So we've had the sequester for a few months now, and has the country collapsed? A few annoyances here and there, but nothing major.

I think forcing the entire government to trim a bit of fat is not a bad thing. It's what we all did in the private sector a few years ago when the economic crisis really hit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the commute was fantastic - but I am sorry for all the people who are taking a cut.

I could not imagine taking a 10 - 20% paycut. And if you have a spouse in government as well.

I am angry with leaders in both agencies and in Senate / House who could not figure out how to make it work.

It's a 20% cut for three months not for the whole year. That works out to 5% for the year. Sucks, but better than not having a job.

Yep. I work(ed) for a federal contractor and the sequester meant that a couple dozen of us got laid off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the commute was fantastic - but I am sorry for all the people who are taking a cut.

I could not imagine taking a 10 - 20% paycut. And if you have a spouse in government as well.

I am angry with leaders in both agencies and in Senate / House who could not figure out how to make it work.

It's a 20% cut for three months not for the whole year. That works out to 5% for the year. Sucks, but better than not having a job.

I wish there were people who had the balls to cut things that were not required. I know the FBI last year implemented a new technology so an admin person in each local office who no longer needs to do a task that was their primary responsibility. But there were no cuts. In the rest of the world, they run it like a business, the person is gone.

Why do we still have Army Prep and Navy Prep school? Taxpayers pay for a school - and pay "salaries" for kids to redshirt for football.

Anonymous wrote:the commute was fantastic - but I am sorry for all the people who are taking a cut.

I could not imagine taking a 10 - 20% paycut. And if you have a spouse in government as well.

I am angry with leaders in both agencies and in Senate / House who could not figure out how to make it work.

It's a 20% cut for three months not for the whole year. That works out to 5% for the year. Sucks, but better than not having a job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know why it's surprising that furloughs will mean less is going to get done.

OP here. Not surprising that less work gets done. Surprising that they didn't have better procedures in place. There was a lot of posturing about all the prep they were doing, but in the end nothing was implemented.

Just be glad you're not furloughed and move on.

Anonymous wrote:the commute was fantastic - but I am sorry for all the people who are taking a cut.

I could not imagine taking a 10 - 20% paycut. And if you have a spouse in government as well.

I am angry with leaders in both agencies and in Senate / House who could not figure out how to make it work.

+1 on each point

Anonymous wrote:Don't know why it's surprising that furloughs will mean less is going to get done.

OP here. Not surprising that less work gets done. Surprising that they didn't have better procedures in place. There was a lot of posturing about all the prep they were doing, but in the end nothing was implemented.

Anonymous wrote:Don't know why it's surprising that furloughs will mean less is going to get done.

+1

the commute was fantastic - but I am sorry for all the people who are taking a cut.

I could not imagine taking a 10 - 20% paycut. And if you have a spouse in government as well.

I am angry with leaders in both agencies and in Senate / House who could not figure out how to make it work.

So that's why traffic was so light today.

That's every Friday at my agency...and we are not even on Furlough!

Anonymous wrote:Not. Half the government folks gone. Trying to find a person's backup. In some cases no one seemed to know. Too many single points of failure with some tasks - ie only 1 person can provide the data validation we needed and he was furloughed.

Its just their way of posturing. Someone could have probably done it for you but no one wanted to.

Don't know why it's surprising that furloughs will mean less is going to get done.

Maybe that was that their way of showing they are angry with the furloughs. And to show how valuable their services are to head off future furloughs?

Not. Half the government folks gone. Trying to find a person's backup. In some cases no one seemed to know. Too many single points of failure with some tasks - ie only 1 person can provide the data validation we needed and he was furloughed. It's not like they didn't know this was coming to make sure every person and task had a backup. Those government folks that were there had to leave by a certain time so they wouldn't be working overtime.

Nice 12 hour day for this lowly contractor. Can't wait for Friday when the next half is off!