US government shutdown means hard times for civil servants

Mark, who declined to give his last name, said this shutdown is different, describing a Trump administration effort "to vilify and diminish the characteristics of federal employees, to make them appear as if they are unworthy of federal service, and that's unlike any of my experience as a federal employee."

The latest shutdown comes after Elon Musk, then an ally of President Donald Trump, earlier this year took an ax to the federal workforce, firing tens of thousands of staffers with a mandate from the White House. 

Trump often speaks disparagingly of a bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy.

Mark, an experienced worker in his 50s who dealt with funding for museums, is now looking for a new job.

"I think there's more opportunity outside the federal government right now to do good for our country," he said.

The shutdown started October 1 when Trump's Republicans and opposition Democrats failed to agree on a temporary spending plan to keep the government funded.

Civil servants who are required keep working because they are considered essential -- like air traffic controllers -- do so without pay.

But hundreds of thousands of others are furloughed -- forced to take unpaid leave.

"It feels terrible," said Mark, who had just attended a career development seminar for people like him who suddenly have a lot of free time.

Another furloughed government worker is Johan Hernandez, a young employee of the Census Bureau who said his approach is to do "one day after another."

Nicole Garcia, whose work was paused at the State Department, said she is frustrated by the shutdown -- even if does mean she now has time to take her son to school.

- Doubly punished -

Yet another furloughed employee, who works at the Small Business Administration, has managed to persuade his bank to freeze his mortgage payments.

This worker -- who did not want to give their name, like many who spoke to AFP -- said it has been difficult to be a civil servant since Trump returned to the White House in January.

White House budget director Russell Vought, who has been credited as the mastermind behind the drive to slash the federal workforce, has bragged about causing "traumas" among civil servants.

Musk fired people left and right as he ran the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year. 

Other employees were encouraged to leave, or worked for departments which were shuttered almost entirely, like the US Agency for International Development.

Now with the shutdown, the US federal workforce faces yet another round of layoffs -- which the White House said is already being rolled out.

Emily Abraham, a career diplomat who has had posts in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic, had been laid off over the summer but was meant to receive paychecks until November.

Now that she has been furloughed due to the shutdown, she receives no pay as she waits to lose her job -- what she called "double off" work status.

"In addition to not working, now I'm not being paid."

"I have three girls, a mortgage to pay, I have a car, all of these things to maintain, but I'm at a point where I will do any job," Abraham said.

She said the job market in Washington is saturated with people laid off from the government.

"I know several former senior diplomats who are driving Uber or Lyft as they look for a job," said Abraham.

ube/dw/jgc/acb