Well... got my furlough notice today.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:11 pm

:/

My furlough starts the week of 25 April. One day per week (8 hours), or 16 hours per pay period. That's a 20% pay cut.

Until either the end of the fiscal year (27 SEP), or Congress and the President get a budget. Or repeal laws that force us to do things a certain way.

Anyways, I'll have time away from work, but it's going to be spent doing whatever side jobs I can find. If anyone has any interest in someone who can do part-time / contract / consultant type of work, let me know.

I'm also applying to any job that looks interesting; boeing, aerojet, microsoft (research and hardware divisions), a couple of small companies over in the Seattle area. Not the way I wanted to leave Government service, but I'm going to write a letter to my Congressman/Senators, the President, to make sure that they know exactly the kind of people that are leaving and won't be back. I also know of many older folks that are scrambling to put in their retirement papers because they're worried that their pensions won't be for the full amount as part of some budget deal.

Wish I could say it meant more game time, but I need to figure out how I'm going to close this income gap.

XMEN Iceman · Post by **XMEN Iceman** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 3:03 pm

Well that sucks....sorry to hear that bud.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 1:40 pm

Well... some good news I guess. We think we found a house. We're going to see it later today.

The timing might be awesome. Or it might be making it tougher for us. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

As for the income gap... we'll figure it out. Every other federal employee I've talked with has sort of been in freak out mode a bit because it's going to be closer to a 25-30% effective pay cut (tax rates and OASDI will change in interesting ways).

I'll be getting a spreadsheet next week that shows how to calculate the various taxes with the reduction in pay.

(Not going to stop looking at other options though.)

TimberWolf · Post by **TimberWolf** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:31 pm

I'm in the same boat as you, Ash. I too am a Federal Employee and expect to get my furlough notice next week. I will be loosing about $600 a month from the Furlough. I bought a house last year and have my wedding this May. My fiance is currently unemployed. At this time I don't know how I'm going to pay my monthly expenses as 1/3rd goes towards the total collage loans we have, 1/3rd goes towards the house & utilities, 1/3rd goes towards car payments and associated costs, then another 20% for internet, cell phones, food, and so on. I'm hopeful that my Fiance can get a job soon to make up for the $380 shortfall we have now in the budget and still allow me to continue buying supplies to renovate the house.

Jester · Post by **Jester** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:34 pm

I think it is total bullshit that they are willing to cut the pay of working employees. They should furlough those collecting benefits that are able to work who are not.

No offense intended to anyone who has or is collecting benefits, but frankly those who are working are producing tangible results for their compensation. It seems completely counterproductive to me to eliminate that, but continue to pay into non producing areas.