Anyone else furloughed?

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So, 3 days out of work now. I'm thinking that this budget fight will last until it merges with the debt ceiling fight, so at least 2 more weeks without a paycheck. Politics aside, that will suck pretty hard for my family. Anyone else enjoying this unpaid vacation?
 

ElectronGuru

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We won't be discussing the causes/context here, but I would appreciate hearing details about the actual experience.

Was there a warning, do you get back pay if called in, do you get anything if not called back in, would you expect to get caught up on work somehow or just be x days behind when returning? Are people covering the shortfall with savings/credit or is there some consideration from organizations waiting for you to pay them?
 

jeffdenney

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Im not out of work either but that sucks. I am also very interested in your situation.
 

Hooked on Fenix

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For those of you that have been fuloughed, I am truly sorry to hear that you are out of work. I understand that many of you have families to feed and bills to pay and I know it sucks. That said, I am not a government employee. I work in the private sector as a martial arts instructor. I have 14 years of training and make minimum wage for the hours that I actually teach. Taking classes and assisting other instructors don't count toward getting paid. I am lucky to make $40 per week and that is all I have to live on. I have tried looking for more work since 2010, but in California no one seems to be hiring anyone that doesn't already have experience as there are people with college degrees flipping burgers to make ends meet. I have an AA in business and still can't find a starting position anywhere. I am in the process of getting into an electrical apprenticeship program but it has so far been nearly 2 years going through the registration and tests, and I still haven't heard from one employer yet. My car broke down about a month ago and I have no money for repairs, registration, or insurance. My dad has diabetes and is nearly blind. My brother is a cancer patient with diabetes. My other brother has autism. My sister is struggling as she is starting a family. Money is tight for the entire family and friends aren't doing much better. I think being broke is becoming an epidemic. Most people hiring are only taking on part time workers and full time workers are being dropped down to 28 or 29 hours. With this happening across the country, people have less expendable income and they will end up in lower tax brackets come tax season. If the average person had a full time 40 hour work week and got dropped to 28 hours, with the drop to a lower tax bracket, I would estimate that they will be paying 50% less in taxes. This is money required to fund those federal jobs. As this is the case, I'm sorry but I don't see this problem going away any time soon.
 

jtr1962

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I am lucky to make $40 per week and that is all I have to live on.
I can relate to that. I'm self-employed and average ~$100 a week most years but I have had years where I've made less than you.

Money is tight for the entire family and friends aren't doing much better. I think being broke is becoming an epidemic. Most people hiring are only taking on part time workers and full time workers are being dropped down to 28 or 29 hours.

Yep. Part-time work and being broke are becoming the new normal. The only way average people can cope is by living under one roof as an extended family. I think the problem is only going to get worse as more and more job functions become amenable to automation.
 
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I can relate to the extended family - I've got my wife and 3 kids, plus my parents in-laws, sister in law, and her two kids living with us. I was the only one with full-time employment, so they could not afford to live on their own. I've worked for private industry (logging company), state govt, and the federal govt. When you work in natural resources, a lot of the jobs are in one form of gov't or another. On the ground, the jobs are about the same, really, its just the large-scale politics that differ. As we say to each other, it's just a different load of BS depending on who you work for...

As far as the mechanics of the furlough, we did not get official notice until Oct 1, but we were all watching the news and were kind of expecting it. We will not be paid unless congress passes an act that provides for it, which I am not expecting! Everyone in my unit is on partial soft-money because as Fenix said, there is less money for domestic programs as 87% of taxes goes toward wars, social programs and pensions. That means that we need to bring in outside money from people willing to pay us to get jobs done for them in order to cover part of our salaries and all of our operating costs. Those deadlines will not change, so we'll have to work double to cover the shortfall when we return. We're exempt from overtime, so we'll just have to do the work for the same salary. I'm not complaining about the pay - I know I have a good job in general and scrambling for soft money is part of the new normal as well. Most of us would work for free through the furlough just to keep up with our projects, but we are forbidden to volunteer during this time. The locks have actually been changed on the building!

Well, I'm off to put more stuff on craigslist and work with my FIL in the workshed. We machine plastic parts at home for more income, and now it is our only income!

Cheers, Dan
 

cland72

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schizeckinosy, what do you do? you don't have to be specific, but just in general, i am curious.
 

