How has this shutdown affected you and yours?

Not just at the airport, but also potentially in the air as air traffic controllers are working without pay.

I’m a federal contractor, which normally means I’m fucked (furloughed and no back pay), but in this case I’m a DoD contractor so I’ve not been furloughed; I’m at work right now.

My wife works for the Architect of the Capitol and is unaffected.

I got a repeat scam call yesterday. I was unable to report it on donotcall.gov.

I find this post adorably condescending.

Eldest is in limbo while applying for new jobs. His (possible) new employers cannot get certain certificate info from the Feds right now. Everything is on hold until then.

He’s employed so no pay concerns, but it’s inhibiting moving on and up.

Wow. That really sucks.

Yes, yes it does.

"Merry Fucking Christmas! Now your New Year’s Resolution can be ‘Get A Job’ ".

Not a government worker, but I’m planning to fly out of the country in about 30 days - for a trip I cannot skip - so I’m not keen on trusting that the impact on the FAA will continue to not effect the airlines.

If it’s looking hairy in another ~10 days, I’ll start looking into flying out of Canada - assuming you can get through the border.

Because I’m talking specifically about family members here. The ones who are the most fervent Trump supporters are also those who are the greatest users of various government services and/or recipients of various government benefits or payments.

I got a paycheck (DoD is funded through Sep), but my wife didn’t. And she’s been working continuously (minus one furlough day per week). We’re lucky enough to be able to afford it, but plenty of decent folks can’t. Fuck Trump and his enablers (chiefly McConnell).

Not to hijack, but I’m kind of feeling a little guilty that I’m working and getting paid while others are not. I’ve been in their shoes as recently as the last shutdown (and I didn’t get back pay). While we don’t have a ton to spare, we’ve certainly got more than many right now.

Anyone know a website or something I can go and offer help?

Like many of the other “nonessential” federal employees in affected agencies, I’ve been getting stuff done around the house. Wife is not a federal employee, so she continues to bring in money, and so does my side job. Even without those, we have adequate cash reserves to coast through a very lengthy dry spell.

We are fortunate in that regard. The janitorial staff at our facility, most of whom I know well, are contract employees. When the shutdown ends, they will not receive backpay like I will, and their pay is a lot less than mine in the first place, which means they probably don’t have the reserves to coast through a shutdown without considerable stress. I hope they’re doing OK.

OTOH, CNN has been presenting sad-sack cases that aren’t terribly convincing:

-A week into the shutdown, one federal employee was complaining about how she and her husband were going to have difficulty paying their two mortgages. How do you end up with two mortgages without having that three-to-six months’ cash reserve that financial advisors are always hammering everyone about?

-A few days later, they showed a couple worried about making the next payment on their home mortgage. The footage was shot inside their very, very, very large and lavishly furnished home. Again, what happened to that cash reserve?

-This morning a woman was complaining about the first missed paycheck, saying next week she might have to sell her car to make her next mortgage payment. She lamented that she had “wasted 20 years as a federal employee.” Wait a minute…you’re 20 years into your career, and you saddled yourself with a mortgage and no cash reserve?

Admittedly CNN may be leaving out a lot of details out of these stories for brevity’s sake, some of which might exonerate these people from charges of financial imprudence. but absent any such details, these people don’t seem like they’ve made smart choices in life.

I’m hoping to get a certain medical procedure done but my doctor has to get approval from the FDA. Unfortunately, that part of the FDA is closed, so I’m on hold for now. Nothing life threatening, just annoying.

I work for a DC government agency, but not one that is subject to furloughs or shutdowns. However, some of the work we do requires the cooperation of other agencies, which has hampered our work output and will cause some delays in certain matters.

There is a minor annoyance coming up, however. My sister and niece are coming into town for the March for Life this coming week. This is a HUGE bucket list item for my niece (although she’s only 18), and they are SOOO excited to come to DC. We had it all planned out to see some Smithsonian museums. It seems that won’t happen. So we’ll wander around the monuments for half a day and then go to the Bible Museum. All in all it will be a good trip, but we did have to readjust a bit.

So far, it’s not affecting us in any way, shape or form.

I would imagine that at some point if it’s protracted enough, the absence of Federal grant money will start to affect my son’s school district as well as the State and City stuff that rely on it.

My wife and I work for the same government agency. She’s furloughed because our agency isn’t funded, but I’m working, because my work’s done under a contract with a different government agency which is funded through the end of FY19.

We’re a couple of GS-13s, we’ve got savings to last us a good while, but it’s very weird that only one of us is furloughed this time.

Would you make this same offer if, for instance, Kohl’s or Macy’s locked their doors Monday immediately furloughing everyone? The federal employees are laid off, not fired. Their jobs will most likely be waiting for them when everyone stops grandstanding and trying to score political points. I heard less wailing and gnashing of teeth from extended family that went to work a certain day a few years back and found their workplace padlocked to never re-open. There certainly weren’t restaurants offering them free meals and museums not charging them admission.
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To answer the OP, until I do the social security / medicare thing in a few years when I get old enough, I have no plans to interact with the federal government beyond the annual IRS shakedown. Any interaction beyond those would be via the same as any other citizen.

Probably. I see people are hurting, right NOW, and I have help to offer, because I can, and I’m not a selfish prick. The fuck is it to you?!

Moderator Note

This is IMHO so you’re certainly free to express your opinion, but let’s just dial it back a bit, please. This isn’t the Pit.