likelihood of a government shut down?

[Anonymous]

I am not a fed but I do work downtown. I am horrible person bc everytime there is a threat of a shutdown, I secretly hope it happens so I can get a few days break fro terrible traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

I don’t know where you work but that was a terrible faux pas last time in terms of optics. You look like a giant douche and people definitely notice

Nope. At my agency you look baller to be able to pay your mortgage and take a last minute vacation with last minute airfare and people wonder how much you stashed away in private practice.

Yeah I don’t believe you are actually a fed

Because no feds came from private practice? Because no lifer government types look at the ex private practice types and try to gauge where they're at in terms of net worth that they were able to take a step back financially and yet still be jetting off on vacations etc.? Seriously I'm curious why you think these things can't happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

Lol. You get that there is no one to approve vacation, so you cannot just take it. The expectation is that you return the day the shutown. Most people do not have the luxury of just telling the boss “oh sorry, I took a vacation without permission, see you in a few days.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

Lol. You get that there is no one to approve vacation, so you cannot just take it. The expectation is that you return the day the shutown. Most people do not have the luxury of just telling the boss “oh sorry, I took a vacation without permission, see you in a few days.”

Not sure where you work, but at my agency it's no problem to email whoever approves your vacation -- and say "I'm taking Wed. off, will be back on Thurs and will put in my time then." There is no pre approval or permission required because we are grown up professionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

Lol. You get that there is no one to approve vacation, so you cannot just take it. The expectation is that you return the day the shutown. Most people do not have the luxury of just telling the boss “oh sorry, I took a vacation without permission, see you in a few days.”

Not sure where you work, but at my agency it's no problem to email whoever approves your vacation -- and say "I'm taking Wed. off, will be back on Thurs and will put in my time then." There is no pre approval or permission required because we are grown up professionals.

+1. I have almost never submitted my leave requests ahead of time. I usually will give my boss a head's up/nominally ask for permission, but it isn't really a request. Now, I also don't take time off when I have a deadline or some other reason why it would be a problem for me to be out. I am a professional, I treat my job as such, and I am treated as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

I don’t know where you work but that was a terrible faux pas last time in terms of optics. You look like a giant douche and people definitely notice

Nope. At my agency you look baller to be able to pay your mortgage and take a last minute vacation with last minute airfare and people wonder how much you stashed away in private practice.

Yeah I don’t believe you are actually a fed

Because no feds came from private practice? Because no lifer government types look at the ex private practice types and try to gauge where they're at in terms of net worth that they were able to take a step back financially and yet still be jetting off on vacations etc.? Seriously I'm curious why you think these things can't happen?

I totally believe some feds can take a vacation at the drop of a hat. I totally believe a bunch of other feds would gossip about another fed who took a vacation during a shutdown.

I doubt that those unfortunate feds would call the other one a 'baller,' a term I have never heard a fed refer to another fed as in my decade plus of public service (and ive been around since I was 22 so I was a cool kid not just some old 30 year er).

I also seriously doubt someone established and confident enough to take a last minute vacation would follow up on the office gossip once they returned.

I think your language is so distant from what it's like in the federal cubicle farm I don't believe you

[Anonymous]

What’s all this talk about last minute vacations? Does no one have school age kids on this thread? Last shutdown I sat home while the kids were in school. I also tried not to spend money because backpay wasn’t a certainty (and still isn’t).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

I don’t know where you work but that was a terrible faux pas last time in terms of optics. You look like a giant douche and people definitely notice

I wasn't around the last shutdown, but I would be shocked if my boss cared if people took a couple of extra days to get back.

It’s not just your boss.

What does that mean? Who else would have to approve my leave? If I wanted to take the next two days off, no one other than my boss would need to approve. And, to the extent it would matter, I doubt my boss's boss would care either.

It means that reputation in an office isn’t just generated by your supervisor. I would think that’s obvious. Team cameraderie, people who might be your boss when your boss quits etc. Your bosses boss who helps make leadership hiring decisions moving forward, all of that. Optics aren’t always just about who does your ppa but hey the fact that that didn’t occur to you says it all.

Not to mention people actually have work to do and want to get it done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people more upset about how fed employees might or might not get backpay than how Congress's has not passed a budget? This is what's wrong with out country. No one holds congress accountable.

Exactly!

Also, to the PP whio said Feds should go on vacation, that isn’t an option since you have to come back with less than a day’s notice.

You don't have 1-2 days of vacation time? You'd get your entire vacation w/o using annual leave and then when the re opening was announced, if you couldn't make it back the next day -- take 1 or 2 days off?

I don’t know where you work but that was a terrible faux pas last time in terms of optics. You look like a giant douche and people definitely notice

I wasn't around the last shutdown, but I would be shocked if my boss cared if people took a couple of extra days to get back.

It’s not just your boss.

