Uh. Sequester, uh polar vortex, uh Bush’s fault, uh republicans....
Sequestration ate my lunch last year. My customer had no money to pay for my services from May through September. I survived by burning off 500 hours of vacation accrued over the last 20 years. The customer came back with some money that has kept a skeleton crew running since Oct 2013, but that won't last as full time work through Sept 2014. Sequestration looms again in 2015 and the new contract structure uses IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) where "winning" a contract simply meets you have less competition as you bid over and over for crumbs to be paid from your "winning" contract. The IDIQ process is subject to delays in funding that have my co-workers leaving at a pretty consistent rate.
The DoD contracting business is simply getting too unstable as a career. I need to move to something with more reliable funding strategies. The old phrase, "money talks, bullshit walks" applies. The DoD customers want services from people with very specialized skill sets, but treat them like crap by repeated lapses in funding. I can't backstop that bad behavior again. My vacation cushion was expended last year.