Is That What A Furlough Is?

.....Well, I was officially designated as a 'Non-Essential' today at work. Which means that if / when the Government does go into shutdown, that I'll be furloughed. I'll come in to work on Monday morning and be given an SF-50 with my new pay status and sent home until further notice.

.....It was hard not to take it personally. I've been spending the past couple of weeks working my proverbial hind end off supporting emergent work in the fleet. Lots of frantic phone calls, tough decisions, long meetings. All towards the goal of making sure that submarines stayed on patrol as designed. Then to be told that your job is 'non-essential'. It was tough to maintain any kind of focus Friday afternoon.

.....The FAQ's are interesting to read though:

.....* All leave is cancelled. I had one manager on vacation this week and next. His work was considered as 'essential'. He was called and told that if he could be in to work on Monday morning that he would continue with his work. He isn't going to come back and will not be here Monday. He automatically goes into furlough status.

.....* While in a furlough status, you cannot volunteer to come in and keep up with anything. That was actually one of the things I had considered, really because of how busy things have been lately. If the furlough lasts beyond a couple of days, it's going to be difficult to catch up for a while.

.....* So, even though were on furlough, and not getting paid, we're still considered as employees of the Government, which means that all ethics rules apply if you should want to think about applying for another job while in a furlough status. The ethics rules have some tricky bits to them as there are a large number of companies that do business with the Government for whom a Government employee would not be able to work.

.....* I get to apply for unemployment compensation while on furlough. Lovely! Not!

.....* Thankfully, health insurance is still in affect while in a furlough status, but for some reason our dental, vision, and long term care policies actually 'cease' during a furlough. I'm not sure exactly why that is to be honest, and the FAQ does not go into detail on this one.

.....* All those on TDY who are considered as 'non-essential' must come home immediately. This is going to be interesting! There are a lot of people overseas and in various parts of the country right now. There are going to be a lot of people in the air this weekend and Monday.

.....* There are no guarantees that we will get paid for the time we are in a furlough status. Even retroactively.

.....* But we will get paid for the past two weeks of work. I was kind of worried on this one.

.....It is difficult not to get frustrated, on all levels. There is a lot of work that has to get done. We've been given less and less funding for years now to get the same amount of work done, or more. And at the same time they want fewer people doing even more work. Then people who have no idea of what you do are making decisions that affect you directly. The people in my area were deemed 'essential' or 'non-essential' by people who have no idea of what we do and what we affect.

.....And now I have a headache. Not a good day, and that's following a not-so-good night. Hope the weekend gets to being a little better.

.....Aaron / Arontius.