Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
I’m depressed. Like sit in a chair and stare into the middle distance for an hour depressed. And I’m having trouble shaking it.
We won’t be paid this weekend, like hundreds of thousands of other political footballs.
You know what contributes to my depression: The people who kind of think it’s funny. Joking with me about working for free when I’m called in. (Nope, not funny. Don’t get paid.) Or calling this a taste of retirement. (Nope, not like retirement. I’d have income in retirement.) Or acting like we will definitely get backpay when I have zero basis to trust that that will happen. Would YOU trust that that would happen were you in my shoes?
So...I’m depressed. Deeply, deeply depressed.
And I can absorb a missed paycheck. Imagine how it feels to be a federal worker living paycheck to paycheck. Imagine how this affects morale. Imagine how valued it makes us feel. Imagine how you would feel if your employer sent you home without pay every time management and the board of directors got into a kerfuffle over the corporate budget. How would you feel about your job? Even when you went back to work when the dispute was resolved, how would you feel about that work and that job? How secure would you feel?
So, yeah. I’m depressed.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Day 19
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
In which I am back home again.... More pictures of my day for you to scroll through.
😕😕😕😕😕 Stop making us your pawns. All of you. Also, Mitch McConnell, we see the giant Mitch-shaped hole in this negotiation. Your absence is not unnoticed. You don’t avoid your share of the culpability merely because you have checked out. Your checking out is also an action in connection with the shutdown. You own this too, not just Trump, Chuck, and Nancy.😕😕😕😕😕
Only Treasury, though....better than nothing. But we need the whole government reopened. P.S. The shutdown will not become unpopular with the general public unless the general public feels some of the impact of it...like, for instance, late tax refund checks. 🙄
Riiiight. If by "win," you mean "lose twice," sure. 🙄 I feel my eye-rolls increase exponentially with each day the shutdown remains in effect.
In which I am back home again.... More pictures of my day for you to scroll through.
😕😕😕😕😕 Stop making us your pawns. All of you. Also, Mitch McConnell, we see the giant Mitch-shaped hole in this negotiation. Your absence is not unnoticed. You don’t avoid your share of the culpability merely because you have checked out. Your checking out is also an action in connection with the shutdown. You own this too, not just Trump, Chuck, and Nancy.😕😕😕😕😕
Only Treasury, though....better than nothing. But we need the whole government reopened. P.S. The shutdown will not become unpopular with the general public unless the general public feels some of the impact of it...like, for instance, late tax refund checks. 🙄
Riiiight. If by "win," you mean "lose twice," sure. 🙄 I feel my eye-rolls increase exponentially with each day the shutdown remains in effect.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Day 18
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
In which, with no end to the shutdown in sight, I am deemed essential for a day and go to work . . . . I present to you an annotated, photographic journey through my day.
Hard to get motivated. Work with no paycheck is just as hard -- harder, maybe -- than the furlough.
But the pupper needs his morning stroll....
Motivation.
Feeling a little bloaty in my suit post-holiday, post-vacay. Oof.
Traffic.
This is stressful. I feel like I have to get two weeks’ -- a month’s -- worth of work done in eight hours. I have over 700 email messages (you can’t get through them all in 15 minutes a day). I don’t know where to start. I guess I’ll just start with something.
Lunch.
4:30 pm -- I’ve finally read everything I need to read and sent every email I need to send. So I look out my window at Belo Park, as the sun begins to set.
I deserve chocolate.
Headed home.
Aaaaaand...traffic.
Picked up the pup from doggy daycare. Yes, that’s really how he sits in my car.
Aaahhh....
Aged white cheddaaaaaar, Matey.
My favorite boys watching a Beyblade cartoon. (It’s a show about tops -- special, powerful tops that the tops’ owners --trainers? -- battle with in arenas.) Boy: "How does he know about World Valtryak A4?!" Yeah. What? 🤷♀️ He likes it.
Bedtime.... Nighty-night, folks.
In which, with no end to the shutdown in sight, I am deemed essential for a day and go to work . . . . I present to you an annotated, photographic journey through my day.
Hard to get motivated. Work with no paycheck is just as hard -- harder, maybe -- than the furlough.
But the pupper needs his morning stroll....
Motivation.
Feeling a little bloaty in my suit post-holiday, post-vacay. Oof.
Traffic.
This is stressful. I feel like I have to get two weeks’ -- a month’s -- worth of work done in eight hours. I have over 700 email messages (you can’t get through them all in 15 minutes a day). I don’t know where to start. I guess I’ll just start with something.
Lunch.
4:30 pm -- I’ve finally read everything I need to read and sent every email I need to send. So I look out my window at Belo Park, as the sun begins to set.
I deserve chocolate.
Headed home.
Aaaaaand...traffic.
Picked up the pup from doggy daycare. Yes, that’s really how he sits in my car.
Aaahhh....
Aged white cheddaaaaaar, Matey.
My favorite boys watching a Beyblade cartoon. (It’s a show about tops -- special, powerful tops that the tops’ owners --trainers? -- battle with in arenas.) Boy: "How does he know about World Valtryak A4?!" Yeah. What? 🤷♀️ He likes it.
Bedtime.... Nighty-night, folks.
Monday, January 7, 2019
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Day 17
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
My family and I had long-standing vacation plans for last week. So we went. Disney World. It was good to be distracted by so much whimsy and joy.
But now we’re home.
Back to reality.
A reality in which the President has suggested the shutdown could go on for months or years.
