The Silent Majority: The Truth About "Non-Essential" Personnel

It is that time again. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were on the verge of the last government shutdown. Alas, like the holidays, here we are again.

There are a lot of misconceptions that float around during these tense times, and one them centers around the infamous “non-essential” personnel.

Before I move forward, there is an important fact to note regarding the number of people impacted by a shutdown. Media outlets are quick to advise the number of potentially impacted federal employees, and that those employees are “furloughed”, historically receiving back-pay once a budget is approved. What they do not mention is that federal contractors outnumber federal employees approximately 3:1, and federal contractors do not qualify for furlough. So to use real-world examples related to this latest shutdown threat, roughly 800,000 federal employees could be impacted, meaning that nearly 3,000,000 federal contractors are also at risk. Three million! Three million people that are out of work and do not qualify for furlough.

The term “furlough” also needs some clarification. Furlough is often considered by many to be a paid vacation for federal employees. This is not the case. Yes, often when a new budget is finally approved and the government re-opens these employees will be paid for the duration of the shutdown, but it is not a guarantee. For those who are furloughed, they are out of work and unpaid until the government re-opens, and will only receive back-pay if it was approved in the new budget. Additionally, for those employees who are cleared to keep working, not furloughed, they are required to keep working without being paid, and are only paid once the government re-opens. Yes, the money will come in time (most likely), but that doesn’t pay the bills or buy groceries for those who find themselves in this situation.

Then there are our contractors. If you think furlough sounds unfair, well contractors dream of qualifying for furlough – which we don’t. Contractors find themselves with two options if deemed non-essential: Use PTO if you have any left (and at the end of the year, not many do) or go unpaid. When the government re-opens we get to go back to work, but there is no back-pay coming. If you had to go unpaid, well, let’s hope you had some savings or another form of income.

This brings us to the main topic of the article: Essential vs Non-Essential personnel.

Anytime we face a shutdown in our country, there is hardly any other term that causes as much controversy as “Non-Essential”. Many people will make the argument that, “If a position is non-essential, then why does it exist in the first place? Why is the government wasting our tax dollars funding so many non-essential positions?”

When unfamiliar with what these terms actually mean, looking at the numbers can be staggering. In relation to this shutdown, over 440,000 federal employees (not counting contractors) would be considered non-essential. People unfamiliar with government operations quickly do the math and find an answer to the debt-crisis our country is facing. Add in government contractors also deemed non-essential and you can see the steam coming from the foreheads of those who take an interest in government spending and those who wish for smaller government.

I am not going to lie, prior to working as a government contractor I would have the same thoughts. Many articles only speak to the numbers of people, not hesitating to label federal employees as essential or non-essential, but do not take the time to explain and educate the reader on what “non-essential” actually means.

I now have over four years of government contracting experience, during a turbulent time in our government, and so have been through multiple shutdowns and shutdown threats. I can say from direct experience that the terms “essential” and “non-essential” are not only inaccurate, but highly misleading. Not only are non-essential personnel highly essential to the operations of the government, they are usually the people who actually complete the work required for the government to function.

Think of the government as an emergency room at a hospital. There are a lot of people who contribute to a successful, well-functioning ER. You have the admin and clerical staff who check people in and get their information and issues documented. You have billing staff who collect information so the hospital can be paid for the services provided. You have the nurses who complete tests and gather information for the doctor. Obviously, we have the doctors there to treat the patient. For those in worse conditions, surgeons and anesthesiologists are available, along with the surgical teams needed to offer you best chances at a successful surgery. There are plenty of other positions and required personnel I am forgetting, but this gives us a good basis for this example.

When we reach a shutdown of the government, national and regional-level management determines who on their staff is “essential” or “non-essential”. Basically, “Who can we keep on duty to keep the lights on and manage some urgent tasks if needed?”

Using our emergency room example, management would need to go through their list of personnel and decide what the bare minimum is in terms of personnel that they could get by with in order to accomplish two goals: spend as little money as possible, but still be able to provide needed services. So, let’s work through it:

It is an emergency room, so there will likely be some critical and urgent needs that would require a surgeon. Our surgeon is definitely essential personnel. How about our admin, clerical, and billing staff? Well, our surgeon could check people in when they come in and have them fill out needed paperwork, and he could also collect their billing information at the same time. These staff members are non-essential. How about nursing staff and the doctor? Our surgeon could collect needed data and perform needed tests, and a surgeon is technically a doctor. These staff members will be considered non-essential. How about our anesthesiologist and surgical teams? Well, not all surgical procedures actually require anesthesia, or our surgeon can give an attempt at offering it if needed, and he can pick up his own tools and instruments during the surgery. The surgeon also can monitor the patient’s vitals while working. These staff members are non-essential.

So, like the government does, we have narrowed down our workforce the absolute minimum needed to “keep the lights on”. Most of our personnel were labeled as “non-essential”, but I think we can agree that those personnel are highly essential to the daily operations of an emergency room. Imagine the lines and wait-time if the surgeon had to check people in and collect billing information, or if one surgeon was responsible for completing needed tests and diagnoses for all patients between surgeries that often take hours? What if you needed invasive surgery and had to pick between no anesthesia and letting an untrained surgeon attempt to provide anesthesia with a high chance of you either not receiving enough or never waking up? What if the surgeon needs another tool or extra hands while clamping a severed artery closed?

Clearly, all of these “non-essential” personnel are highly essential to the daily operations of the ER, just as those labeled “non-essential” during a government shutdown are highly essential to the daily operations of the government.

Throughout the government, this scenario plays over-and-over for all fields of work during times of shutdown. Often, it is a federal manager that will be selected as “essential” for their department. For me, a Senior-level Systems Administrator that provides support and services for the entire Denver region, while also working on projects that have impact nationwide for the BIA, I am considered “non-essential”. During the shutdown, the federal manager I report to will remain on as “essential”. That person will be available to answer questions and provide limited support during the shutdown, a time in which there would be a dramatic drop in production for our agency. However, to assume this one person, who often does not perform technical work, can solely replace his entire technical staff when the government is fully operational based on a short-term determination of being “essential” or “non-essential” is ludicrous.

Unfortunately, right now there are millions of people in the same situation, who are on the verge of unexpectedly being forced out of work and going unpaid. Sadly, it is also during one of the most monetarily-stressful, and what should be joyous, times of the year.

Whatever your political thoughts are, and no matter what side you are on, I think it is fair to say that this is not a situation we would wish on anyone. The livelihoods of millions of people are being held to the fire in a game of chicken between two political parties. It is millions of innocent people who are being forced to suffer the consequences of the choices made in matters in which we have little say. A larger spotlight needs to be placed on the people who will be directly impacted by a shutdown, as these lives are being treated as pawns in the game being played in Washington.