Plowing through a furlough: Feeling the pinch

I thought that I was going to be all clever and stuff by quoting from Return of the Jedi with this post:

Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational DoD furlough!

(But that quote was already taken, more or less.)

DoD employees are now through four of their eleven six scheduled furlough days.  The ones affected by the furlough — i.e., most of them — have now received a paycheck that is at least 20% less than their regular paycheck.

If they've been planning for the shift to a furlough budget — and hopefully, they have — the shift just got real.  They are witnessing the power of a fully reduced and and less operational paycheck.

I'm starting to hear stories from my friends about how the furlough is throwing them for a loop.  Stories about how tough choices on the kids' activities had to be made.  Stories about how they were this close to getting back on a good financial path after making a few mistakes — only to be kicked down by the loss of nearly $1,000 per month.  Stories of people postponing their education because they weren't sure how much money was going to be coming in the door.

Even stories about wanting to get picked for jury duty because it would be an extra $30 per day!!

The light at the end of the tunnel just got a lot closer, but there's still darkness in the budget.  Many DoD employees still have one short paycheck and one really short paycheck left.   Here are a few things to remember as people still feel the pinch of the furlough:

• People are grouchy.  They're grouchy because they still feel that they have to complete five days worth of work in four.  They're grouchy because this has been hanging in the air since February.  They're grouchy because summer plans have been put on the back burner, and now for the rest of the fiscal year they'll be playing catch-up — because deadlines don't slip, of course.
• People are worried.  They're worried because there's talk that things could be even worse next year.  They're worried because this is one more thing on top of everything else that might be going south in their lives.  They're worried because they have families to feed.  They're doubly worried if they have people outside their nuclear family depending on them.
• People just may not have the money.  This affects businesses in areas with a lot of federal employees.  People go out to dinner less.  People don't shop as often, and when they do, they don't buy premium products.  People don't have the money to drop on your kids' fundraisers.  They really wish that they could go out fundraising themselves.

I'm sure some DoD employees will hardly miss the lost wages from the furlough.

But many haven't.  They pinch is real.