A reality in which Congress seems now to be considering funding that would offer to the public the services they want -- national park funding, housing, food stamps, tax refunds -- while leaving the rest of us to sit on our hands and wait and wonder.
A reality that is really a slow, anxious burn, one in which I start to wonder when it will be that I start looking for a job in the private sector, and whether anyone would hire a 48-year-old, 20-year lawyer. Do we hang out our own shingle? How would that work? In other words, when will the financial strain of no paychecks become too great for us? We can absorb one missed or late paycheck. But two, three, four, five? When does it become too much? I don’t know. At some point, I suppose I need to figure that out.
In the meantime, I’m going to go for a walk now and blow off some steam. It’s oppressive, this shutdown.
Oh, and here’s a picture from our trip. It WAS amazingly fun.
My family and I had long-standing vacation plans for last week. So we went. Disney World. It was good to be distracted by so much whimsy and joy.
But now we’re home.
Back to reality.
A reality in which the President has suggested the shutdown could go on for months or years.
A reality in which Congress seems now to be considering funding that would offer to the public the services they want -- national park funding, housing, food stamps, tax refunds -- while leaving the rest of us to sit on our hands and wait and wonder.
A reality that is really a slow, anxious burn, one in which I start to wonder when it will be that I start looking for a job in the private sector, and whether anyone would hire a 48-year-old, 20-year lawyer. Do we hang out our own shingle? How would that work? In other words, when will the financial strain of no paychecks become too great for us? We can absorb one missed or late paycheck. But two, three, four, five? When does it become too much? I don’t know. At some point, I suppose I need to figure that out.
In the meantime, I’m going to go for a walk now and blow off some steam. It’s oppressive, this shutdown.
Oh, and here’s a picture from our trip. It WAS amazingly fun.
Friday, December 28, 2018
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Days 7 through ???
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
Well, Congress gaveled open and then, moments later, gaveled closed again yesterday, ensuring that the shutdown will last into the new year when the 116th Congress convenes on January 3rd.
So we are guaranteed a shutdown through, at a minimum, January 3rd. But the reality is probably a shutdown through the 4th or longer.
Yippee.
Hey, but it’s fodder for my blog, right?
You know, I’m not the only one in my office with a quirky online shutdown presence. One of my colleagues had posted cute shutdown pictures of her new Frenchie puppy. Awwww. 🐶
Another, issues elaborate curses on the ineffective lawmakers. The most recent involved fire ants in their shoes. 🐜🐜🐜🐜 They are exquisite. Like my blog, the curses are her shutdown "thing." She issues them every time a shutdown rolls (all too frequently) around. I think in another life surely she was a voodoo priestess. And the objects of her curses should well take heed. Powerful juju emanates from her scornful evil eye.
Why do we do it? The blog, the curses, the adorbs puppy pic? It blows off steam. It explains our world. It holds us together.
So what’s up for the day for The Working Mom? The boy, his dad, and one of the boy’s uncles are working on the boy’s Pinewood Derby car. And a long walk and a shutdown mani/pedi are in the works for me. Oh, and my 15 minutes (no more no less) of work emails, of course.
Guess we shall see what happens when Congress reconvenes in the new year.
Cheers!
Thursday, December 27, 2018
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Day 6
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
Cup of coffee in hand, I did my 15 minutes of email-checking.
Before that, I checked the news: Congress has no votes scheduled for today, so we are virtually guaranteed to be shutdown tomorrow as well.
On the docket for today (get it? docket? I’m a lawyer who is furloughed and, therefore, has no docket?): laundry, straightening the house, and a family outing for ice skating. Except for the "I might not get paid" part, it’s a far more enjoyable plan than the day of hearings I had scheduled if I were working. Of course, the essential attorney at the office has to cover those hearings, so I feel bad about that. But she does have guaranteed pay when the shutdown is over, so.... Nah, still doesn’t balance out. I feel bad about it. It should be me suffering those hearings.
Oh and I’m wearing my new Christmas Porg sweater to go skating!
Happy Thursday, folks!
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
The Shutdown Diary: Yuletide Edition, Day 5
Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
Orderly shutdown procedures have been implemented. I did my out of office due to lapsed funding voice message. I did my out of office due to lapsed funding email. And I checked emails for what’s essential, forwarded them, and then logged off.
With Christmas over, the reality of the shutdown starts to sink in. How long will it last? No one knows. But with Congress not reconvening until tomorrow, you can bet it lasts through Friday (e.g., Day 7).
From now on, until and unless I am recalled to work, I will check my emails for up to 15 minutes a day, no more, and will forward pertinent emails to the attorney on duty.
And other than that. I hang out and do stuff.
Today’s stuff was taking down the outdoor Christmas decorations. Mission accomplished!
Now I’m going to watch a Disney movie with my boy!
Orderly shutdown procedures have been implemented. I did my out of office due to lapsed funding voice message. I did my out of office due to lapsed funding email. And I checked emails for what’s essential, forwarded them, and then logged off.
With Christmas over, the reality of the shutdown starts to sink in. How long will it last? No one knows. But with Congress not reconvening until tomorrow, you can bet it lasts through Friday (e.g., Day 7).
From now on, until and unless I am recalled to work, I will check my emails for up to 15 minutes a day, no more, and will forward pertinent emails to the attorney on duty.
And other than that. I hang out and do stuff.
Today’s stuff was taking down the outdoor Christmas decorations. Mission accomplished!
Now I’m going to watch a Disney movie with my boy!
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