Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:20     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.


This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.


I worked for DoD. Politically, my agency was like the country- pretty evenly divided, with maybe a little leaning to the right. We did have plenty of TEA party types. They didn’t hide their disdain for big government and the DC “swamp.” This was ironic on so many levels. Bureaucracy and waste was only the “other” agencies.

They looked down on everything in the name of taxes. Without taxes, how could Uncle Sam pay their triple dipping salary? I met so many GG14s, with military retirement and often military disability.

I believe retired military are entitled to every benefit they earned. What got me, was often “disability” was actually retired soldiers, sailors and airmen getting a little sedentary, getting a little heavy and had nothing to do with their years of being a desk jockey in the military. I knew retired military who got 100% disability for being overweight and the ailments that come with it- high blood pressure, bad knees, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes. That they get the same disability as a soldier who was sent to the battlefield and saw killings, lost friends, maybe lost limbs, doesn’t seem fair.


It's not fair. I appreciate our service members and their service. This might be unpopular, but I think if you are 100% disabled, you should not be able to work. Too many receive 100% disability, have government jobs, play softball, go on hikes and golf on the weekends. This doesn't sound disabled to me.

p.s. I know you can't see all disabilities, but the system is abused and needs fixed.


You're welcome to go to your nearest recruiting a sign up if you thing it's such a great deal.


I’m too old, but if I could get in a time machine, maybe I would enlist? The biggest downside to the military is when we get dangerous leaders, that get us into dangerous and unnecessary conflicts- i.e. Iraq, WMDs, prolonged ground war in Afghanistan.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:20     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Govt workers are thought to have stable, secure employment, so there is no need to consider gaps in employment or the need for savings to cover them. Their pay is sturcutred differently where as in the commerical side you will negoatate severence packages etc

so i guess that has changed.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:18     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here. People are missing my point!

I am talking about people who have paid off their loans to the point of being down to the low interest government loans (people in their late 30s etc), have no kids or sick parents to take care of, and no major health issues.

And yes, I do go out and live life. I go to free museums and openings and other events. I go to dinner and order water and an appetizer or cheap entree. I go to hh and stop after one drink. I don't have a car. I have health issues but they are not hugely expensive.


People live way beyond their means. They don’t think ahead and they have no sound financial back up plan for shutdowns. Shutdowns and this shut down shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. People who don’t plan ahead are not very smart.


There have only been 4 shutdowns in the last 20 years.

Republicans control all branches of govt, so why would we expect a shutdown? All previous ones were when other party controlled Senate — because when it was single party they negotiated from a position of strength but with some concession which brought over a few from the other side to vote.

This term? Who the F could have predicted the last 9 months? I’ve been saving like mad since June when Biden stroked out, but we are freaking Feds, there isn’t much to work with to build $100k+ in savings.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:08     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.


This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.


I worked for DoD. Politically, my agency was like the country- pretty evenly divided, with maybe a little leaning to the right. We did have plenty of TEA party types. They didn’t hide their disdain for big government and the DC “swamp.” This was ironic on so many levels. Bureaucracy and waste was only the “other” agencies.

They looked down on everything in the name of taxes. Without taxes, how could Uncle Sam pay their triple dipping salary? I met so many GG14s, with military retirement and often military disability.

I believe retired military are entitled to every benefit they earned. What got me, was often “disability” was actually retired soldiers, sailors and airmen getting a little sedentary, getting a little heavy and had nothing to do with their years of being a desk jockey in the military. I knew retired military who got 100% disability for being overweight and the ailments that come with it- high blood pressure, bad knees, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes. That they get the same disability as a soldier who was sent to the battlefield and saw killings, lost friends, maybe lost limbs, doesn’t seem fair.


It's not fair. I appreciate our service members and their service. This might be unpopular, but I think if you are 100% disabled, you should not be able to work. Too many receive 100% disability, have government jobs, play softball, go on hikes and golf on the weekends. This doesn't sound disabled to me.

p.s. I know you can't see all disabilities, but the system is abused and needs fixed.


