Who Worries About NASA Cybersecurity During The Shutdown?
Keith’s note: From [email protected]: “Me and my colleagues are out of work during this shutdown with no prospect for ever getting back our lost wages. The federal government has a hard time recruiting people in my field because of a large salary difference with private sector companies. We choose a career with federal agencies because we believe in the mission of protecting the United States. NASA is going to lose a lot a talent in cyber security as workers like myself seek more stable employment elsewhere.”
So civil servants aren’t getting backpay for this shutdown?
I wondert about the as well, having heard, from a couple of news sources, that payment does come after some delay, or had in the past.
Some argue that since people weren’t working, they shouldn’t be paid. Those people are out of touch: cnn.com reports that “76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck.”
It’s a terrifying figure with serious longterm implications. But those 76% don’t have the ability to even think about longterm implications; they are too worried about next month’s rent.
There’s no reason to expect that NASA folks are any different.
And I’d add this: perhaps the Administration is right on this ‘wall’ issue, perhaps not. But I know this: they can find a different way to resolve the issue, a way that does not threaten the roof over so many heads.
Talk about being out of touch.
It’s not guaranteed, but I believe congress has always included backpay in appropriations bills that end a shutdown. Maybe this is the first furlough for the individual who emailed (btw, using a nasa.gov email when furloughed would seem to be a no-no).
The tradition of getting back pay probably isn’t too comforting. The House is planning on a “pay as you go” rule, which could cause problems for awarding back pay. And just about everything is up in the air. What would you do, if you worked for a bank and a furloughed government employee asked for a short term loan to cover next month’s bills? Would you accept “they have awarded back pay in the past” as good credit? I think those government employees have a valid cause to worry about never seeing the back pay.
Backpay after the shutdown is optional. Everyone (at least I think everyone) got backpay after the 2013 shutdown. But only because that was specifically included in the legislation which ended that shutdown. If Congress doesn’t put in those words, I believe the default is no backpay.
Last night on PBS newshour, they had discussion with someone representing IFPTE (I didn’t get name, only saw part of this segment). He said there are many govt workers currently working and not getting paid. There are laws prohibiting private employers not paying people that are working but federal government is exempted. Many of these civil servants don’t have considerable savings. Probably these people will get back pay.
Another issue are projects like facility and equipment upgrades where contracts were made and on-going work. i.e. this time of year a good time to do major upgrades when test facility schedules are light during Christmas. But a shutdown puts everything on hold which disrupts schedule and contractors brought in for the project not happy when things put on hold (they not pay specialists who planned detailed work?)
This only highlights the pointlessness of shutdowns. They almost always end up costing more than if the government had remained open.
Status updates at KSC are being distributed via email, which is exponentially harder to read now due to the draconian IT security policies in place.
I don’t mean to be flippant, but McDonalds is hiring. Or, more seriously, there are temporary jobs in the service industry. For someone furloughed and not covered by the ethics regulations you mention, that’s at least something. I’m not suggesting that $12 per hour is a living wage. But it is a short-term way to cover at least some of the bills. Unfortunately, in the longer term, even if people really like working for NASA, they’re going to have to quit and take a permanent job that does pay a living wage. The essential employees don’t even have the option of temp work to stretch out their funds.
Just read an article on TechGenix dot com, dated 2019/01/04, NASA data leak exposes and compromises employee records.NASA cybersecurity group started the investigation on Oct. 23, 2018.
Yea we broke the story last month here http://nasawatch.com/archiv…