Hoarding Groceries Survival Strategy for Furloughed Workers [View all]

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-21/hoarding-groceries-survival-strategy-for-furloughed-workers-1-.html


Dan Cepeda/Star-Tribune/AP Photo
Civilian employees of contractor Magic City Enterprises stock the commissary shelves after hours on Oct. 24, 2012 at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. A base spokesperson said each of the 1,100 civilians employed on the base could face forced furlough days amounting to about $8,000 in lost annual income if federal sequestration measures are enacted.

Pete Randazzo already has dipped into his savings to pay his daughter’s medical bills. Now another setback looms: a 20 percent reduction in pay for his job at a Navy school under federal budget cuts.

Randazzo, 51, an information technology specialist at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, is bracing for furlough days that now may begin in May.

The Defense Department (USBODEFN), which pays Randazzo’s salary, will be among the hardest hit. As many as 750,000 of its civilian employees may be required to take off at least one day a week. The Pentagon said today it would delay furlough notices until at least April 5, citing additional funding from Congress in a stopgap spending measure passed today.

“As it gets closer, the anxiety is really rising, professionally and personally,” said Randazzo, whose insurance company declined to cover his daughter’s condition. “What happens when somebody has to deal with a crisis? The next person who runs into this is going to have some pretty hard decisions to make.”