Which would you prefer: Layoffs, Furloughs, or Pay Cuts?

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Permalink Reply by VerticalGambit on May 9, 2009 at 8:01am

First off I would think that most people would say, "I'll take answer D: none of the above"

The thing is reading through newspaper articles and websites, that really has not been the option for many City, County, State workers. I took a pole of the workers in my section (10) and all ten, including myself, said they would prefer furloughs. The sad think is here in Fl they mentioned Furloughs once, but then went straight to pay cuts and layoffs.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Arnold on May 20, 2009 at 11:08am

I too would prefer none of the above. If something had to be done I would like to think I'd choose unpaid time off. Salery decreases have long lasting effects and I don't think anyone wants layoffs. I would prefer to decide when to take unpaid leave or at least have substantial notice. With that flexibility, I could try to arrange some other way to make money if necessary.
I would like to know how the state of FL decided on pay cuts for those making $45K or more. Was that an arbitrary number?

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Greene on July 1, 2009 at 6:08pm

I say furloughs and here is my reasoning...

With a layoff you close out empty positions or run cross-the-board staff reductions; the impact of this is that the workload is piled onto the remaining workers. If the workers can't meet the demand it reflects only on the workers and not the politician who made the decision.

Paycuts are simply posturing. "Everyone has to give.." "We are all affected.." Just political BS. The net affect is that when you do need to staff back up or expand the government services, the established pay grades are too low to attract employees back into public service. No politician will ever go to the mat for an across the board pay INCREASE.

Now a furlough, that is where the rubber meets the road for the people who make the decision. Furloughs equal reduction of services, plain and simple. When you show up at the DMV and only have one line open or when the phones all ring over to voice mail; "it's that damn [insert politician here] and his/her furlough".

Everything BUT a furlough is simply floating a political check for the next administration to cash.

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Permalink Reply by Duke Province on October 10, 2009 at 7:41pm

Layoffs.

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