You're welcome to go to your nearest recruiting a sign up if you thing it's such a great deal.


NP-- they wouldn't take me. I'm disabled.

Consider all the people that are born with a disability and yet are able to work, and do so. They don't get any extra funds because they are working and have a disability. Consider people that develop MS or cancer while working age-- they don't extra $ because of their disability if they can continue to work.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:07     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:What you don’t get is that in high cost areas $100k a year means scraping by. This has been discussed ad nauseum on various threads. If you live in Kansas, $100k is great. In DC or any other places with a high cost of living, you can’t support a family on it at all. If you are single, that $100k after taxes isn’t enough to cover housing and food expenses.


That’s bull. 100k is fine for a single person in DC with no kids.

I’m a new GS14, divorced and raising teens. I’m still able to save and looking forward to an early retirement. We do live in one of the more moderately affordable areas in Fairfax County and I will move somewhere with lower COL when I retire.

I have a coworker, a single middle aged lady who has been a 14 for years. She complains and says she’ll never be able to retire. But she lives in an expensive part of DC, buys clothes all the time, goes out to restaurants all the time. Some people are willfully ignorant. I do judge her.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 11:06     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, you can't know for sure what kind of expenses they may have. Perhaps some of they racked up a lot of credit card debt which they are aggressively paying down but are too ashamed or embarrassed to say so, even to close friends. I guarantee you that such a scenario is far more common than you might expect. Maybe they are helping out a family member financially and again are reluctant to admit it to friends, either out of embarrassment or respect for the person. You just don't know.

Undoubtedly some of your friends have just not been as good as preparing financially for emergencies as they should have. In that case, have some compassion. They haven't been taught good financial management, or they have emotional reasons for spending that they haven't come to terms with, or whatever. Maybe they have just been careless. In any case, they are going to learn a tough lesson. Surely, you can muster some kind feelings toward friends?


These are good points.
I do sympathize with them verbally. I don't express out loud what I have said here in this forum. But I still think that people who get paid six figures and can't go a month without a paycheck should try to re figure their spending.


Let it go. Instead, imagine how YOUR world would change if you felt sympathy, rather than expressed it superficially. Your friends have expressed their concerns. Leave it at that.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:48     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
2013 was my first shutdown, and at the time, I was in the middle of my divorce and had no savings. Those were three long, panic-stricken weeks for me.

By 2018/19, I was in a much better place financially and was unaffected by not having a check for five weeks.

This go-round, I could go for a few years check-free, though I am looking to bail and would not stick around unpaid past a few months.

The point is, even though I am in a good place financially, I am sympathetic to those who are not, especially young adults just starting out. These kids can't catch a break, and I fully understand why they'd want to give up.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:47     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.


This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.


I worked for DoD. Politically, my agency was like the country- pretty evenly divided, with maybe a little leaning to the right. We did have plenty of TEA party types. They didn’t hide their disdain for big government and the DC “swamp.” This was ironic on so many levels. Bureaucracy and waste was only the “other” agencies.

They looked down on everything in the name of taxes. Without taxes, how could Uncle Sam pay their triple dipping salary? I met so many GG14s, with military retirement and often military disability.

I believe retired military are entitled to every benefit they earned. What got me, was often “disability” was actually retired soldiers, sailors and airmen getting a little sedentary, getting a little heavy and had nothing to do with their years of being a desk jockey in the military. I knew retired military who got 100% disability for being overweight and the ailments that come with it- high blood pressure, bad knees, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes. That they get the same disability as a soldier who was sent to the battlefield and saw killings, lost friends, maybe lost limbs, doesn’t seem fair.


It's not fair. I appreciate our service members and their service. This might be unpopular, but I think if you are 100% disabled, you should not be able to work. Too many receive 100% disability, have government jobs, play softball, go on hikes and golf on the weekends. This doesn't sound disabled to me.

p.s. I know you can't see all disabilities, but the system is abused and needs fixed.


