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Bureaucracy Playing Trains by Joanne Sadler Both Republicans and Democrats are predicting the federal government will undergo a "train wreck" this fall-a temporary widespread shutdown due to a...
...Labor union and Clinton administration officials decry the oncoming "wreck" because, they say, "it will ruin people's lives...
...My peers and friends, therefore, aren't worried or angry, but are calmly making plans to take advantage of their free time...
...Once President Clinton and the Republican Congress come to terms on the budget, the "wreck" will be over, and the bureaucrats will return to work...
...Perhaps this is a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the obvious benefit of the "wreck": a federal bureaucracy on Slim Fast, reduced to only "essential personnel...
...Bureaucracy Playing Trains by Joanne Sadler Both Republicans and Democrats are predicting the federal government will undergo a "train wreck" this fall-a temporary widespread shutdown due to a lack of funding...
...We've had a couple of months to get ready financially...
...For most of us bureaucrats, it's no big deal...
...What will we bureaucrats be doing during the "train wreck...
...And if the "wreck" lasts only a day or two (highly probable) there's a good chance we'll get paid anyway, via "administrative leave...
...What will happen when Federal employees (like myself) stay away from their jobs because they're not being paid...
...Some will do what you might expect: finish odd jobs around the house and spend more time with their kids...
...As a friend advised, "Stay away from the fur shops and the racetrack and everything will be just fine...
...Still others plan to "ruin their lives" by getting married during the "wreck," or by going hunting (October is squirrel-hunting season in nearby Pennsylvania...
...Joanne Sadler is a federal employee and a law student at George Mason University...
...One friend of mine is going to Disney World, another is going to Florida to play golf with her sister, while another plans to cruise the Potomac with his wife (who's also a federal employee) on their powerboat...
...We know how to plan for shutdowns...
...We've learned how to play the game from the mini-wreck of 1986 (we had four hours off, but received administrative leave pay later) and the near-wreck in 1990...
...The reality is that many federal employees plan to make the most of their time off, paycheck or no paycheck...
...But what about the "wreck" itself...
...Even if the "wreck" proves a long one, we could collect unemployment insurance...
...Others will head out to their vacation homes or go on Christmas shopping trips, while the more industrious types will get caught up on their night-school homework or spend more time at their second jobs...
Vol. 1 • October 1995 • No. 3
