Another government shutdown. What’s it like to work for free? Or is a furlough nothing more than a government handout?
When I started writing this article, a government shutdown was looming. During my second edit, the shutdown began. By the time it gets posted, it may hopefully be old news, with the shutdown ended. Things can change quickly. It is another sad moment in our recent history. I am retired now, but I participated in several shutdowns prior to my retirement in 2020. But this one is different. This one may include lay-offs. Not furloughs. Lay-offs. And that is a game-changer. I will address the matter of lay-offs in the next article.
What “normally” happens during a government shutdown? It needs clarification and the best I can give you is the experience I had as a federal employee. What I experienced, and what the US Forest Service (my employer) experienced, were not necessarily applied across the government. But it was certainly what a vast majority of federal employees encountered.
The first phase a shutdown actually occurs prior to the event, determining who is “essential.” Those who are considered “non-essential” are free to go home once the shutdown starts. Those who are “essential” are expected to continue work as usual, except with few exceptions they have the honor of working for free! They are, at that moment, literally serving their country. Though pay is suspended, health benefits are kept in place.
This is what is meant by “furlough.” Federal workers are not unemployed, but on furlough. It is not a vacation because you may be called into work the next day if the shutdown ends. So you cannot plan a two-week getaway to the Bahamas. Most of us stayed near to home, catching up on projects. Once the furlough ends, we receive the back pay we would have normally received.
Sounds cushy? Some think so. But is not as easy as it first appears. And there is one important thing you need to remember.
Are You Essential?
Each shutdown requires that agency directors define who of their staff are “essential.” Some of this is common sense. I worked for the US Forest Service and an obvious essential employee would be someone fighting forest fires. USFS law enforcement officials would most likely be on this list. Since many staff members were part of the Incident Command System (ICS), they could very well be on assignment providing support services for forest fires, hurricanes and floods. Other agencies in the government would maintain a cadre of first responders, and the military would be fully ready. A skeletal staff would be maintained to crank out the social security checks and to ensure that our government could participate in the financial markets.
On the other side of the ledger are the “non-essential” employees. These are the folks that do not perform “critical” tasks. They could not show up to work and not really be missed, at least for a day or two. It is the sort of position that could become vacant and endure the six to nine week period before a replacement is hired.
Yet in between are this subclass of “non-essential” workers who really are essential. IT personnel are one such example, of which I was one. Almost all of us were considered non-essential. After all, all those networks and servers that we manage can keep on ticking on their own. Right? Yes – every IT supervisor knew this dirty little secret. He or she would carry in their pocket the official government cell phone stacked with phone numbers of their staff. They did so because IT work was, by its nature, 24/7 on-call work. While I rarely had to work evenings or weekends, it happened from time-to-time. We did not do this as a favor. It was expected of us.
So it was not a surprise when twice I was called during a shutdown and informed that I was suddenly essential. In fact, it wasn’t even a person who called me one time. It was an alert relay notifying me that power had been cut off to the server room in Alaska. While it is true that 95% of what happened in that server room could be considered non-essential, the digital telecommunications network that linked fire fighters, emergency responders and law enforcement was that 5% component that mattered. So the loss of power required my full attention. Then there was the time the fire fighting servers went down at one of our data centers. I was called because I was one of two server specialists within driving distance at the time. I was two hours away! Fortunately, one of my “non-essential” colleagues went into the data center, this lonely guy in a warehouse of servers. Sounds like something out of sci-fi movie.
Yes – “non-essential” was a matter of perspective based on circumstances. We responded to phone calls not because we had to. We did so because we felt it was the right thing to do. Our supervisor never let us forget it.
The Shutdown Tradition
Shutdowns have occurred so often in the past fifteen years that you could say it is a “tradition.” If you are considered essential, you have the honor of working for the federal government for free :). Where else does that ever happen? If you are non-essential, like me, you have the honor of working for free if called up. We were able to do so because we were technically still employed by the federal government. We were never laid-off.
What was that like? The obvious problem was cash flow. And this wasn’t a minor problem. For our family, it entailed a 67% drop in cash flow! Yet we continued to pay on a ten year mortgage. We would continue to face impending insurance payments. While there was a lot of discretionary expenditures we could avoid, I still had to support children in high school and college. Those things just couldn’t suddenly stop.