Jakeyb

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I can relate to the extended family - I've got my wife and 3 kids, plus my parents in-laws, sister in law, and her two kids living with us. I was the only one with full-time employment, so they could not afford to live on their own. I've worked for private industry (logging company), state govt, and the federal govt. When you work in natural resources, a lot of the jobs are in one form of gov't or another. On the ground, the jobs are about the same, really, its just the large-scale politics that differ. As we say to each other, it's just a different load of BS depending on who you work for...

As far as the mechanics of the furlough, we did not get official notice until Oct 1, but we were all watching the news and were kind of expecting it. We will not be paid unless congress passes an act that provides for it, which I am not expecting! Everyone in my unit is on partial soft-money because as Fenix said, there is less money for domestic programs as 87% of taxes goes toward wars, social programs and pensions. That means that we need to bring in outside money from people willing to pay us to get jobs done for them in order to cover part of our salaries and all of our operating costs. Those deadlines will not change, so we'll have to work double to cover the shortfall when we return. We're exempt from overtime, so we'll just have to do the work for the same salary. I'm not complaining about the pay - I know I have a good job in general and scrambling for soft money is part of the new normal as well. Most of us would work for free through the furlough just to keep up with our projects, but we are forbidden to volunteer during this time. The locks have actually been changed on the building!

Well, I'm off to put more stuff on craigslist and work with my FIL in the workshed. We machine plastic parts at home for more income, and now it is our only income!

Cheers, Dan
Not allowed in the building? Locks changed? That's drastic. I could work and hope to get paid but my guys aren't allowed to work at all and it's just not right to work without them. If there off then I'm off.
 
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schizeckinosy, what do you do? you don't have to be specific, but just in general, i am curious.



I have worked in various fields of natural resources, currently seagrass research and restoration. Right now we have projects in the Indian River, in Guantanamo Bay, and in the northern Gulf related to energy shipping. The Indian River has been having a dinoflagellate bloom, and folks are losing millions from lost revenue (fishing, tourism, etc.). You can argue whether this work is essential or not, but until the seagrass comes back, the people in the area will suffer. I can't really talk about GTMO because of security, but even though it is on a military base, that work is shut down too. We are kind of becoming the specialists in poor-visibility benthic research, because we are developing some cool low-light video and sampling capability (kind of relates to flashlights!)
 
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there are people with college degrees flipping burgers to make ends meet.

One rule I've always lived by is if you want a job, you need to be willing to move anywhere. I've moved each time I needed a job after a nationwide search to get one. It sucks for the family, and we are really burnt out on moving, but i figure you do what you have to. I live in a college town, and the graduates who are not willing to move away are flipping plenty of burgers here too. A college degree is worth very little when the university is cranking out 10,000 a year!
 

ElectronGuru

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The Indian River has been having a dinoflagellate bloom, and folks are losing millions from lost revenue (fishing, tourism, etc.). You can argue whether this work is essential or not, but until the seagrass comes back, the people in the area will suffer.

I've been hearing more about dead zones the last few years. Sounds like the causes fall into overabundance like nitrogen (farm runoff) and under abundance (like overfishing). Regardless, those are not two industries we want battling each other.

It doesn't sound like you'll be jumping careers unless this really goes on, so good luck with the strike and the research when you get back to it.
 
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I've been hearing more about dead zones the last few years. Sounds like the causes fall into overabundance like nitrogen (farm runoff) and under abundance (like overfishing). Regardless, those are not two industries we want battling each other.

It doesn't sound like you'll be jumping careers unless this really goes on, so good luck with the strike and the research when you get back to it.

The dead zones, like at the mouth of the Mississippi, are caused by nutrient runoff, as you mentioned. Algae use up all the nutrients and all the oxygen as well! In this it is analogous to the current blooms that are occurring in the Indian River and elsewhere, with the added problem that the little critters also block the light that the seagrasses use, so we have dead fish from the oxygen depletion and dead seagrass from the light starvation. Its a pretty messy situation for sure...

Cheers, Dan
 

Hooked on Fenix

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Looks like the government furlough of workers will end soon. For those with government jobs, congratulations. Sounds like you have 3 more months of guaranteed job security before a possible repeat of this again. If I were in your position, I'd start saving for a rainy day, buying extra food to get through times without pay (Thanksgiving often provides store deals on food), make plans to stay with relatives in the event I can't pay the mortgage, and look for a second job. Good luck.
 

dml24

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I was furloughed during this past summers sequester. The so called fiscal cliff shutdown did not include me!

I agree the furlough was tough on families and single parent homes.
 

StarHalo

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I heard that during the government shutdown the entire Smithsonian Institute was shut down, except for the paleontology department, which had a skeleton crew..
 
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