You're welcome to go to your nearest recruiting a sign up if you thing it's such a great deal.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:40     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
There are tons of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Americans are in credit card debt to the tune of 1.21 trillion dollars.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:23     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:What you don’t get is that in high cost areas $100k a year means scraping by. This has been discussed ad nauseum on various threads. If you live in Kansas, $100k is great. In DC or any other places with a high cost of living, you can’t support a family on it at all. If you are single, that $100k after taxes isn’t enough to cover housing and food expenses.


I think this is what people don't understand. Now a 100k in the DC area is not that much money, and a large number of feds don't even make 100k a year.

They are essentially living paycheck to paycheck unless they bought a house 20-30 years ago or have a higher earning partner. The stability of government jobs and the mission is the attraction, not the salary, at least in the DC metro.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:17     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.


This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.


I worked for DoD. Politically, my agency was like the country- pretty evenly divided, with maybe a little leaning to the right. We did have plenty of TEA party types. They didn’t hide their disdain for big government and the DC “swamp.” This was ironic on so many levels. Bureaucracy and waste was only the “other” agencies.

They looked down on everything in the name of taxes. Without taxes, how could Uncle Sam pay their triple dipping salary? I met so many GG14s, with military retirement and often military disability.

I believe retired military are entitled to every benefit they earned. What got me, was often “disability” was actually retired soldiers, sailors and airmen getting a little sedentary, getting a little heavy and had nothing to do with their years of being a desk jockey in the military. I knew retired military who got 100% disability for being overweight and the ailments that come with it- high blood pressure, bad knees, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes. That they get the same disability as a soldier who was sent to the battlefield and saw killings, lost friends, maybe lost limbs, doesn’t seem fair.


It's not fair. I appreciate our service members and their service. This might be unpopular, but I think if you are 100% disabled, you should not be able to work. Too many receive 100% disability, have government jobs, play softball, go on hikes and golf on the weekends. This doesn't sound disabled to me.

p.s. I know you can't see all disabilities, but the system is abused and needs fixed.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:14     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:What you don’t get is that in high cost areas $100k a year means scraping by. This has been discussed ad nauseum on various threads. If you live in Kansas, $100k is great. In DC or any other places with a high cost of living, you can’t support a family on it at all. If you are single, that $100k after taxes isn’t enough to cover housing and food expenses.


Yup, there are tradeoffs. I'm a former fed who took early retirement and wife is a teacher. Combined we made 250k, which is a pretty comfobrtable salary. The only thing saving us is we stayed in our starter home. If we had fallen for the middle class trap, and upgraded to a larger home, things would be different.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 10:10     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
What you don’t get is that in high cost areas $100k a year means scraping by. This has been discussed ad nauseum on various threads. If you live in Kansas, $100k is great. In DC or any other places with a high cost of living, you can’t support a family on it at all. If you are single, that $100k after taxes isn’t enough to cover housing and food expenses.
Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 09:53     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Two months ago, I got the hell outa DOGE. I was a GS-12 making 111k, wife works for school system making 50k. No kids. No house, just rent.

We have 6 months worth minimum expenses if we both lost our jobs, but that would be eating into our house fund. So 3 months if you don’t count house fund.

Thank God I left.

Anonymous
Post 10/15/2025 09:36     Subject: Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yet in Covid I was walked out door at start, kid in college. Three kids, oldest in college and stay at home mom wife and a mortgage,

Took me three years and two months to get back to old level of job. So shocked people can’t make it a two weeks.

Feds are allowed to work other jobs, why aren’t they working? Are they just sitting home? I was doing other jobs while out of work


i'm not allowed to work another job unless cleared by ethics first. i'm not actually sure if those folks are working; and of course if they are, they are working without pay and with no ability to seek other employment themselves.


Bull shit. You can’t uber, taskrabbit, dog walking, baby sitting, door dash?


Actually, pp is correct. As a fed, you can have another job, but it has to be vetted to be sure there isn’t a conflict of interest. Obviously, driving Uber has no conflict, but it still needs to be reported and cleared. There are lots of rules for the worker bees. If you get to higher levels of government, rules don’t apply and you can hawk hats, watches, meme coins and make personal deals on government time.