NC Pilot

What worries me about the sequestration are all of the control towers that they want to close. That could make things problematic at fields with a lot of student training. It will also make things inefficient for IFR operations. It will be one plane in, one plane out, and hopefully the guy ahead of you remembers to cancel.

MongoPawnInLife

It's only 73.6% of stats that are made up. 73.6% of all Statistics are Made Up Needless to say, the author made up the 73.6% number.
However, 2.2% is not made up, it is $85 billion divided by $3.8 trillion.

Sorry about your 20% paycut. I've taken a couple of multiyear 100% paycuts when I was furloughed. Fortunately I have always saved for a rainy day so I survived both very long layoffs. It helped that I was willing to do just about anything for a buck. OK, I drew the line prior to Robert Downey Jr's character in 'Less Than Zero'.

Since you stated that you've been a Fed since 1992, this isn't your first gov shutdown paycut rodeo. This was well telegraphed so hopefully you planned for this, including looking for part time jobs to supplement your income IF you spend every dime you make and have no savings. At least you've got extra time off with the 20% paycut. I've taken larger than 20% paycuts AND had to work additional hours.

Your government bosses made the decision to try to extract maximum possible pain from the public in an attempt to blackmail taxpayers into not cutting the budget. Maybe it will work; maybe it won't.
But at the same time that you're getting the opportunity to have a shorter work week, some of your fellow FAA employees are investigating the 'Harlem Shake' on an F9 flight. So it sounds like at least a portion of the FAA is overstaffed.
I've worked in a government office during a portion of my airline furloughs (that probably crossed the 'Less than Zero' line). My observation was that we could have easily cut more than 30% of the staff and been more productive. If this sequestration is the start of disposing of nonessential government personnel, it's got two thumbs up from me.

What worries me is that the public is allowing our government to use this method of blackmail rather than cutting the pork.
In our business, essential air service should be at the top of the list of things to cut. That's just one small piece of pork; there are many other places where the budget should be cut. Including reducing government employee headcount.

N9373M

Mongo y Jungle,

thanks for the words of support on my situation. I understand that in your profession, "furlough", has a much different meaning. There was no intent on comparison.

My intent was to point out to the OP that the cuts need to be viewed big picture (negligible) and small picture - the workers being furloughed, forced out, or terminated. I'll stop before I get a political TOS.

Thanks again.

PerfInit

It's too early to tell the real impact of the Sequestration. By Title 5 USC and i/a/w various collective bargaining agreements, agencies such as the FAA have to give employees 30-day notice prior to any adverse action (such as furlough). Wait until early April for the real effect to kick in.

MongoPawnInLife

This isn't new - the impact of sequestration will be minimal to the vast majority of America. I've had several friends and many former coworkers who have lost their government contracting jobs over the last couple of years. The impact of them losing their jobs has been limited. The government has not renewed a lot of contracts since at least FY11. And no one noticed.

Losing your job isn't fun but it isn't life and death. As someone who's lost their job multiple times and also a cancer survivor, I can tell you that there are far worse things that can happen to you than losing your job.

Winged Wheeler

I would start with something simple--let's eliminate the Selective Service Administration. We don't have a draft and we don't need one. Cut the whole budget for this outfit and allow the furloughed employees to transfer elsewhere in the fed. gov't, as their skills allow.

I am sure there are lots of examples of such low hanging fruit.

WW

jungle

Imagine for a moment that you were charged with running a business, charity or other organization charged with handling a vast amount of money.

Further imagine you required no budget and did not need to balance it if you did, held several huge monopolies, could print money and were never held accountable for any of your actions and none of your actions were ever measured for success or failure.

Further imagine after just a few years you would get a lifetime retirement, more job offers and 24/7 armed security for the rest of your life and complete immunity from any action you may have taken.

How responsible would you be?

Ajax

<--- New York Tracon controller getting furloughed. My area (EWR) will have 3 controllers on furlough per day. We were already working short as it was. Starting a shift 3 down before any sick leaves are added on will definitely have an impact, specially on the busier evening shifts.

BizPilot

Meanwhile the gov spends $$$ to study democracy in schools of fish.

ATC in the NY area is misstion critical. The politicians are trying to make it hurt. People could loose their lives over this.

UnderOveur

Fixed it for you. The House has tried to give said regime flexibility in where the cuts occur, so that it could target true waste as opposed to forcing indiscriminate cuts. But it doesn't want that. It wants pain, for purely political reasons.