to lose.
I feel like if employees are going to lose leave the least they could do if make employees take it and ensure things keep ticking over while folks are away.
We were using Spouse's non-government 'use or lose' 4 years ago when we took a side-trip to pay respects to his relatives buried in a military cemetery. We could visit the graves, but a federal government shutdown closed the 'why is this here' visitor education stuff I wanted to go see.
I don't understand how or why there can be use or lose leave where an employer does not have to make sure the employee takes the leave every year. I don't understand why it's always the employees who get punished and disadvantaged. It sucks. I'm sorry.
If you are a federal employee and on leave during a shut down you don't get paid. Not even back pay when there is a budget. During a shut down if you are considered essential you get to work for free with no promise you will get back paid when there is a budget. All true.
Yep. My husband had been considered essential during at least 3 shut downs. He had to show up for work every day with no guarantee he'd be paid. This year, he's on scheduled leave, which he will likely lose.
It's even worse in that my husband has 90 hours of use or lose because he can *only* carry over 240 hours of leave. Those 90 hours are in addition to the 240. It's not that he wants to have 2 full months of leave banked--it's that he's never able to take the time off. Overworked, understaffed.
And this is the time of year when everyone takes their use or lose. But this will be *use and lose* if the government shuts down. Most federal employees can't absorb the income loss.
Yes it screws everything. Checks don't go out. Nothing is funded. Employees are not paid. If your an essential worker you work for free with no guarantee of being back paid
No, employee salaries come from the annual appropriations and can't be paid until the shutdown is over, I agree with that part as well. (The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 ensures employees will eventually get paid, but that's not necessarily comfort in the meantime.)
I was just making the narrow point that some functions are allowed to continue as critical to safety or protection of property, but Social Security benefit payments aren't in that bucket.
The last time this was threatened my bank was sending out messages that they would float your salary or something which I thought was pretty cool even though it wasn’t needed
It’s very stupid though, congress needs to do its job
I still have food insecurity from the time my parents went through a state government shutdown when I was like eight years old so with all due respect, fuck this.
As far as I'm aware, that's not a law, that something they have done with each shut down in the past. There's no guarantee they'll do it in the future.
I’m not suggesting strategically employed nonviolent gumming up of processes that benefit a specific person but perhaps the genius shouldn’t be quite so overconfident.
I believe those are city/state employees, and there's also no way in hell the Republican ghouls are somehow shutting down *only* that part of the government. If anything, they'd make an exception.
Comments
Happy holidays?
Damn them
And apart from the human cost it’s just economic stupidity
this has happened before, too.
And many of us have to work during vacations.
Plus, we get long service leave. In South Australia at least (not sure about other states) if you've been employed for 7 or more years by the same employer you accrue +
We have minimum employment standards which mandate at least 4 weeks' leave a year for permanent employees. And if you work you get paid. No ifs ands or buts. +
America brands itself as the land of the free but from the outside looking in, from here at least, not so much. It seems like America doesn't like or value its regular citizens much.
Hope nobody was going to a national park for the holidays...
It’s very stupid though, congress needs to do its job