Any other families planning for a furlough?

[eyor44]

DH and I both work for the same Govt office and neither of us are essential. We will cut eating out and other extras. Maybe cancel the Christmas Clubs. DS has gotten a job at a Summer Camp for June and July, so that will help on our elec bill and food bill this summer.

For College this Fall he has been offered a intern of sorts where he his room and board will be paid. That will help some for the college expenses. One car is to be paid off next month. So we should be okay as long as we are careful and nothing major happens. I would like to not touch savings.

DH is after me to quit work (I am low paid employee) so this will be a good test for us. The cuts for the two of us together would almost be my salary. DH makes 3 times what I do.

 

[tvguy]

Private sector worker here. We did furloughs in 2009. One day every 2 weeks. I think the thing that most shocked me when I got my first pay check was how little difference there was in my net check. Working 32 hours every 2 weeks put a lot of us in a lower tax bracket on the witholding tables.
Our furloughs were a mess, because they came a few months after they laid off a third of the staff. A lot of folks ended up making more money, because while they could not pay overtime to cover a furloughed worker, and you could not get an extra shift during a week you had a furlough day, you could in the other week. A lot of folks ended up working 6 days one week, and 4 the next. Company dumped furloughs because of this, and went with a 5% across the board pay cut for everyone.

 

[luv2mickey]

I heard on the radio that people got back pay when they were furloughed in 1995... If this is true whats the point of a furlough??

I was wondering the same thing!!!

 

[worm761]

I heard on the radio that people got back pay when they were furloughed in 1995... If this is true whats the point of a furlough??

The point of the furlough is to save money if a budget cannot be reached. They got the back pay because their full salaries were written into the budget therefore they got the pay they were missing.

 

[psimon]

When we were furloughed last time they payed us back because it was their fault that we were furloughed, as opposed to this time when there is no $.

We spent 2 weeks out of work because of a do-nothing congress in 2011.

This will be different.

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[sharon_wv]

I also work for the govt. we only recd an email regarding furloughs with no details except if we get furloughed we would get 30 days notice.

I have heard through the grapevine then some departments have already given their 30 day notice although in my agency I haven't heard that yet.

So are they going to end up kicking the can down the road? I can't imagine there is time to get anything real in place before Friday. I was disgusted when they all took the week off last week with this looming over our heads. I guess it doesn't affect them personally so why would they care?

 

[psimon]

I also work for the govt. we only recd an email regarding furloughs with no details except if we get furloughed we would get 30 days notice.

I have heard through the grapevine then some departments have already given their 30 day notice although in my agency I haven't heard that yet.

So are they going to end up kicking the can down the road? I can't imagine there is time to get anything real in place before Friday. I was disgusted when they all took the week off last week with this looming over our heads. I guess it doesn't affect them personally so why would they care?

Exactly!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

We just got an email from the Secretary of our Dept saying it could be 22 furlough days until the next fiscal year. I'm a civilian employee and my DH is a contractor for the same agency, trying not to get wrapped up in it but we have no idea what to expect when Friday hits. So stressful when they hold furloughs over our head for 2 years in a row, morale is so low and everyone is running scared.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I also work for the govt. we only recd an email regarding furloughs with no details except if we get furloughed we would get 30 days notice.

I have heard through the grapevine then some departments have already given their 30 day notice although in my agency I haven't heard that yet.

So are they going to end up kicking the can down the road? I can't imagine there is time to get anything real in place before Friday. I was disgusted when they all took the week off last week with this looming over our heads. I guess it doesn't affect them personally so why would they care?[/QUOTE]

This is what bothers me the too! They have plenty of money and this will not effect them so they dont care. I wish we could fire them all and replace them with people with common sense who are willing to cut wasteful spending in a better way. Attacking the employees or useing them as a tool to get what they want is so wrong.

I heard on the radio this morning someone saying that the Government bullies us, and the fact that they pull this kind of thing and upset all of the employees with threats of government shut downs and furloughs just proves this to be true to me. Kicking the can further down the road will just do this to all of us again in a few months. We have been living like this for years now.

The stress is making my hair turn gray as I sit here.

 

[worm761]

I wish we could fire them all and replace them with people with common sense who are willing to cut wasteful spending in a better way.

We can. It is called voting them out of office. They are elected to their positions.

 

[psimon]

There is an interesting article in the Washington Post today (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-sequester-nears-federal-workers-who-face-furloughs-express-themselves/2013/02/25/6f5588be-7f77-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html ) about furloughs. What is more interesting are the comments following the article. Such venom at the fed employee is scary.

 

[worm761]

Part of the venom is that people seem to think that government employees are grossly over paid for what they do and that they would make significantly less in the private sector. While that may be true for some, it is not true for most. I know that my DH's job equivalent in the private sector is worth more than double what he is being paid. But we have job security and he loves what he does.

 

[psimon]

..... But we have job security and he loves what he does.

Sadly, job security and pay security aren't synonymous!

 

[tikilyn]

My dh works for Dhs and we're going to get hit big time if this goes into effect. All the Border Patrol agents will be de-certifed for AUO and FLSA. Plus they will have 14 days of furlough unpaid(one day off every two weeks). That will cut their income by approx 40%.

So if this happens we can kiss our December Disney trip good bye, we can kiss our dream home being built goodbye, my kids can kiss all the extras they are use to goodbye, just so we can pay our bills and no we don't have excessive credit card debts or loans. I'm talking about regular monthly bills. I'm already working on a new budget so we can live off of. I do thank god we have a nice sized emergency fund available if we need it.

 

[wvjules]

My dh works for Dhs and we're going to get hit big time if this goes into effect. All the Border Patrol agents will be de-certifed for AUO and FLSA. Plus they will have 14 days of furlough unpaid(one day off every two weeks). That will cut their income by approx 40%.

So if this happens we can kiss our December Disney trip good bye, we can kiss our dream home being built goodbye, my kids can kiss all the extras they are use to goodbye, just so we can pay our bills and no we don't have excessive credit card debts or loans. I'm talking about regular monthly bills. I'm already working on a new budget so we can live off of. I do thank god we have a nice sized emergency fund available if we need it.

I don't understand your math? One day off every two weeks would not be 40% cut in income.

 

[tikilyn]

I don't understand your math? One day off every two weeks would not be 40% cut in income.

Add in losing AUO 25% of pay and FLSA 12% of pay does make it approx 40%. And once the gov de-certifies AUO and FLSA we'll never see that pay again. Once it's gone it's gone.

 

[psimon]

I don't understand your math? One day off every two weeks would not be 40% cut in income.

Agreed....

1 day furlough a week is 20% cut.
1 day furlough a pay period is 10% cut.

How do you get to 40% cut?

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[tikilyn]

Agreed....

1 day furlough a week is 20% cut.
1 day furlough a pay period is 10% cut.

How do you get to 40% cut?

---Paul in Southern NJ

Because we are not only losing one day a pay period. We are also losing AUO and FLSA which is part of his pay too. Thats how we get the 40% loss. AUO is 25% of his base pay and FLSA is 12% of his base pay.

 

[ilovemk76]

I was wondering the same thing!!!

They got paid for work they did not perform.

 

[gwynne]

They got paid for work they did not perform.

Ummm...I guess that might be one point of view.

Maybe another, realistic way to consider this: While all the money shell games in DC are going on, federal employees "real" work doesn't disappear. It just stacks up. When they come back from furlough, they get to work extra, extra hard to complete todays work, do as much of yesterdays (furlough day) work as they can, and prepare for the next day. The work gets done, it's just completed under really unreasonable work conditions.