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.”
The social security/medicare recipients use the same argument.
Those agreements WILL be broken because it is mathematically impossible to pay for all the unfunded obligations.
The concept of bankruptcy was developed to deal with debts that can't be repaid.
A creditor can go on forever about what he thinks morals are and how he is "owed" a debt that can't possibly be repaid.
You forged a contract with a government that lied about its ability to pay.
Most people are going to get hosed in some form, and those who demand to be made 100% whole are going to have to use force when the mathematics break the legal structures down.
It was a picture, read whatever you want into it.
We should be upset about the billions and billions of $$$ that are handed out to the non productive slugs that never got an education and never work. That is the real problem. I am a 30 year retired military with a pension and social security that I paid into for 50 years. So, everybody relax and think about the real issue. The worthless dead beats that do nothing and expect a pay check.
Have a great day and thank you all for your service or whatever work you performed in life.
How does 11 days off equate to 20 % of their income. Maybe they only work 55 days a year. They must be using that new Nancypelosi math.
here’s the difference, marko, Domino’s has to run at a profit, government doesn’t. So why don’t you quit being a government hack and get a real job
Actually, I have one. I work as an operations manager in a private IT company. And I have to make P&L targets every quarter.
This isn't about being a government hack or not. This has to do with honor.
Sorry you don't see that.
Yes those ‘spending sprees’ are true, and not applaudable. Unfortunately they will continue with the furloughs because the Military is NOT being allowed to move funds from those areas into the civilian pay accounts. Thus still wasted funds, while DoD civilian’s are furloughed. And the president is the one who is preventing that shifting, as well as being the one who first brought up the idea of using Sequestration.
11 days off between now and the end of September = 20% of their income between now and the end of September.
Well Said. Folks always think of double dippers as being high ranking officers, not former enlisted like you and me.
Good. Glad you do.
And in a way, it has to do with honor, you are talking about past contracts, but it more has to do with the rule of law. The government should keep its past contracts, if it can, which it can’t.
And run like a business except for wartime.
The government needs to quit its empire building and get the hell out of business’ way
It works out to 20% of pay for the next 5 pay periods of 2 weeks each. Counting this week’s 1 furlough day, that is a 20% pay cut for the next 3 months, though the end of September.
And it looks like there will be 22 furlough days in FY 14. Hopefully the DoD will not delay them and begin them early so that there is only 1 furlough day per pay period for 22 out of 26 pay periods in the fiscal year.
or better yet get a budget compromise. And in my case we have just picked up a major new mission, because the organization who has supposed to be doing in for the last 10 years hasn’t! http://www.propublica.org/article/army-says-war-records-gap-is-real-launches-recovery-effort
I know a lot of DOD employees who are considering just that (even though unemployment really stinks right now). Most of the ones considering that are younger, though.
The trouble is that when you've invested a good chunk of your life, it's a lot harder than it sounds.
Do you remember back when companies actually gave pensions to their employees? My father (now RIP) was in a similar situation. As he started approaching retirement (and pension) age, the company he worked for (as a non-union engineer) started treating him like crap. The closer he got, the worse off it was. It was like they were intentionally trying to piss him off that he would quit on the spot (and forfeit his pension).
If you are in your late 40s and up...and have worked for the same company (or gov't agency) since graduating from college, the prospects of going out and finding another job are sort of daunting.
Some are going to end up finding out just how daunting the process is once they start getting RIFd (reduction in force).
Sadly, most of them are going to end up being "low information voters" about it and blame everybody except Obama and the Dhims.
And people who say "screw them, they're nothing but a bunch of damned leaches" around here are just going to reinforce that thought.
Having been in the Military since 1986, it seems to me that the Government has the power to change employment parameters at will. If not, could you please explain to me the term “at the convenience of the government?” That was the operative phrase that was used when I was involuntarily extended in a critical career field twice—once after having attending my separation briefing!
