Civilian furloughs end at Fort Gordon | The Augusta Chronicle

When Fort Gordon computer specialist Stan Buckalew began to revise his work schedule Friday after six weeks of civilian furloughs, he couldn’t help but reflect on how the unpaid leave made work more stressful.

Friends who were contractors lost jobs because of budget cuts; family members were forced to work a 40-hour week for 20 percent less pay; and a lack of utility workers on the Army post because of furloughs often resulted in heating and cooling units going unfixed and breaking down repeatedly for two months.

Even a 400-mile convoy training mission to Tennessee was delayed a week for reserves because the Army did not have enough mechanics at its depot repair shops.

“The day-to-day grind of furloughs really gets on your nerves,” Buckalew said of the experience. “It affects everything you do.”

J.C. Mathews, a Fort Gordon spokesman, said the end of the furloughs was welcome news for the post as a whole and its 3,100 civilian workforce, which took most of their furloughs on Fridays. Buckalew agreed, but ever-changing media reports surrounding future funding continue to disrupt the workplace.

via Civilian furloughs end at Fort Gordon | The Augusta Chronicle.