Posted on 07/13/2013 4:41:58 AM PDT by markomalley
About 650,000 Defense Department civilians began doing their part this week to save the department nearly $2 billion — by not coming to work. They’re not exactly enthusiastic about pitching in.
But they found things to do. Some strategized ways to cut their own budgets, while others took the opportunity to formally protest their furloughs. According to the Merit System Protection Board, which adjudicates disputed personnel actions by the federal government, nearly 900 federal employees, including DOD workers, had filed appeals as of early Thursday.
Others worked out some of the frustration through exercise.
“On a normal day, I’d be working on combating terrorism in South Asia,” said Christine Smith, a civilian employee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who was furloughed Monday. “Today, I’m going for a run.”
Smith was one of dozens of Pentagon workers who met Monday afternoon for a 5-mile “fun run” from the building’s north parking lot to the U.S. Capitol. But organizers unceremoniously cut it a mile short to symbolize the 20 percent pay cut imposed by the one-day-per-week furlough, which could run through September.
“That’s a mortgage payment each month that’s being lost — it’s very significant for my budget,” she said. Before jogging away, she added that she planned to make up some of her personal deficit through a renewed devotion to her hobby: extreme couponing.
Congress wouldn’t win any popularity contests among the furloughed.
“I hear many people complaining about the pay reduction, the decrease in leave earned and the retirement effects,” said Chett Forbus, a Navy veteran who is now a DOD civilian in Maine. “Those are the cold, hard effects of the bigger problem: elected officials.”
Forbus said he and his family now must “carry the burden of the inaction” by Congress and the president. Luckily, he said, he saw it coming and he and his family have been cutting expenses for the past year.
“We have saved everything that we could, canceled vacations, cut services, combined services, changed the way we grocery shop, basically just pinched the penny wherever we could,” he said. “We will survive because of proper planning. The overwhelming, scary part of this is the same elected officials have done nothing to prevent this from happening again.”
DOD civilians overseas are feeling the same pinch — trying to make the best of their involuntary free time, and worried about where it’s all headed.
The first of 11 furlough days were to begin Friday for colleagues Nancy Hines, Dee Trigilio and Gemmel Bagley, U.S. government civilians employed by the 86th Force Support Squadron on Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
The trio said they are taking the weekly mandatory pause from work and 20 percent pay cut in stride, and plan to tackle unfinished projects at home or to spend time with their children.
Hines, 54, plans to do yard work and car repairs, while Trigilio will transfer family photos to CDs and Bagley will stay at home with her children, ages 9 and 12.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Hines said. “I’m normally one who doesn’t take leave. Now there’s time to do your own ‘honey-do’ list, take advantage of day trips.”
They’ve found ways to tighten their budgets and have put off big purchases and family vacations. If it is necessary and strengthens the country, they can take it, each said.
“We’re doing our part to help,” said Trigilio, 44.
But it’s easy to be optimistic now, before some of the unknowns have become reality, the women said. They worry about how much extra work will pile up in their absence, about squeezing 40 hours of work into 32-hour weeks, and about actually making do with less income when the smaller paychecks start rolling in and medical premiums don’t budge.
They haven’t had a pay increase since 2010, and performance appraisal incentives for this year are likely on hold. Bagley, 42, is hopeful the furlough is a stopgap measure and won’t be repeated.
“To punish us again for next fiscal year would be the ultimate wrong,” she said.
Hines doesn’t see how it won’t happen again. “The budget is supposed to be less, that’s the rumor,” she said.
Hines said she’s worried about broader effects of furloughs. “What kind of signal are we sending to our adversaries when we’re having to furlough our civilians, when we’re not doing training or TDYs?”
For some DOD civilians, the furloughs are causing them to question the assumptions they’ve built their lives on.
When Rik Thibodeau, a Vicenza, Italy-based Army civilian, learned earlier this year he’d soon be losing workdays, he called a family meeting.
“I took my wife and my older kid aside. I sat everyone down and we had a talk,” said Thibodeau. “We basically talked about cutting back anywhere we could, even keeping the lights off when we’re not in a room.”
Thibodeau originally was attracted by the stability of government work, but said he is pondering whether he’d be better off in the private sector.
In addition to furlough cuts, he’s one of 600 overseas employees who face the loss of housing allowances because of an error by human resources officials that has indebted those workers for past payments received.
“The government has taken so much from me. When we get back to the States, I’m thinking about looking into another career field,” said Thibodeau, an operations planner for U.S. Army Africa. “Maybe I’ll go back to school and get my masters in something.”
Claim to be a pig farmer and that you were discriminated against by the federal government. That’s worth $50,000. Claim to be a homosexual and receive an ambassador posting. Look at how Obama has been fighting for the DOD employees......hahahahahahahahahahahaha! No....seriously......he really cares about them.......hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Then neither should the "Commander-in-Chief", whose idea the sequester was. Not like that would ever be reported, or anything.
Would it make a difference if the retiree was working in industry? If so, why??
A person's wages are his wages. An agreement is an agreement.
Would it be ethical for a private-sector employer to see that a person is a retired E-6 drawing $1,000 a month pension and tell that retiree that his salary will be $1,000 a month less because he is a retiree and makes that as a pension...so why should the company pay him?
Would it be ethical for a company to tell an 62 year old employee who has paid into a 401(k) for 25 years that they are taking back the "company match" funds because, well, the company was mis-managed and they need the money -- so screw you?