What does that mean? Who else would have to approve my leave? If I wanted to take the next two days off, no one other than my boss would need to approve. And, to the extent it would matter, I doubt my boss's boss would care either.

It means that reputation in an office isn’t just generated by your supervisor. I would think that’s obvious. Team cameraderie, people who might be your boss when your boss quits etc. Your bosses boss who helps make leadership hiring decisions moving forward, all of that. Optics aren’t always just about who does your ppa but hey the fact that that didn’t occur to you says it all.

Not to mention people actually have work to do and want to get it done.

This. Internal deadlines, legal deadlines, team schedules, etc. If a co-worker that I was working with on a project disappeared for an unplanned couple of days because they wanted to take a last-minute vacation, the team and managers would certainly notice.

[Anonymous]

Republicans should remember what happened when Newt closed the govt. Clinton was not blamed but Newt was. Now it is a GOP govt. Who will be blamed?

[Anonymous]

There's always so much talk on this board about the "lazy Gov't employee," Even in times of shutdown. It's like some of you think that we are idiots who lucked into high paying jobs and don't do anything.

I work for the agency that I do because I believe in its mission (which by the way is something that impacts all of you). I'm disappointed that we're even at this point because I want to work and like what I do and I have bills that aren't paused when a shutdown happens.

Yes, I have savings but they are for unforeseen emergencies not for politicians who are having pissing contests with people's livelihoods. I think people fail to see that it's not just these large agencies and Feds making 6-figures that are impacted by shutdown but it's across the board. It's the wage-grade employees and GS-8s that aren't highly paid for this area to begin with, it's the applicants trying to get social security or veterans benefits and so on.......

But what I say doesn't matter anymore on this anonymous board than it would to my own congressman so please, continue on with your rants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Republicans should remember what happened when Newt closed the govt. Clinton was not blamed but Newt was. Now it is a GOP govt. Who will be blamed?

Shhhh. Don't burst their balloon. They still think they can pin this one on the Dems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's always so much talk on this board about the "lazy Gov't employee," Even in times of shutdown. It's like some of you think that we are idiots who lucked into high paying jobs and don't do anything.

I work for the agency that I do because I believe in its mission (which by the way is something that impacts all of you). I'm disappointed that we're even at this point because I want to work and like what I do and I have bills that aren't paused when a shutdown happens.

Yes, I have savings but they are for unforeseen emergencies not for politicians who are having pissing contests with people's livelihoods. I think people fail to see that it's not just these large agencies and Feds making 6-figures that are impacted by shutdown but it's across the board. It's the wage-grade employees and GS-8s that aren't highly paid for this area to begin with, it's the applicants trying to get social security or veterans benefits and so on.......

But what I say doesn't matter anymore on this anonymous board than it would to my own congressman so please, continue on with your rants.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always so much talk on this board about the "lazy Gov't employee," Even in times of shutdown. It's like some of you think that we are idiots who lucked into high paying jobs and don't do anything.

I work for the agency that I do because I believe in its mission (which by the way is something that impacts all of you). I'm disappointed that we're even at this point because I want to work and like what I do and I have bills that aren't paused when a shutdown happens.

Yes, I have savings but they are for unforeseen emergencies not for politicians who are having pissing contests with people's livelihoods. I think people fail to see that it's not just these large agencies and Feds making 6-figures that are impacted by shutdown but it's across the board. It's the wage-grade employees and GS-8s that aren't highly paid for this area to begin with, it's the applicants trying to get social security or veterans benefits and so on.......

But what I say doesn't matter anymore on this anonymous board than it would to my own congressman so please, continue on with your rants.

+1

Thank you for expressing this so well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's always so much talk on this board about the "lazy Gov't employee," Even in times of shutdown. It's like some of you think that we are idiots who lucked into high paying jobs and don't do anything.

I work for the agency that I do because I believe in its mission (which by the way is something that impacts all of you). I'm disappointed that we're even at this point because I want to work and like what I do and I have bills that aren't paused when a shutdown happens.

Yes, I have savings but they are for unforeseen emergencies not for politicians who are having pissing contests with people's livelihoods. I think people fail to see that it's not just these large agencies and Feds making 6-figures that are impacted by shutdown but it's across the board. It's the wage-grade employees and GS-8s that aren't highly paid for this area to begin with, it's the applicants trying to get social security or veterans benefits and so on.......

But what I say doesn't matter anymore on this anonymous board than it would to my own congressman so please, continue on with your rants.

+1

Thank you for expressing this so well.

I have had the 'lucky, lazy Fed thing' said to my face so many times over the past 22 years I've been one. It's crazy since I work for an agency that is production-based and routinely fires employees---even GS-14s and 15s if they don't produce or have poor quality. We also are 'not essential', but we have always worked through every single Govt. shutdown. We have never closed during one. I don't know if it will be the same this go around. Our agency is largely fee-funded and has $$ to pay us for awhile--it does need to be approved first though. It always has been in the past, but it's a brand new world.