<p>As an ‘overpaid’ federal government worker… sarcasm intended… I’m trying to look at the positive side of things with this possible upcoming furlough. </p>
<p>If I get furloughed we might finally be able to qualify in getting our mortgage refinanced…before furlough we were just a little above the cutoff in getting help. With the furlough, we’ll have a hard time making payments on things…</p>
<p>I have just been accepted into an online degree program and start my first class on the 4th, so the extra time off will give me a chance to do schoolwork. Hopefully my GI Bill benefits won’t be affected.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to turn this into something political, so let’s keep congress and the potus out of it…what will you do if you are furloughed?</p>
<p>They aren’t being laid off, they are being furloughed, so going from working 5 days a week to four, for instance. </p>
<p>Not everyone who is being furloughed is going to be a government employee either. </p>
<p>Lots will be furloughed from defense contractors. A lot of factory workers who work for food processors will be also as the plants can only operate if a food safety inspector is present. </p>
<p>My DH was furloughed 10 days last year (all NYS employees were.) He was supposed to take the time off but the reality was that as a director of an agency he couldn’t. He can’t even take all of his vacation time. </p>
<p>The only thing we had to do was adjust our budget and even though it was only 10 days worth of pay - it was several thousands of dollars lost.</p>
<p>I live in the area of FAA center, so I know some people who will have their hours reduced and also experiencing a hiring freeze for someone who was hoping to get foot in the door…a little worried for a young couple I know who are getting married in a few months and closing on their first house next month. Her husband works there. I haven’t dared to ask because I know the stress is already climbing</p>
<p>The entertainment business deals with furloughs every year. Car makers used to as well; they closed for retooling every model year or so and laid all affected workers off with no pay. And teachers often work on contracts that run from September to June with nothing in between. I remember one of my 8th grade teachers selling snowmobiles & lawn mowers.</p>
<p>But in TV, the year ends in say early May and shooting doesn’t resume until July or so, depending on the show. So let’s say you are on a hit half hour series. You get laid off for a few month every year. They cut you a check for unused vacation and sick time and it’s bye-bye. What do you do? You scramble for short-term work, like on some reality show or do commercials or whatever you can. BTW, this doesn’t apply to all workers because many, like nearly all the trades, are paid by the day or week so when production is off, they’re just not getting paid. This is one reason why apparent rates for LA trades look so high; a day rate doesn’t translate conceptually well into a monthly or yearly wage.</p>
<p>I would schedule medical appointments on the furlough day and do projects around the house. If you have a skill like carpentry, you could practice it and bring in some extra money. I would take more walks, maybe cook more meals from scratch. I would try to turn something you cannot change and that is a negative into a gift of time. Even if you are working on something else, it’s a nice change in routine. </p>
<p>But I am sorry for people who are experiencing this. As a government worker myself (though no longer fed), I’m grateful for the benefits (generous leave, Health Insurance) but when I read the thread on perks people get at work, all I could come up with was a water cooler. We have a water cooler and unlimited access to it (though I don’t use it because I figure it never gets cleaned.) Have a thing about work place kitchens, too.</p>
I guess my answer would be about the same - if I wasn’t satisfied with where I was working I’d look for another job. </p>
<p>Whether it’s worth staying at a location with temporary reduced hours/pay or not is just something someone needs to decide but that’s usually based on whether they can do better elsewhere or not.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the budget hits, especially for defense contractors, will result in layoffs rather than ‘furloughs’. It’s already handled that way when contracts end and no replacement work is available.</p>
<p>There’s no getting around it - furloughs stink. A day off without pay makes me feel unemployed. My coworkers pretend its a vacation day, but it’s not unless you actually were overpaid to begin with. I’ve been working with furloughs for the past 4 years with no end in sight. You adjust. You’re poor, you have too much debt, you pray for it to end. What else can you do? And yes, sometimes you even look for a new job. Until you realize there aren’t any.</p>
<p>Oh yeah - and “be happy you have a job!” sure thing.</p>
<p>I think PhotoOp has hit it on the head. I also think very few furloughed workers look for other employment as there are other considerations besides salary to consider - for instance a defined pension plan and good benefits which are not easily replaced. </p>
<p>Most people muddle through adjusting their budgets and reducing their discretionary spending. I think the ones hit the hardest in this instance won’t be the furloughed worker but those that depend on the money they spend in their communities. They won’t be furloughed, they will be let go completely or the small business owner who is dependent on those consumers might lose his/her business completely. JMHO of course.</p>
