Shutdowns and Dream Jobs
Experts worry government shutdowns will drive NASA employees to the private sector, Houston Chronicle
“But Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news, suspects the duration and frequency of the shutdowns soon will plant seeds of doubt in peoples’ mind about working at the history-making space agency. “A lot of people take a salary cut to work at NASA,” Cowing said. “But when you can’t pay the bills and you have to do chores for your landlord for rent, there’s nothing worse than having your dream job taken away from you because of this.” A decision like that is a heartbreaking one, Cowing said, but it’s one that the next shutdown could force people to make. “There’s nothing worse than thinking, ‘My god, I got to NASA and I can’t afford to stay here,'” he said.”
Shutdown makes it difficult for NASA to attract young talent, says tech labor leader, The Hill
“NASA has been a very attractive place for people to go to work,” Shearon, the president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.” “If you’re a young person coming out of college today, and you’ve got maybe an advanced degree in engineering or science, and you take a look and you say wait a second, how could it possibly be that NASA scientists are not working, and they’re at home not getting paid? That’s not what I went to school for,” he continued. “My love of science is far greater than my love for my employer.”
There are many smaller projects and facilities rarely mentioned in the media so most don’t know they exist. i.e. a controls engineer and/or IT person hired few months ago, after familiarization with facilities, security clearance, hard badge (takes some time to get), and now they are ready to hitt the ground running. But now complete stop… maybe they will take that other offer. If these smaller positions disappear we won’t notice except those working in that position. However in long run years from now we will realize NASA was known to do various things they can no longer do now.
Love that NASA badge with Nichelle Nichols.
I appreciated the image of Lt. Uhura being used to show a future NASA employee, but Nichelle Nichols has been working for NASA for more than 40 years both for free as an ambassador and as a paid contractor in 1977 to recruit women and minority astronauts. She had transcended more presidents and NASA Administrators than most of us. An icon and a dedicated advocate for space.
Given how the numbers of Black folks at NASA have dwindled,,,
Meh, that’s a conversation for another day
..
At the end, the civil servants will get back pay. They have in the previous shutdowns. And the contractors probably won’t. That’s where the real problem is.
No, the real problem is much more complex than that. There are NASA employees who might have issues paying bills, which can affect their credit rating; that might have emergencies for which they won’t be able to cover with cash; and number of many other different financial stressors or emergencies that are common to the human experience. Yes, NASA employees likely will get back pay, but back pay doesn’t fix everything.
I’ve worked both government contractor and private sector positions. This whole idea that the “shutdown will drive folks to the private sector” is a bit of a myth. Private sector jobs if anything, can be less secure than contractor positions. Yes, this shutdown situation sucks and being without a paycheck for this temporary period isn’t fun, but in the long run, these type positions are far more stable. At least as a contractor, you’re roughly guaranteed a position for as long as the contract is going to be alive for (assuming you perform well and don’t mess up of course), whereas in the private sector, if they see a profit hit in a quarter, or there’s a quick downturn in business, they’ll lay you off at the drop of a hat, even if you’re a high performing employee. Not to mention that the private sector tends to work on a hard salary requirement, oftentimes demanding copious amounts of unpaid overtime. There’s pros and cons to both avenues.
It depends on the job and the company, but many government contractors are fairly serious about retaining employees. Specifically, they need enough people with the right skills in order to make credible proposals for future contracts. If you are one of those people, a private company will go to great lengths to keep you on staff. That includes finding ways to pay you when there is a gap in funding. Those are the sorts of people who will see private sector jobs as more secure than government jobs, given the reality of government shutdowns. It isn’t everyone but they do represent a significant and important part of the workforce and available talent.
Trump’s shutdown trap?
Here’s some exerpts from the linked article:
Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only five more days of the already “longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.
A lot of procedures must be followed, and merit (“performance”) is the last consideration, but based on the criteria above, employees already furloughed can be laid off (“RIFed”) once they have been furloughed for 30 days or 22 work days:
Keep in mind that saboteurs cannot be individually identified and RIFed, but they can be included in the layoffs if they meet the criteria above in terms of seniority and service, and they must be given 60 days’ notice. But once they are gone, they are no longer free to obstruct using the “process” as their friend, because they are gone.
You can expect lawsuits on every conceivable point, and I suspect that the definition of “furlough” will be one matter of dispute.
If this was the plan all along, it would explain why President Trump goaded Chuck and Nancy in his televised meeting with them last year, boasting that he would claim credit for the shutdown. How could they resist a prolonged shutdown when he made it so easy to blame him?
Hardest hit by the shutdown are NASA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency. These agencies and others have basically gone on life support, with nine out of 10 employees furloughed, according to the Washington Post.
https://www.americanthinker…
I was concerned about this when Trump tried to refer to the shutdown as a strike but it looks like OPM is not planning RIFs. Health insurance premiums maybe another issue.
https://federalnewsnetwork….
The OMB has already put out a statement saying that conspiracy theory is incorrect.
https://federalnewsnetwork….
Furloughed feds won’t be RIFed if government shutdown extends past 30 days, OMB says
Good to hear things won’t degenerate into a chaotic rif procedure. The article was anonymous person in the Trump administration. Looks like fear mongering in light of the mis information about rifs that led to the OMB putting out a statement.
Hope the OMB statement relieves some of the shutdown stress- as it looks like the showdown will likely go beyond the state of the union address (see a Pelosi letter asking for delay of SOTU).
Long time lurker on this terrific site. Currently on hiatus as a contractor at MSFC due to the shutdown. As far as contractors not getting paid for the shutdown after the fact – our company intends to send NASA a bill for shutdown related time (special charge numbers have been set up for it.) Management’s latest missive says “NASA may or may not reimburse us for this time.” Well – Many of us have made it crystal clear that if NASA says “no” to the request we are heading for the exits. Absolutely ridiculous that the civil servant workforce gets back pay for not working while we (the contractors) get hosed. To be totally clear: This center runs on our backs. I know that’s the nature of the beast, so to speak, but as a 22 year veteran at MSFC I’m not OK with sitting here losing a paycheck for potentially many months. In the past we have always been treated decently by the customer, but this would be a huge blow to our already pathetically fragile morale. Yeah – I’m working on SLS, can you tell?
Mr. Cowing, thanks for providing this forum for folks to vent / share experiences.
The basic problem is that neither side has any logical political reason at the moment to end the shutdown and every incentive to keep it going.
President Trump believes it is critical at any cost to national security to complete the network of border walls that were started during the Clinton Administration and is tired of being blocked on it.
The Democrats believe they will be able to spin the shutdown in a way to ensure they will take control of the Senate and White House in the next election.
So neither really cares about the misery being caused as it has become the classic political power struggle. Nothing is going to happen until the public gets fed up, really fed up and makes it clear they will throw everyone out come the next election. Such is the state of politics today and it is sickening to see it.
“The basic problem is that neither side has any logical political reason at the moment to end the shutdown and every incentive to keep it going.”
Well, one would think that, of course, reading the media stories, which cover the politics but not the issue.
The issue here is fairly simple: there is no border crisis; border security is pretty darn good; and a wall is a one-size-fits-all “solution” from a bellicose president with no grasp of the underlying issues. And this: the environmental issues are appalling.