Throw Momma From The Train

by Ouida on October 3, 2013

I have always wanted to write a blog post with that title and now I can.
I find it so odd that the party that professes to promote family values has done all it can to wreck them. There is this quirky thing in a government shutdown: employees are considered exempt or non exempt from outright furlough. Those who are non-exempt are furloughed. Those who are exempt because they oversee critical operations or provide medical care are expected to remain on the job and forfeit all planned, and previously approved, time away from work during the shutdown under threat of furlough (being shifted to non pay status and being barred from returning to work). Without clear guidance, what this is translating into is delayed or cancelled time with family. Cancelled weddings. The couple who couldn’t get married at the Grand Canyon made the news at CNN, but real federal employees are canceling their weddings altogether because of fear that they will be furloughed (prevented from returning to work) if they take the time to get married now. A woman out on maternity leave, who would have been on family medical leave is now furloughed. People who went on emergency medical leave near the end of September are now in furlough status and there is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not those individuals we be allowed to return to work once the medical emergency has passed. A visit from a relative is now in jeopardy because leaving your duty station to spend time with that relative may put you in furlough status. Many people would readily go a day or a week without pay if it meant they could get married on time or spend time with loved ones, but most would balk if taking that day or week would result in a month without pay or if taking that day or week meant undue hardship, because of increased workload, on colleagues left behind.

The party of family values has placed millions of people in the unenviable position of kicking family to the curb…throwing momma from the train.

“Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? A little too ironic, yeah I really do think.”–Alanis Morissette

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