Sequestration/Furlough

[MetroMan]

Anybody else taking a hit? Today is my first day of furlough. I have 11 days of furlough between now and the end of september. I am literally losing hundreds of dollars each of these days. If there's any silver linings, they are:

-more opportunities to fish
-more opportunities to do family stuff during the summer
-I have a wife who makes decent income
-I have a part time job that has given me the green light to come in at will to do odds & ends to earn extra cash if I want
-its only 11 days when they told us to plan for up to 22 days of furlough

Its gonna suck when that first decreased paycheck hit though!

[J.A. Veil]

MetroMan -

You are still a young man. At some point you will reach a point in life where having the extra time to go fishing more often and doing other recreational (i.e., mental health improvement) activities outweighs the advantage of having more income. Fortunately, I have reached that place already.

Nobody is excited about furlough days. But you are wise to see the silver linings. I hope you enjoy the extra days off.

[tufnik]

+1 On John's comment. I'm old enough too to realize I rather have more time than more income. I don't mind cutting back a few hours a week, but most jobs want full time workers.

The government apparently is also holding back on awarding contracts. Many of my friends have reached the end of their contracts and are being laid off. It seems they as contractors are much harder pressed to find jobs now. Seems like companies are struggling a bit just to retain their employed workforce let alone hire new workers. Who knows how long the impact of sequestration will last.

Yeah, take advantage of the time. Go fish

[Memory Maker]

I was hoping for the furlough but so far Social Security is exempt. Mgmt here saw it coming and took steps to curb ALL spending a couple of years ago. Just about all travel and overtime was eliminated and many purchases that are necessary to keep the place running were either eliminated or postponed so we are doing a WHOLE lot more with less. I was one of the few that was allowed travel and overtime back then because of my project but that ended and now if it can't be done via Videoconference or local personnel then it doesn't get done. They also did not replace a bunch of people that retired to the point where entire sections and even branches have been eliminated so we have absorbed and split their functions.

I was REALLY hoping for the additional time off instead of the pay because I'm single and set. I realize that it has to REALLY hurt with the younger guys with families to feed ....... wish I could trade places with ya.

[archeryrob]

Not to dismish what your saying, but it could be worse. Working in the private sector they just have been laying off some of us and beating the remaining works harder. No time off either. No lay offs for me, just all stick!

[echo5oscar]

Like rob said, it could be worse. You could be at work, wishin you were fishin!

[MetroMan]

Headed to PLO now!!

[echo5oscar]

That's the spirit! Tear'em up.

[Yak Fish]

I have not been directly affected by a furlough, but the word has been thrown around. I'm a mechanical engineer that designs radar systems, so we're affected by gov't contracts. Just this month, funding for a rather large project I was working was cut and I switched to a new project as a result. So the writing is on the walls if this persists. Sorry metro, go get some stripers.

[MetroMan]

And just like THAT, no more furloughs for me. They cancelled all our furloughs because of the impact on the flying public. I was JUST looking at my calendar to see where I was going to fish on May 10th lol.

[Runnin]

Yeah, In the private sector we had layoffs of a third of our workforce, and the rest of us took pay cuts for 2 years. Thus we had to work all the hours for less money. Thank goodness things are slowly improving.

[perchy]

MetroMan -

You are still a young man. At some point you will reach a point in life where having the extra time to go fishing more often and doing other recreational (i.e., mental health improvement) activities outweighs the advantage of having more income. Fortunately, I have reached that place already.

Nobody is excited about furlough days. But you are wise to see the silver linings. I hope you enjoy the extra days off.

Great point. I'm saving this forever

[jsnyd86]

My furlough days are Thursday. One day a week starting the 8th of July I have 11 extra days to fish, take an extra duty for my VFD, plan a day with my daughter or just sit around scratching my ass. I'm loosing a good chunk of money and bills will barely be paid on time, but I could use a few days off and getting extra time to do things that make me happy softens the blow.

[charlieru]

Another furlough victim here. One of my resolutions is to spend as much time as possible with my honey who is a teacher and is on vacation for the entire summer. The other one is to go fishing every furlough Monday if possible, so far I am 1 out of two. Can't let the one situation ruin many days of good fishing.

[ronaultmtd]

Nothing good comes from fuloughing essential personnel- the federal government provide "Essential Goods and Services" to the citizens of the United States- operative word here is "Essential." The Tea Party Congress needs a pink slip and a pay cut for not doing their jobs. Our national security is being systematically weakened, Air Force combat pilots cannot fly training missions due to the sequestration, our carriers and submarines are having delayed repairs and missing deployments, leaving our combat troops in Afganastain and Iraq without air support and needed supplies...our strategic defense forces are losing critical skills due to first responders being furloughed and drills and training class cancelled due to a lack of fire fighters on the job, and the list of important national defense needs not being met goes on and on and on...not to mention, Head Start school programs cuts, FAA cuts, every federal agency cut...these Tea Party folks are killing America-