SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 1, 2013 8:17:47 GMT -5
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 1, 2013 8:20:56 GMT -5
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Oct 1, 2013 15:28:00 GMT -5
I am already enjoying my time off, going to Mass AND working out and now spend all the time I want on the Hoyatalk board. I am in a position, where the shutdown will not hurt me so much, but I feel for our student contractors, who live paycheck to paycheck plus my office mate with two children in college and her husband recently lost his job. It is the debt ceiling fight I worry over. In addition to concern over what a default will lead us into, I also have a conference scheduled right after Oct. 17, which the government paid for already and will not get a refund if we don't go, and I paid for my wife to join me, which I will not be able to recoup if we don't go.
I was surprised that we got paid last time (1996) and did not feel right about it. This time, as SSHoya indicates, the climate is such that I won't be surprised that we not get retroactive pay.
Good luck all you other feds on this board. And God bless Congress; give them wisdom and compassion.
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 4, 2013 7:56:22 GMT -5
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 4, 2013 8:36:32 GMT -5
SSHoya, that is not good news. Sen. Reid and President Obama have both said they will not agree to any piecemeal legislation. It's all or nothing. Except, of course, the exception they sponsored for the military. Besides, the president likes to use executive action when the Congress of the United States does not follow his orders, like he has done with exemptions in the Affordable Health Care law.
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 4, 2013 11:15:42 GMT -5
Ed, I think this legislation is separate and apart from a clean CR and the negotiations over that. In other words, like the bill signed on Monday to pay the members of the military and civilians supporting them:
"On Monday, President Obama signed a bill guaranteeing that members of the military and some of the civilian workers who support them would be paid during the shutdown."
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Oct 4, 2013 12:11:14 GMT -5
Hmm. Good news (possibly) for my pocketbook, but bad news for my sense of right. I want to be paid for doing a job, but not for posting on Hoyatalk all day. I had a conference scheduled for Oct. 18, one day after the debt ceiling comes into effect. I pre-paid for my wife to go with me, so if the shutdown persists, I will lose that money in addition to the government losing my registration and room and board. So I want the shutdown ended before that, whether or not I get retroactive pay.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 4, 2013 12:49:55 GMT -5
Nevada, let me just say I am more than happy to see you get paid for posting on Hoyatalk all day. Mainly because I am pretty sure you are some kind of scientist. And I am completely certain that it is your ilk who, if left to your evil ways, will surely bring about the end of life as we know it. Like these complete jerks at Boston Dynamics (a company I like to call "Cyberdyne Systems"): deadspin.com/here-is-the-robot-that-will-one-day-hunt-us-down-like-w-1441116593
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 6, 2013 8:02:12 GMT -5
Boz, you were right! Nevada, enjoy the paid "vacation" but I also understand that you really want to work for your salary. This situation is so f-ed up. What exactly is the GOP's position now? The Tea Partiers voting to pay furloughed feds for work not performed? Excellent use of taxpayer money. The irony is that as an "excepted" employee I have been directed to work on Columbus Day (normally a paid federal holiday), or not get paid. Unless the bill accounts for this anomaly, the furloughed fed is on a paid vacation and those "excepted" are the ones being penalized. www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/10/05/house-votes-to-approve-back-pay-for-furloughed-workers/
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Oct 6, 2013 16:46:51 GMT -5
That is crazy, SS. Everything is crazy with the shutdown, when you look at it from our perspective. And yes, Boz, I am coming to get you. I have some electrodes just your size.
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 6, 2013 17:19:16 GMT -5
Nevada, as an "excepted" employee HR has also advised us that if we take annual leave or sick leave, we do not get paid! Any thoughts of extending my federal career have evaporated. I will retire by the spring of 2014. It's a shame that federal service has been so devalued.
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hoyainspirit
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
When life puts that voodoo on me, music is my gris-gris.
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Post by hoyainspirit on Oct 6, 2013 20:28:34 GMT -5
Feel for both you guys, and for my friend, a cook who works for a contractor that has the food contract at a Federal Building. His income is just lost, no getting paid for missed time.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Oct 7, 2013 7:15:14 GMT -5
Thanks, hoyainspirit. I'll be fine, financially. 91% of my division has been declared "excepted" and the sad part is the 9% furloughed are typically those least able to financially afford this furlough, even with backpay coming at some point for them. And your point about the contractors is well taken. Our IT contractor out, and his wife was furloughed from her gov't agency so there are at zero income until she is back and gets backpay.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Oct 7, 2013 15:19:57 GMT -5
Nevada, as an "excepted" employee HR has also advised us that if we take annual leave or sick leave, we do not get paid! Any thoughts of extending my federal career have evaporated. I will retire by the spring of 2014. It's a shame that federal service has been so devalued. Wow!
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TC
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Post by TC on Oct 10, 2013 17:28:44 GMT -5
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TC
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Post by TC on Oct 17, 2013 11:40:59 GMT -5
Nevada, is your conference going to work out?
Good times everybody! Should we pre-post the thread for same subject for this winter?
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 17, 2013 11:50:15 GMT -5
Good times everybody! Should we pre-post the thread for same subject for this winter? I propose an ongoing companion to the Friday Fun Thread. The Monday-Thursday Inmates Running The Asylum Thread.
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 17, 2013 12:29:03 GMT -5
The Democrats pitched a shutout.
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Post by badgerhoya on Oct 17, 2013 12:59:47 GMT -5
The Democrats pitched a shutout. Easy to pitch a shutout when the other team's expecting to play a different game... say curling.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Oct 17, 2013 13:04:27 GMT -5
Nevada, is your conference going to work out? Good times everybody! Should we pre-post the thread for same subject for this winter? At the EPA all travel has been canceled through Sunday; our conference starts tomorrow. So, no, we will not be going even though the trip is paid for. Another fine mess that you have gotten us in, Stanley! Some people from the CDC can go, but the EPA holds its employees to the strictest conduct, even though that costs the government money (I figure that the gov't loses $2400 on this deal). Thanks for asking, TC. Yes, we will keep this topic open cause we will have to go through all of this in Jan. And the title of this thread seems to be an oxymoron.
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