When a ‘company’ can take an 800,000 cut in the workforce and still carry out basic functions, that tells me there are 800,000too many people working for it.
Radical idea, I know....
My first assignment was to Fort Knox. I had pay problems, so I went to the finance office. It was 90% civilian. We turned in a tank for a scheduled rebuild. It went to The Boatwright Maintenance Facility. It was 95% civilian. I realized that 90+% of the “good” permanent jobs at Fort Knox were held by civilians. I started to look into it. They weren’t paid less than the Soldiers. They weren’t doing jobs that were beyond the Soldier’s capabilities. But, they lived there. The Soldiers would move every couple of years. The civilian workers had bought homes and were staying there. They were residents. They voted for the local politicians. I finally realized that the “good” jobs were taken by civilian government employees as a reward. Vote Democrat, and be rewarded.
They aren’t furloughing them permanently. What they intend to do is rotate personnel through 1 furlough day per pay period. Now one would think that if they actually let some people go they would be able to get the same amount done without having to pay for benefits for as many people.
No one is saying we should cut 800,000 civilians from DOD nor is it possible to cut 800,000 civilians from DOD and defend this country. That would be a 100% cut in civilians in the DOD.
When you lay off your software engineers and subject matter experts, the pain appears later. The money is back, but all the skilled labor is gone forever. The capability dies. That’s not good when you kill the weapons support systems. There is no reason to show loyalty to an employer who throws you on the street.