Starting to Feel Like a Contractor Again

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I have to tell you, I feel like a contractor again. I was a good contractor. I worked hard, and for that I was rewarded. I had bonuses, I was given all the training I could swallow, and the company I worked for billed me out at a good rate.

But ultimately, the instability of the life of a contractor wasn't for me. I remember living through the loss of a contract. I landed on another contract with more authority but we would eventually lose that contract about 9 months later. I hated those meetings on Friday when we would all be called together and told that we should not come to work on the following Monday unless we hear from person X. This happened on the last Friday of the month for like 3 months and we kept getting these 1-month extensions.

So I left that world for the stability that a career in federal service could offer. And let me be specific, I don't just enjoy the stability, I like that I am making a difference, and really helping people. But make no mistake, the motivation for me was stability.

I tell this story because I feel like I'm living it again, only this time as a federal employee. On I think Feb. 25 we were looking at the possibility of a government shutdown only to be averted in the last week by another continuing resolution. The next shutdown was scheduled to occur on March 18, only to be averted at the last minute again. Now we have until April 7 to get a budget or shut down again.

It occurred to me that this feels exactly like that time that I was a contractor. I feel like I might be without work, and more importantly income. That is bad when I am the primary breadwinner in the family.

** Update - I have to resubmit my timesheet because the accounting code used to pay my salary is out of funds, which is weird because I didn't get a raise this year, cost of living or otherwise. Just another example of this stalemate over the budget spilling over into other things.