Meeting today about Fed Employees Furlough (1 Viewer)

Yup - someone like myself... I feel comfortable working for the gov't. The insurance is ok, but being in the guard I could get better insurance working elsewhere (I could then qualify for tricare reserve - that and many industries now offer better insurance than the typical gov't employee has access to). I currently make $26/hr as a supervisor - Doing the work I do for an outside company (in a non-supervisory role) I could make between 30-33 and hour and have the ability to work overtime. We have a PhD mechanical engineer who runs our energy program... really intelligent guy, but he could go make a ton more for other companies - just not here and he likes being home. I've felt reasonably safe in my position and used that feeling to justify staying put and not going off to try to earn more money. Lose that and there's no reason that makes sense to stay.
 
Yup - someone like myself... I feel comfortable working for the gov't. The insurance is ok, but being in the guard I could get better insurance working elsewhere (I could then qualify for tricare reserve - that and many industries now offer better insurance than the typical gov't employee has access to). I currently make $26/hr as a supervisor - Doing the work I do for an outside company (in a non-supervisory role) I could make between 30-33 and hour and have the ability to work overtime. We have a PhD mechanical engineer who runs our energy program... really intelligent guy, but he could go make a ton more for other companies - just not here and he likes being home. I've felt reasonably safe in my position and used that feeling to justify staying put and not going off to try to earn more money. Lose that and there's no reason that makes sense to stay.

Right everyone talks about the benefits of a government job well here is the truth. They do not have the retirement program that they had years ago where you get paid a percentage of your final salary for life. There are a few still working on this program but most are simply in a good 401k program. Not complaining but it is just a 401k that i can get anywhere. Also the insurance is only ok. I had better insurance when I was a contractor. When I switched to federal my premiums went up and my coverage went down.

So the best perks of this job are the stability/security, and for me I see potential to move up over the next 20 years. You take away the stability and security part and you basically open the potential to lose any employees that have been working for the government for less than 10 years. It becomes harder and harder to justify not looking for a better job and for the longest time no one would even think of doing that. You lose the people who can get a better job and then you are simply left with the group that is waiting around for retirement and the people who do not have the ability to do better. Maybe a few that stay put because they grew up in that area but that's about it and no garantee to keep those people.
 
Welcome to 4 years ago, several private companies have already gone through the forced paid time off, and forced unpaid time off cycles in a effort to shave a little extra off production and SG&A costs.
 
Welcome to 4 years ago, several private companies have already gone through the forced paid time off, and forced unpaid time off cycles in a effort to shave a little extra off production and SG&A costs.

I’ve typed several responses to this, and deleted them all. I think the only thing I can ask at this point is why must there be an “ us versus them” mentality with every issue that arises anymore?
 
as a current private industry employee and a former state worker, i feel for the federal employees going through this. ultimately it is just a crappy situation to be in.
 
The people (and the only ones) who should be furloughed a day a week (MAYBE MORE)without pay are the Congressmen themselves. IMHO, the only way they might actually try to do something about it is if they actually feel the pain personally.
 
Oh and not to mention the cost of the lost work hours going on right now as hundreds of thousands of these employees spend a few hours a day during work either planning for how to run the shop, discussing the impact and what led to this, or sitting through breifings given by folks trying to bring up the morale of the work force. It's near an all time low - and I'm already finding it difficult to get a decent amount of production out of my employees and myself.
 
Agencies Are Supposed to Avoid Furloughs

By Tom Shoop 3:34 PM ET0 CommentsPrint this article
With sequestration of agency budgets just days away, much of the talk lately has been about furloughs. The Pentagon has warned that more than 700,000 civilian employees could be subject to furloughs lasting up to 22 days. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has talked of furloughs of up to 14 days. Many other agencies have issued similar warnings.

Agencies Are Supposed to Avoid Furloughs - Fedblog - News - GovExec.com
 

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