Fortunately, most shutdowns ended after a few days. But one went on for a month! While our family was in a solid financial position, we had some federal employees who were facing some serious issues. Moving to Alaska was not only logistically challenging, it was hugely expensive. Even if the government reimbursed some or all of the moving expenditures, the shutdown meant that the money would have to wait. So it was that a worker for TSA moved to Juneau only to encounter a government shutdown the following week. She had already committed to the down-payment on a lease and had to cover bills for moving to a place that is a five day ferry ride from Seattle, Washington! She was literally living out of her truck! We had young families that were in crisis. So it was that we worked with support organizations such as the local food bank, Love INC, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and the Mormon church, even organizing social events where people could share food and music while donating everything from canned soup to diapers. If there was a silver lining about this ordeal it was the phenomenal way the citizens of Juneau had our backs.
Working in Juneau was an interesting experience. It is a contained community, accessible only by air or boat. It is 850 miles from Seattle, 650 miles from Anchorage. Lots of mountains in between. Government employees fit very well with the community and are generally well supported and respected. I will never forget the time a dozen of us gathered together at a local tavern to check on each other. When word got out we were from the USFS, some good ol’ soul purchased all our drinks! How often does that happen?
After several shutdowns, we had the drill down pretty well as a family and amongst our colleagues. I and my family knew the drill founded on ten years of running your own business and going through two extended job searches. The budget was trimmed to bare essentials. It was clear that life would not proceed as normal. No more eating out. Entertainment events were dropped from the schedule. We were members of a church and we experienced substantial emotional support from them. But for many of my colleagues at the USFS, their “church” was the people they had worked with, and it was this that bound them together through the crisis. People were not just forgotten. We networked and checked on each other.
When the furlough ended, we celebrated. It was always fun to return to the office and begin, once again, a normal life. Two weeks later the back pay would arrive and we would pay off what bills we owed and reduce or clear out the credit card debt that accrued.
An Important Lesson
One of the key lessons I brought into this experience was what I picked up decades prior. Dave Ramsey has spoken of this often and other financial counselors have mentioned the same – build a rainy day fund. For most of my adult life I maintained a rainy day fund that was hopefully kept high enough to cover nine months of income. In the event I became disabled, unemployed, or “on furlough”, I did not have to panic. The bills were paid and I had time to respond to a crisis.
I discovered that even amongst the older USFS staff, many were anxious during the shutdown. They were still living paycheck to paycheck. To be honest, it wasn’t that they did not try to build up their savings. Life has a way of rescheduling your plans.
Psychologically, some of my colleagues were rather stunned by the shutdowns. All of them were career federal employees. Coming from the private sector, I knew full well the stress of working under uncertain conditions. Career federal employees did not before the shutdowns started occurring. Hated to be blunt about it – but welcome to the real world.
No Sympathy From the Public?
Working in Juneau was an interesting experience. It is a contained community, accessible only by air or boat. It is 850 miles from Seattle, 650 miles from Anchorage. Lots of mountains in between. Government employees fit very well with the community and are generally well supported and respected.
Which contrasts sharply from my encounters with people in Missouri and Georgia. They have absolutely little sympathy for federal employees unless they are military. That is understandable. They have most likely been fired at least once in their lifetimes. They have most likely been terminated due to economic downturns. Benefits are hard to come by and almost impossible to keep with changing circumstances. They consider furloughs as hand-outs, bureaucrats eventually getting paid for doing nothing.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the tragic news that our national parks were closing down due to a shutdown. All this happening while I grab my fly rod and fish a stream in a national forest. Life went on. Heck – for two hundred years our country thrived without 90% of the federal government we have today. Is it possible that Americans could tough it out for a few weeks?
I pose this argument not because I like it or even support it. It is reality.
Yet going back to my experience in Juneau, the one thing the citizens of the town remembered was that we were public servants. And almost all my colleagues felt that way. One reason we liked our jobs was our connection to the people in this country. Even if I was an IT person, I was part of the USFS mission. Doing my best connecting with people was part of my job description once I had the USFS badge attached to a jacket or T-shirt. If visitors came up to the office, I made certain that they were assisted and pointed to the right person who could answer their questions. I often represented the USFS at job fairs and I enjoyed interacting with the public. These were the people I worked for.
I appreciate those who lend encouragement and support, but I respect why many are not sympathetic.
© Copyright 2025 to Eric Niewoehner