No one owes you or me anything beyond what was explicitly written in your original contract and even that is subject to Government whims. If you have been furloughed, you are not a contract employee. And even if you were, that would not guarantee full employment. As a DoD contractor, I do not have any guarantee of continued employment.
Civil Service is, in no sense, contract employment; it is an at-will agreement. Because you hired on with the most paternalistic, nepotistic system in history, you should not be surprised when daddy changes his mind.
No one is suggesting that military retirement is the issue. Double-dipping has been almost eliminated in the true sense. Most civil service employees are decent folks, but the system is devoid of any relationship to reality.
Despite this, if you implemented your program, you would be “violating the contract” (in your vernacular) with all the affected workers. I agree with your reforms, but would suggest that the first reform be to outlaw public sector unions completely. That would eliminate the largest barrier to reform.
Finally, the sense of entitlement that is so apparent in many responses is no more becoming in a civil servant than a welfare recipient.
My family member and his fellow workers plan to head to the shooting range on Furlough Fridays....excellent!
I understand what you are saying, but the government has usurped so much power/authority/responsibility that is not given it by the Constitution that it has made itself unsustainable.
I hear on repeated basis..."let's get rid of those military retirements...they're double dipping...they're nothing better than welfare leaches." And I resent the hell out of that...particularly when people look to that as the FIRST possible solution rather than the last one.
You talk about the rule of law (legal justice), but there's a more fundamental principle involved: it's called "commutative justice." It is the foundational form of justice that exists between people. Society can not exist without it: in short, it means "your word is your bond."
In the case of people who have retired, particularly (but not exclusively) those who have retired from the military, they've already completed their portion of the "commutation" (exchange). And, unless somebody invents a time machine, that can't be undone.
The bottom line is that if, after shrinking the government to the size delegated by Article 1 Section 8 (as amended), if, after getting it to "run like a business" (as you said), the government is still unable to meet its obligations, then fine. So be it. But asking a military retiree to let the federal government out of its obligation while that government is doing what it's doing now? You've got to be kidding me. Retirements should be the last thing placed on the table, not the first.
Stop-loss was the reason I retired in 2002 rather than 2001.
As for the government being able to change employment parameters at will...well, it's not quite as simple for retirees. Per 10 USC §8914, I am lawfully retired and per 10 USC §8991, I am to receive the pension that I get (NB: I'd call it "retired pay", but it is accounted for on a 1099-R, regardless of the terminology). Now, yes, they could in theory change that law. And that's where I get into my rant about "commutative justice." I fulfilled my part of the bargain. If Congress changes the law, they have acted fundamentally unjustly and that bodes very poorly for what is left of this country.
I agree with your reforms, but would suggest that the first reform be to outlaw public sector unions completely.
Sadly, the first amendment has been interpreted as to protect the rights of employees to organize. Are there fundamental changes that need to be made? Oh yeah...but even if you got rid of AFGE (and other unions), you'd still have to deal with their replacements...and that is not a trivial task.
Finally, the sense of entitlement that is so apparent in many responses is no more becoming in a civil servant than a welfare recipient.
My only issue is that if you have a position that pays $75k a year, it should pay $75k a year...not $75k a year...unless a person is a military retiree, in which case it pays $60k a year. That is wrong.
If the position is unnecessary, get rid of it. If the person filling the slot is not doing his job, get rid of him. But the position should pay what it pays. Period.
US Army is planning to offer early out this coming Fall/Winter. They are also in the midst of planning for a RIF if not enough people take the early out. That may occur in 2014.
So this is all it is - - extra vacation days?? I thought the sequestration cuts would lead to full, outright firings of hundreds of thousands of people. You mean, nobody is losing their jobs, the way those of us in the private sector who have to deal with economic reality lose our jobs?
“I am trying to upgrade the education of my kids and really don’t give a rat’s axe about the government wasting 30M on some “mandated” computer upgrade.”
Why don’t you tell that to the vets who rely on the system to get critical care?
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