Well, it’s happening again! Yaaaaaaaay! (Or, well, NOT.)
I’m heading in to work this morning for an hour or two to conduct an “orderly shutdown” — which basically means being told I’m on-call only in the event of an ISS emergency (which I already know), and leaving out-of-office messages on my email and voicemail.
I’m not going to even bother with calling it #trumpshutdown or #schumershutdown because honestly, when this crap happens I feel like every single one of them should share the blame. This is no way to run a government.
Last I heard, the Senate was planning to vote at 11:00 Houston time today, so with any luck this furlough will be short-lived.
We’ll see…
I don’t understand how having a day off work is a negative thing for you. You’ll get paid at the end of the day, no doubt, and you can quilt all day after you do your orderly shutdown thing. I mean, it’s obviously not ideal for the country as a whole, but for you personally, it seems like a pretty good deal.
So, there are really arguments on both sides. You are definitely right — having a day off is not a bad thing, and I admittedly wouldn’t mind if it turned into a week. (Although it looks like we will be back at work tomorrow given the Senate has apparently reached a deal.) I’m enjoying today, and after going in this morning I went out to lunch with several people and had a nice time.
But the situation is also very frustrating. It’s stressful to have the “will they, won’t they” hanging over your head when it directly affects your job and income, especially since both of our incomes come from the same place. We don’t live paycheck to paycheck, so a few days or even a few weeks of missed pay wouldn’t ruin us, but lost pay is still lost pay. And while yes, historically back pay has been given, with this administration I feel like nothing is guaranteed.
So at the moment, it’s looking like a pretty good deal — we get today, maybe tomorrow off and then head back, and even if we don’t get back pay it’s only a couple days. But the uncertainty all along the way just adds stress that I’d rather do without!