Of us.
There are approximately 19 million people working as federal contractors in the United States. I am one of them, and I’m friends with a few others, too. About half of my colleagues are contractors.
When people start talking about slashing budgets in the federal government, we are not the employees anyone thinks of. When the clock is ticking on a government shutdown, nobody bats an eye at us… unless they are one of us, are related to one of us, or are friends with us. We occupy a wholly necessary but rather forgotten space in the federal ecosystem.
The scientists, doctors, lawyers, admin staff and various others at our many federal institutions are the ones people think of. And certainly, rightly so, but those affiliated otherwise aren’t top of mind. There are an estimated 2 million federal employees (not counting the military, obviously). We top their ranks by 17 million. And these people are absolutely vital, to be sure. But so are we.
When a shutdown is pending I’m gnawing at my insides. The last two near-shutdowns gave me and I’m sure many others unhealthy doses of anxiety. And I probably would still have had work, even away from my clients. For how long? No idea. What happens next? Well, my company is pretty awesome, and it bends over backwards to try to hang onto their employees. I’m lucky. Not everyone is in such a situation.
But imagine just moving along at your job and doing your thing, regularly being appreciated for what you do and being told your work is excellent, organizing your world and putting it all together, and then suddenly crashing into the monolith of an undecided, clashing Congress.
They still get paid during a shutdown. Their take-home isn’t impacted. They were going to go home for Christmas anyway. As agitated and frustrated as they might be, they’re not the ones potentially suffering. Also, federal employees get furloughed: they keep collecting pay even though they can’t work, and it gets appropriated back to them after the shutdown is over.
Federal contractors do not. There is no such mechanism for protection for us.
Yes, every job comes with its ups and downs, and I’m grateful that what happened in 2019 hasn’t happened again since. But we need to do this better. Congress needs to be held responsible. Their pay should be cut, too, and no furloughing for them. The current system disincentivizes them from giving a shit about people in my position and about federal employees.
I’m really glad I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs right now, or looking for work, or wondering how much longer I will have stuff to work on and if that number of days will be outdone by the Congressional smackdown or not. I’m grateful for my employer and my team and our client. I genuinely enjoy what I do and it appears I am mostly pretty good at it. I was not feeling so healthy on December 19, just a couple short weeks ago.
I don’t know how exactly to create this kind of change. I know Congress won’t like it. But I do know that it starts with participation. It starts with engagement. If anyone has any ideas about how I could speed the rest along, I’m SO open to them. Let me know.
Distractible Content 