Daily Dose: Gov Shutdown? Is your position safe?

As I was reading this article on the Washington Post’s Federal Page today about the looming Federal government shutdown, a few thoughts crossed my mind.

What will this mean for my friends in the government? How long would a shutdown last? Is it really possible for the U.S. Gov’t to cease certain operations?

The last time a Federal shutdown occurred was back in 1995-1996. There was a four day period in November of 1995, and right after the New Year in 1996, that some government operations halted. Here is an article, published back in February, which looks at what lessons we can cultivate about that period of government shutdown.

All political bickering aside (we’ll leave that to the politicians), the bottom line is that government operations affect all of us. And as someone who admires the work of government employees, and aspires to work for the government one day, I wanted to educate myself on what a government shutdown could look like.

This article, from the Washington Post archives, is a great narrative that paints a picture of what furloughs could look like for some government employees.

The budget impasse is affecting an additional 650,000 federal workers across the country in places as varied as the Lyndon Baines Johnson
Library in Texas and the Statue of Liberty in New York. The computer
system at the Library of Congress, which has 1 million transactions a
day, went off line as soon as official word of the shutdown arrived.
Each day the government is shut down, about 22,000 people will be unable
to get passports and 28,000 won’t be able to apply for Social Security
benefits.

This article was written about 15 years ago, and although the numbers may have changed, some of the sentiments stay the same.

I’ve always thought that It’s best to be prepared. To help you do that, here’s a helpful list of frequently asked questions about government shutdown and furloughs, put together by the Office of Personnel Management.

If a government shutdown occurs, what would that mean for you? Is your position exempt from being furloughed?

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