Furloughs: Fed Employees in the DMV area (2014, hotels)

[mdcrim]

Could someone choose to take their furlough days all at once? Yes, it would absolutely suck to have no paycheck but one could possibly take an extended vacation (if they have the funds).

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by mdcrim

Could someone choose to take their furlough days all at once? Yes, it would absolutely suck to have no paycheck but one could possibly take an extended vacation (if they have the funds).

Has it been defined how long the furloughs are going? It would suck to plan a 3+ week vacation based on 15-20 weeks of no pay, only to find out things are back to normal after 2 or 3 weeks and you only really needed to take 2 or 3 unpaid days.

[Old Tired Man]

I understand that more money is paid to Federal Government Contractors than Federal Employees and there are lot more contractors than Federal Employees but nothing is said about them in the media when talking about the sequester. Why?

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by Old Tired Man

I understand that more money is paid to Federal Government Contractors than Federal Employees and there are lot more contractors than Federal Employees but nothing is said about them in the media when talking about the sequester. Why?

Because they aren't sequestered. The contracts just aren't renewed. They are still employees of the company, so the company either finds new work or lays off people.

My husband's contract suddenly stopped all work 2 weeks ago. (They are still maintaining the systems with minimal employees, but no new development is scheduled). The good news is that all but a handful of the 100 people who suddenly lost their project have been brought on to new projects already, so while they are now commuting to a new client, it's a relatively minimal blip right now.

[DefenderRoute1]

The original plan was to send everybody home for 22 consecutive days. If it happens, it will be one day per week from April thru September.

[mikecart1]

The biggest issue I have with all of this is not the lost money now but how that lost money is forever lost in the compounding equation as an investor. Let's say you are going to lose $5000 from all of this.

If you compound $5000 annually at 5% for 30 years (if you are young like me), then you lose out on $16609.71. This is very conservative in interest rate and I think most of us will lose more than $5000.

This $5000 amount for many is their 'extra' income. It is their 'fun money'. They use it to go out, take trips, and buy luxuries. Without it, life will suck.

People say I'm crazy to look for another job but they are only thinking of the road they see. They don't see the turn ahead.

Not sure about you all, but $16609.71 can buy a lot of things.

Now that money never existed.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by mdcrim

Could someone choose to take their furlough days all at once? Yes, it would absolutely suck to have no paycheck but one could possibly take an extended vacation (if they have the funds).

I know that at least some organizations have specifically said that it must be taken once a week. According to my husband and neighbor the employees must also stagger the days with in an organization - in other words, 20% of the people off Monday, 20% of the people off Tuesday, 20% of the people off Wednesday, and so forth. The idea is that this will allow services to be impacted as little as possible. Although to me some organizations would be better served by closing the operation down once a week, that way saving on utilities and other operating costs. I really think it is going to happen and the law says there will be no going back and making up the pay later. This time, it's going to hurt. Ought to be interesting.

[ChristineVA]

The reason you can't take your days all at once is because it is not certain that 22 days will need to be taken. The furlough is addressed one day at a time. So, if a deal is not reached by a certain time, the first furlough day is April 15th. If a week goes by and still no deal, the second furlough day occurs, and so on. It would be stupid to take 22 days all at once and mark your "leave" as furlough if the sequester happens to end in a month. If you do it one day per week, you only get 4 furlough days. If you take it all at once, you've screwed yourself out of an additional 18 days of pay.

[Cardiff Kook]

what happens if no deal is reached by March 1st? What happens between then and when the furloughs actually are supposed to take place?

[lqda4]

Originally Posted by Oldhag1

I know that at least some organizations have specifically said that it must be taken once a week. According to my husband and neighbor the employees must also stagger the days with in an organization - in other words, 20% of the people off Monday, 20% of the people off Tuesday, 20% of the people off Wednesday, and so forth. The idea is that this will allow services to be impacted as little as possible. Although to me some organizations would be better served by closing the operation down once a week, that way saving on utilities and other operating costs. I really think it is going to happen and the law says there will be no going back and making up the pay later. This time, it's going to hurt. Ought to be interesting.

That does not work either because where I work, we span all continents and communicate with people in all time zones. Some areas are even on different weekend schedule (for example to work with folks/locals in the ME, you essentially have 3 good days a week to work with, now that would be down to 2). There will be drastic impact because I can't reach certain people certain day of the week. Furthermore, not all fed employees are equally "motivated", so absence of some will have be critical, while the presence of others might not make much of a difference, unfortunately.

I really wish they furlough people based on the latest performance appraisal... What a good opportunity to weed out some dead weights. Wishful thinking....