I can't speak for officers, but as a retired Senior NCO, I made decisions in my life a long time ago based upon the fact that if I was patient and stayed in, I would have a nice reward at the end. I put up with a ton of crap, dealt with my share of total idiots, and did so while drawing wages that were about half to 2/3 of what I would earn as a private sector person...and, why? Because I had an agreement with my country...do my bit now and reap the rewards later on.
IF they get rid of all the support for people who have never done a day's worth of constructive work in their lives…IF they get rid of ALL the waste and actually manage money and people effectively…IF they get rid of ALL the departments and programs that are in violation of Article 1 Section 8...THEN AND ONLY THEN will I be more than willing to sacrifice what I earned for the good of the country.
Until then...you owe me.
And if that makes me …part of the machine that is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?, tough shit.
The critical number is 22 days, but I don’t know if that is within a 12 month period, calendar year, or fiscal year. More than 22 and a RIF is mandatory.
it’s all about you, huh leatherneck? I have paid you plenty and if you continue to kill the goose laying the golden eggs I oppose you
what a stupid speel. Because you put up with idiots for 20 years we owe you? the whole world puts up with idiots every minute of every day and it doesn’t mean anybody owes you squat
childish lunacy
I am not a sir, and if you have government retirement, one government for being military, I do not mind that. As I said, if you knew how livid it makes the rest of us to have people double and triple dipping you would get it.
Talked to the coach of my 8 year old son - he's FBI and his wife is an armed IRS agent. WTF do IRS agents need to be armed for? He was whining about her being furloughed one day a week. Get over it.
Saw 15 Amtrak workers watching ONE guy cut a railroad tie one day. Fire them all!
I am sick to death of these petty, spoiled, whining brats complain about a day off without pay. Every day I go to bed wondering if my company, due to the taxes that these people confiscate, the regulations they impose and enforce, the bloat they suck out of the economy and the general overall incompetence they engender in their "jobs".
They can all go to hell. State employees, Federal employees are nothing but a bunch of damn leeches. I don't care if they perform a "needed service". Even the newest private company could do it better cheaper.
God, I am so tired of waiting for the next shoe, on this millipede of federal government, to drop down on my life and the lives of my sons. I have ZERO sympathy for these teat sucking pods.
If anyone bothers to try to argue against my rant - forget it.
and yes, it would make a difference if the individual was working in industry because industry has to support itself and does not suck off the taxpayeers
I am in complete and total agreement with you
And if that makes me …part of the machine that is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?, tough shit.
Fine, have that attitude.
We could reach a point where it could come down to a choice between starvation or shooting.
I said I'm willing for my employer to renege on his agreement with me.
Provided EVERYTHING else has been done first.
Have they done everything else first?
No?
Then get back with me once they have.
Got it.
So then you'll be perfectly cool when Obama Obama confiscates your 401k...got it.
Left wing piece of trash. You have no problems with paying bums and illegal aliens as long as you can violate contracts at will.
Typical Obamabot.
And, I, with you. Even on FR the the mighty mouth parts of the government leech are hard to excise.
marko
you are calling me an obamabot because I am pixed off about government waste?
Just want to be clear here
Provided EVERYTHING else has been done first.
Have they done everything else first?
No?
Then get back with me once they have.
Nobody is going to care about your technicalities when they are trying to free themselves from oppression.
You have chosen sides.
You sound like some kind of Redcoat in 1776 who says to a colonial:
"I will go home as soon as King George releases me from service and pays me off. Until then I have the right to quarter in your home and appropriate your livestock for my sustenance."
If I have to support a side that believes in violating contracts, then I have no use for that side.
Sounds like to me, I’ll just sit this one out.
No.
Not hardly.
I am calling you an obamabot because you want to violate contracts, while not dealing with the problem.
You get rid of government waste by:
There is a ton that could be done to shrink the federal government by about 75% -- and I'm not exaggerating with that percentage.
But breaking a contract with somebody else who has already fulfilled his portion of the agreement is not one of those ways. That is just dishonorable.
Only a socialist would support that kind of dishonor.
You are horrified at the prospect of Obama confiscating your 401k or IRA...and promising to give you a federally-funded pension in its place, right?
If not, you should be.
Another example is if you agree to provide 100 widgets to the government for $100,000. You deliver the widgets. The government says, "well, we changed our minds. We are only going to pay you $25,000." And your costs in building the widgets...which you've already built...were $50,000. Again, you'd be horrified, right?
There is ZERO moral difference between that and telling somebody that they served 20 years but don't need their pension.
I have had prospective employers try to offer me below market rate for my services...using the fact that I draw a military pension as part of the justification for the lowball offer. I have told them where they could shove their lowball offer. (I remember one who corrected the offer and I still told them to screw themselves, as I wouldn't work for an outfit that had such ethics)
But if I have earned an E-7 retirement and my employer happens to be the US government, there should be no difference than if my employer was Domino's Pizza...if I have a position, I should get paid what that position is worth. If I'm not working to the requirements of that position, well, then fire me for non-performance. But don't try saying "you don't need the money because you are already drawing a military retirement".
Otherwise, it sounds like you're saying, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." And we all know who said that.
If I mischaracterized what you were trying to say, I apologize.
Shoot me in the back?
Sounds about as honorable as somebody who would violate contracts as a part of national policy.
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