Any of you .Gov types personally feeling the pinch?

[Totem Polar]

Just saw this on FB, posted by a friend and trainer/mentor who's a no-shit BTDT DoD guy. Anyone else see this in their life yet? unacceptable...

"You can’t make this up. Just notified after two missed checks as a Fed I lose my dental and vision. And after three I lose my retirement and will be billed for the lack of payments owed. If I don’t pay them it will become taxable income. Hahahaha! You couldn’t make this shit more funny if it was a Benny Hill skit..."

Just curious as if to it's really the total goat rope it looks like from the outside.

[blues]

I wrote one of my two senators yesterday evening and told him it's time to un-fuck this situation.

(My retirement, thankfully, is not subject to the vagaries of the shutdown...but I am feeling sympathy pain on behalf of my former federal brethren that are being held hostage by this debacle.)

I don't know, personally, whether the specific items detailed in your quoted material are true or not. If they are, then it is unconscionable to take this clusterfuck further.

[JV_]

No change for me, we're fully funded.

[Drang]

I asked a friend about this situation. Benefits continue, but when the situation is un-fucked they'll owe back pay for the employee portions of fees. This friend is one of the "working for free" Feds (i.e., not furloughed because position is one of the critical ones) so the fees will be taken out of the back pay, as will employee contributions to retirement programs.

[JV_]

but when the situation is un-fucked they'll owe back pay for the employee portions of fees.

I'd bet a lot that they will get back pay, so they won't be out anything in the end.

[Drang]

My friend said that those who work, MUST get paid for it, and that recent history has been that those who did not, were anyway. I can see several arguments in favor of paying everybody, it's not like they created the situation, and it's certainly easier to just go ahead, but I think the question is, will Trump go ahead and take care of the little guy -- anecdotal evidence is that he DOES try and take care of the workers -- or will he see it as an opportunity to cut government costs? If the latter, I expect GOP leadership to try and talk him out of it, or to override the decision in Congress, in hopes of avoiding alienating Federal employees to the point they turn this into a campaign issue in 2020.

And, BTW, I predict that we will see this again for the 2020 and 2021 budgets, especially if Pelosi is still wielding the gavel.

[JV_]

Back-pay is being addressed legislatively, so unless he plans to veto it, they will get paid.

PS> There will be a HUGE exodus of talent if there's no back-pay for a long duration furlough.

[Totem Polar]

Good feedback thus far, thanks.

[JRB]

I'm also in a funded position so I'm not in the mess this time around.

But in times past when we had a shutdown, we were fully back-paid when the .gov finally rebooted. Mildly annoying but no big deal to just put life on a CC and pay it off when we got back paid.

I'm mildly annoyed by all the histrionics about the .gov workers affected by the shutdown. Too many people/articles/media etc are reporting this like it's unprecedented when it's damn sure happened in the recent past over other dumb shit, and I don't know of a single instance when someone working hadn't been back-paid when it started all back up.
I have read and heard that there were times when furloughed employees were only partially back-paid. But I have not personally been affected that way.

But it all leads me to believe that anyone with a gov job that's honestly in a bad spot because of all this has been doing the financial equivalent of driving their car on bald tires without a spare, and only an 1/8th of a tank.

[RevolverRob]

It's pinching others too. Folks on National Science Foundation, National Institute for Health, and even DOE/DOD fellowships are getting squeezed. At this point their fellowships are "on hold". It's unclear if when the furlough ends if they will get the money that was supposed to be paid out - or if they will get extensions on their funding windows - or if they are shit out of luck. Last time, some individuals got extensions but some got screwed. In other words, if your contract stipulates a start and end date with no room for extension and you were furloughed for 4 months, you just never got those four months pay and they didn't extend your contract, to get it to you.

I know a couple of people whose careers are literally hanging in the balance right now. If things don't get unfucked in the next 60-days a number of them will be completely penniless and unable to finish the work they've been doing until their unfrozen and unfucked. Which could be never...

And I feel bad, but I also don't. Unfortunately, when you become dependent on the political system for a paycheck - you are now subject to the whims of the political system. I say this as someone who has a future that is currently hinged on 3-years of salary from the government, but I have the privilege of having a spouse who isn't employed by a political system and the privilege of having greater financial stability than my colleagues. In other words, I feel bad, but sometimes...we have to make smart decisions and not pursue certain types of careers if we cannot afford to.