<p>When auto workers would have a shut down, they would apply for and receive unemployment for the weeks they were off. Additionally it was written into their contracts they received additional pay and it added up to 95% of their pay. It’s not the same thing. </p>
<p>Teachers know their contracts are for x amount of time. They can elect to be paid on a 9 or 12 month period. They also have a chunk of time off that they can pick up additional work. </p>
<p>Emily bee, I’m confused. If your H couldn’t take off those 10 days and he can’t use all his vacation, why couldn’t he take vacation pay and still go into the office. I sympathize though. My H never takes all his vacation. He used to be able to sell it, now it just goes unused.</p>
<p>“Emily bee, I’m confused. If your H couldn’t take off those 10 days and he can’t use all his vacation, why couldn’t he take vacation pay and still go into the office.”</p>
<p>Because he is a salaried employee and his pay was reduced by 10 days for the year. He can take or not take as many or as few of his days and his salary remains the same. </p>
<p>Every once in awhile the State does let employees cash in one weeks vacation time but it’s been several years since they’ve done that. </p>
<p>He hasn’t ever taken a sick day (in 21 years) but at retirement you do get the cash those in and at your highest salary. </p>
<p>He has taken a day off here and there but it’s not really a vacation day when the office is calling you constantly. He is in Emergency Management and between Irene, Lee and Sandy over the last year he had been working practically 24/7. Even a storm like Nemo required those kinds of hours. He is at the beck and call of the Governor and there simply is no such thing as a day off or vacation.</p>
<p>We’re aren’t allowed to cash out vacation time for furlough. We also aren’t allowed to step foot in the office on a furlough day. Even if we want to work for “free.” So not only are you forced off without pay, you have to get all your work done in less time too. And the one thing no one ever talks about is as long as we are getting furloughs there are no cost of living increases. Ever. And after 4 years no one complains any more so there is no real hope for it to change. And to make it worse, since we don’t have a shutdown where I work, everyone has to take staggered furloughs, so you can’t even take your 13 days off altogether and go get a temp job during that time. It’s a day here and a day there with no chance of picking up additional work.</p>
<p>Can you tell it really hurts employee morale too?</p>
<p>I have been furloughed before, and it was a very difficult time in our lives. We had our dream jobs and my husband was also furloughed, with an infant and a toddler to support. There was an overwhelming feeling of fear, that we would never be able to save any more money and never get another good job.</p>
<p>But in our case, furlough meant indefinite unemployment without pay or benefits (ended up to be six months for me, two years for my husband). One day off a week isn’t a furlough, it’s just a paycut with additional vacation time.</p>
<p>We took the time to spend more time raising our kids, husband worked on a master’s degree and parked cars for $7/hr, lived cheaply. We ended up getting far better jobs and did not return to our previous jobs when recalled.</p>
<p>It was very depressing for us, but we would have been thrilled to just lose a portion of pay and have more time off instead of complete unemployment. Most people don’t have the security of a guaranteed job.</p>
<p>Military hospitals operate with a mix of both active duty and civilian physicians, nurses, staff, technicians, etc. Because the sequester will not touch military pay or staffing, cuts and furloughs will affect civilian workers. </p>
<p>The number of patients will not change, but hospitals and clinics will be working shorthanded. The military personnel will be expected to take up the slack. Civilian physicians and nurses who hold GS contracts will be furloughed or their contracts will not be renewed. Department heads in every military hospital in the nation spent the past couple of weeks detailing how they would cut x dollars from their budgets.</p>
<p>You seem not to understand the nuances of public employment. Many public-sector positions (especially at universities) are limited-term, meaning they are for a contracted period as short as six months or a year. And salaries relative to comparable positions in the private sector are lower to begin with. The myth of the cushy overpaid public employee is just that–a myth.</p>
<p>I had a two-year furlough at my last state job. It amounted to 6% of my salary. During that same time our healthcare costs doubled and we had to begin contributing substantially to our pensions whether we wanted to or not. I did odd jobs for friends and freelance work when I could get it. It was a difficult time.</p>
<p>I think the ripple effects of furloughs are where things get nasty. My neighbor owns a very popular deli near NIH. Thousands of employees there will be furloughed. Nobody needs to eat at a deli, no matter how good it is. Furloughs mean fewer people working, and fewer people spending money on deli food. His business will suffer even though he is not a government employee.</p>
<p>“I think the ripple effects of furloughs are where things get nasty”</p>
<p>Yes. I think people underestimate this, and just consider those who are getting furloughed. Even if people end up not getting their hours cut, when they are fearful of losing pay, they will cut back on expenses. Which certainly affects so many industries.</p>