Keep extra e-funds if you work for the Feds

[RogueDadMD]

A friend of mine works for the FAA and has for years, so is affected by the shutdown

I commented he must have to keep extra emergency cash given the potential for shutdowns.

He replied:

”Indeed. Especially in recent years. Every few weeks or months there's another possible shutdown”

Given how many people are federal employees, not just the military, or rely on their services, it is doubly unfortunate we have this constant brinksmanship.

[pulmdoc]

Agree 100%. Easy for politicians to forget that real people work for the government, and that's their job, how they support their families. There is a major military base near me, and after every government shutdown we lose patients because the civilian contractors get furloughed without pay and decide working for DOD isn't worth the unpredictable turmoil.

[G]

pulmdoc wrote:

Easy for politicians to forget that real people work

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Their careers all follow a similar trajectory:  Primary school to high school to college (plus or minus law school) to politician.

Easy to forget that real people work?  They never knew!

[Peds]

Rogue Dad, M.D. wrote:

A friend of mine works for the FAA and has for years, so is affected by the shutdown

I commented he must have to keep extra emergency cash given the potential for shutdowns.

He replied:

”Indeed. Especially in recent years. Every few weeks or months there’s another possible shutdown”

Given how many people are federal employees, not just the military, or rely on their services, it is doubly unfortunate we have this constant brinksmanship.

Click to expand...

Yes it's terrible and ridiculous and pathetic and embarrassing for this country.

Devils advocate however: the last shut down was like 4 years ago....and it lasted about 2 weeks. Most ppl (should) have a few months in savings. This equates to not even a blip on the radar of my EF...

[RogueDadMD]

I agree with you. But this seems more like a concern about constantly being told you are about to be fired but never actually being fired. The other side is you don’t know how long the shutdown could be, and unless you plan to quit you can’t really be going to look for another job.

Think about how it would affect not only your job planning but your personal life if every 3-6 months you were told you may have an indefinite period with no work and no pay. There have not been many shutdowns, but this has been a potential every few months because they can’t pass actual budgets and just keep doing stopgaps.

The e-fund should cover it, but it would affect my vacation planning and housing and a lot of things.

[Hatton]

Otoh federal employees (maybe not contractors) get paid eventually.  They get time off without using vacation or sick days.

[RogueDadMD]

GettING back pay is apparently optional after a shutdown. I already read one article that had inc concern it wouldn’t happen or may be reduced this time.

I have a hard time seeing GOP not paying people though. That would be terrible optics and selfish; even if no one was working it is because of their dysfunction.

[MochaDoc]

Just read an article on the government shut down and thought to myself, "Federal workers are poster children for who should have a well-funded EF." If I were a government employee, I'd do everything in my power to have an EF that could cover one to two years. There's simply too much instability, inefficiency, etc. in Washington DC for me to consider 3-6 months adequate for federal employees.

My primary confusion is what exactly is open versus closed with this current shutdown. Guess I'll find out the longer this shutdown lasts.

[ACN]

Democratic Hypocrisy in regards to the shutdown

[RogueDadMD]

I put this in The Lounge on purpose. But don’t link to Ben Shapiro and expect to foster a real discussion.

[ACN]

Rogue Dad, M.D. wrote:

I put this in The Lounge on purpose. But don’t link to Ben Shapiro and expect to foster a real discussion.

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Did you watch the 2-minute video?  What did it say that was bias or so out of touch to foster a discussion?  Literally, Schumer said in 2013 doing what he is doing now is blatantly awful.

Anyways, holding the US government hostage and all the military members, US CITIZENS, etc over ILLEGAL immigrants is just mind-blowing and how out of touch the democrats are.  They wouldn't even support CHIP funding.  Disgraceful.

[RogueDadMD]

No haven’t watched it tried to load on my phone and the screen broke.

Actually at a wedding so can’t watch now. But he’s as biased as it comes.

If you really want to delve into partisan politics and hypocrisy we can do so. However it’s head in the sand to throw shade at one side. There is plenty of blame to go around, and tying CHIP to a stopgap measure was the definition of playing politics. They could’ve funded it at any point in the past 12 months with no difficulty; they held out to use it as a bargaining chip in situations such as this.

[pulmdoc]

As a clarification, "essential" employees (eg active duty military, VA doctors, etc) are required to come to work, but don't get paid for as long as the shutdown lasts. They get back pay once the shutdown is over. "Nonessential" employees (NIH, CDC, DEA etc) get furloughed, which means they aren't allowed to go to work and they don't ever get paid for the time off (and can't use PTO to get paid either).

[Hank]

Perhaps my view on this is shaded from a DoD perspective, but most "non-essential" personnel get a week or two off of work unpaid, then they get made whole with full pay once the government gets back to work.  It essentially is free vacation time, and it certainly doesn't save the government or the taxpayers any money.  (Senator Ted Cruz did nothing to save the taxpayers money with the last government shutdown.)

Uniformed military personnel will continue to work.  Social security and SDI checks will continue to go out.  We will pay National Park rangers their regular salary, though for now we'll expect them to turn back visitors to natural wonders that are millions of years older than the American republic. :roll:

[HikingDO]

Meanwhile, members of congress will still be receiving their paychecks. Both political parties are equally pathetic.