IRS EMPLOYEES ON FURLOUGH

[BLACK BART]

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 1:52 PM, cbslee said:

As a famous person once said about opinions, "Everyone has one" 

Aw, shucks; if you're gonna be nice about it (as well as being a gentleman and a scholar), then I guess I'll just have to say that's true and you might be right.  

 

[Jack from Ohio]

On 1/19/2019 at 10:33 AM, Catherine said:

That is EXACTLY my point.  They have jobs that pay better than what most of us make.  Those jobs come with benefits most of us can only dream of from afar.  They can NOT be fired,  under usual circumstances, even if they goof off all day surfing kiddie porn, very much UNlike you and me.  But people are bemoaning their fate as if they are being made to walk the plank into shark-infested waters - when what they are facing is far LESS than a regular garden-variety lay-off.  With NO guarantee of call-back, NO guarantee of back pay eventually, and no one publicly mourning their dire fate.

Sorry; they got nothing from me.  NOTHING.  I've faced nasty lay-offs too many times, where I quite literally had NO idea where my next job was going to come from, or how I was going to survive until then, with no savings (used up in the last lay-off and just barely caught up to zero with no reserves yet) to help at all.  In desperation taking crap jobs doing what I did to put myself through school, running a cash register at nights at a gas station ALONE (young and female), substitute teaching knowing I was working that day because of a phone call at 4AM, day-work bookkeeping via an agency running a paper-tape calculator.  Quite a come-down from the supposedly well-paid engineering jobs I had spent years qualifying for.  Work a high-school dropout could do.  All for minimum wage but nowhere near 40 hrs/week - not just for lack of work, but also because I had to keep up the job search.  Yeah, it sucks being out of work.  It sucks worse when you don't have a call-back with pay waiting for you in a month or two.

I got NOTHING.  

I agree with you 100%  I want my voucher to get free meals and food, as well as a promise of backpay, if I should get furloughed.

My question: What did they do with all the extra money they have earned for all the years they have been government employees.  Smart people have 6 months living expenses in a rainy day fund.  If they don't, too bad, so sad.

[joanmcq]

Upper level employees should have reserves, but low level employees don’t make a ton of money, and if in DC, it’s an expensive place to live. It also depends on the length of time on the job, size of family, etc. if you think the people keying paper returns make enough to save 6 months living expenses, you aren’t thinking correctly. 

I had the same kind of experience after college as  Katherine did, although  she didn’t mention any stints of homelessness as I had. And looking for the free food the Hare Krishnas served in the park. While I was working, too. But I have a bit more compassion for others in hard circumstances.

[Lee B]

Of the 26,000 IRS employees recalled to work, without pay, earlier this month in order to ensure refunds go out on time , only 12,300 actually reported to work.

The other 13,700 applied for and received hardship exemptions for things like having no money to put gas in the car or to pay for child care, etc.

Senior IRS officials told Congress yesterday, that the effects of the shutdown will last well into this summer.

This promises to be a tax season that we will not remember fondly.

 

 

[JohnH]

I saw a Facebook post where someone who SAID they were a government employees complained they were going to lose their home because of the 35-day shutdown. Someone immediately replied :"You don't lose your home for making one mortgage payment late !"  

 

 

 

[jklcpa]

This convo has been on thin ice for a while. 

[ETax847]

Team, let's just focus on helping each other get through tax season and keep it positive.  

[Catherine]

We can all relate to what they'll face come Monday:  HUGE piles of unopened and time-sensitive correspondence.  Past-due action items.  More things that *must* be done today than could possibly be done in a week.  And that's before the coffee machines are finished brewing or the fax machines are turned back on.

You know, the kind of day most of us face EVERY Monday during the tax season! 

(Note to Judy:  meant as humor, with a goodly dollop of true sympathy.  And a suggestion for background music for them - The Pretenders' "Back on the Chain Gang."  I do wish them the best plowing through it all.)

[Lee B]

The IRS Taxpayer Advocate told Congress several days ago that it will take 12 to 18 months for the IRS to deal with all the consequences of the shutdown.