Photo By Cpl. Michael Wick | Maria Rodriguez Callejas, Marine Corps family team building trainer for 12th Marine...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Midnight, October 1. The countdown clock on the local news channel reaches zero. The federal government officially shuts down. Certain effects immediately take place around the country. National parks shutdown, national monuments are barricaded, many government services are halted, and more than 800,000 government workers are furloughed indefinitely.
That day, civilian workers report to work and turn everything in. Government phones are shut off, and workers are told not to call or come in for work until a decision is made in Washington.
During the government shutdown, furloughed civilians faced the challenge of getting by for an undetermined amount of time with many uncertainties, and the 12th Marine Corps District was no exception. With many civilian workers in each department of the District, they were all forced to pack their bags and go home.
The civilian workers from 12th MCD, like everyone else, have bills to pay and families to feed. But without a steady paycheck and an unstable situation like the government shutdown, many of them didn’t know how long they would go without pay.
“The uncertainty of ‘were we going to get paid,’ and ‘when we were going to come back’ was the hardest part,” said Thomas Fellenbaum, recruiting facilities program manager at 12th MCD.
Fellenbaum also mentioned for some households, the federal paycheck is their lifeline.
“Some households only have one wage earner, only have one source of income, and it’s the federal paycheck,” said Fellenbaum. “I’m sure they were highly impacted.”
For Kimberly Carey, the logistics supply specialist at 12th MCD, it was just the case.
“It’s impacted me quite a bit because at that point when the government shut down, I had a car payment, I had rent due, and I had other monthly bills needing to be paid,” she said. “So the only thing I could do at the point was seek unemployment until they called us back, which was the next week.”
Luckily, for most civilian workers at 12th MCD, they were prepared for the government shutdown, having a steady savings account for emergency situations.
“It didn’t affect me much because it’s just me and my wife, and my wife is employed with a good job,” said Johnnie Peralez, an Information System Coordinator at 12th MCD. “We had to take some out of savings to get by, but other than that it didn’t affect me much.”
The hardest part for Peralez was the communication aspect of the shutdown. Government policy prohibits any furloughed worker from contacting their command, making it difficult to get information. Furloughed workers had to watch the news and surf the Internet for updated information on the government’s status.
“The only thing I could do was watch the news,” said Peralez. “Keeping up with the events and bills being passed in Congress.”
The civilian workers were all in agreement, there wasn’t anything they could do at the time to improve the situation, but just as the Marines they work with, they got through the tough times together.
Maria Rodriguez Callejas, the Marine Corps Family Building Trainer for 12th MCD, said there is a sincere bond amongst the civilian workers.
“I think we have an amazing bond here at 12th Marine Corps District, we genuinely do care about each other,” she said. “Although we are professional, we are friends and concerned with each other’s families and kids.”
Their bond, Rodriguez Callejas says, made it easier to get through their tough time. And while she doesn’t know how other units handled their situation with the furloughs, she sung praises for the commands handling of the circumstances at hand.
“I think the 12th Marine Corps District command handled it very well considering a lot of it wasn’t in their control,” said Rodriguez Callejas. “They were very professional in the way they did it as far as announcing to the staff and giving us some kind of ‘as soon as we know we will bring you back’ assurance.”
Now that the government shutdown is over, the civilian workers at 12th MCD can breathe a little easier knowing they’re getting back pay for their time off, as well as their regular paychecks. However, they won’t forget what happened, and they are expecting more to come.
“I think this is going to become routine for us,” said Fellenbaum. “We’re probably going to have more shutdowns in the future. I think it’s something we need to prepare for.”
In the end, civilian workers and Marines were reminded of what they already knew, all employees and the work they do is in fact essential to their mission.
Capt. Nathanial Goddard, aviation assistant for officer procurement at 12th MCD, said the loss of the civilians took a toll on their operations, as well as operations in other District sections.
“(The AAOP team down a man during the furlough) slowed us down significantly because we had to learn how to do the job from scratch,” he said. “As Marines we’re very proud of doing more with less, and we started to figure it out and get through it, but it’s definitely great to have them back at work helping us out.”
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2013 19:13 |
| Story ID: | 115698 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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