A Mindful Fed (Part 4)

Keep a life!

One of the most amazing things to me is how entwined our jobs are with our lives. It seems that things went sideways almost the moment our routine was disrupted.

I remember my mom thinking that retirement would be so awesome. No more deadlines, no more daily grind, no more fussing with a boss and demands of the job. But it soon became obvious that without a daily routine, a focus for one’s energy, and a direction to travel from day to day, life became a great desert with her wandering for the proverbial 40 years. That’s a shame too. She worked hard and deserved to enjoy that time. Don’t misunderstand, she did enjoy parts of it and was grateful to be away from that particular grind. But with no direction to move in, she found at times she was just spinning in circles.

The best way to face the lack of job-based direction seems to be to maintain some other semblance of direction. Without having a job to go to, we often need to replace it with activities and people so that we don’t feel we are lost, at sea all alone and without any sight of shore.

I try to spend time most every day around people, writing. It gives me a sense of accomplishment, joy, and much-needed practice. I have the ability to get my thoughts out, hopefully make some dent in peoples’ lives, and maybe even help someone along the way.

The love of my life is working on her future as an entrepreneur. A good friend is increasing his future in the music biz. Friends are spending time with loved ones, focusing on rallies or other means of calling attention to the crisis we share, and sadly a few may be drawing inward and experiencing a different kind of shut down. We are all dealing with this in the best ways we know how.

So for everyone reading this, I encourage you to reach out and make a difference in the life of a Federal employee. Not some politician, but a member of your family, your friend, your neighbor. Offer a little help if you can.

That doesn’t have to be money, or food, or a place to stay. It could be as simple as empathy, support, a hug, a text urging the person to keep going despite these hard times. Let them know they are appreciated, that they have value and dignity and above all hope despite circumstances. Shine a little light into their life to help lift a shadow or two.

In all, we are all as a nation suffering in some way with this. How will we make it through?

United. Determined. Focused on good, with love and peace.

Huh. I suddenly feel like listening to the Beatles.

A Mindful Fed (Part 3)

Facing forward, staying present

There are certain things that really sting about all this. Many of my friends and co-workers face:

·         No income, but no vacation from obligations.

·         Limited short-term options.

·         Uncertainty.

·         Bad news from the media every few minutes.

·         Lack of sympathy or support from family, friends, acquaintances, or strangers.

·         Negativity from all the political rhetoric surrounding us and the event.

Mindfully, there are some things I can do to make it through this crisis:

·         Find some income where possible. It will take some mix of ingenuity and chance, but there may be ways to cobble together enough to stay afloat.

·         Accept that there are parts of this crisis which are simply beyond my ability to do anything about. That’s refreshing, because it frees me from the anxiety over those things. I only need to be concerned with things I have some control over.

·         Stay away from negativity as much as possible. The more negativity I allow in, the more it becomes a part of me. It saps my positive energy, like electrons neutralizing protons.

·         Encourage others. As much positivity as I allow to flow into others, that’s just a little more strength they gain to deal with this mess. The more positive attitudes I encourage, the less negative ones gain strength.

·         Stay neutral. There are many views as to who is to blame in this crisis. Blame is just a way people have of focusing their negative energy and attitudes in a particular direction. It’s an effort to relieve them of the negative pressure created from anxiety and the unknown. But blame never solves a bloody thing. It doesn’t matter what one person or another did to lead us to this point. Even if someone did have all the responsibility, it wouldn’t mean a darned thing: we’d still be in this mess. Might as well not worry about pointing fingers.

·         Stay non-judgmental. Neutrality is great, but not practicable for a lot of folks. They have very firm views, and they are personally invested in matters. As things stand they can’t remain neutral. But there’s no value in judging those who have different views than I do. They have their views, I have mine. One of us may be right, maybe the other, maybe neither of us, maybe both of us a little bit. People deserve respect and we deserve peace no matter the positions we take.

·         Stay present. No matter what has happened, it’s unchangeably done and over. Unless someone has a time machine, it’s staying that way. Leave the past in the past or it will just make a muddle of your present. Likewise, the future is unknown, and people hate that. But seriously, since it’s pages in the book of life that haven’t been written yet, the most we can do is make the best decisions with all the wisdom, integrity, and intuition we can manage so that the future pages are the brightest we personally can make them.

·         Face forward. It’s tempting to look back wishfully, or get distracted by the wrangling going on around us. It’s going to be more efficient to face forward and stay the course. A ship at sea will turn into large waves to avoid being tipped over and scuttled. We need to turn into the waves of life to avoid being tipped over and perhaps sinking beneath the waves.

·         Deal with anxiety triggers. I’ve had to do breathing exercises and maintain something resembling a routine to stop or prevent intrusive negative thoughts. Since the anxiety of others can increase mine, the more I can help relieve theirs where possible, the easier we all breathe.

A Mindful Fed (Part 2)

A Federal Myth, a Federal Reality

For years I’ve worked on assignments at home for free, because things need to be done but there’s not enough time for them to be accomplished during the regular 8 hour day. I’ve helped co-workers, members of the public, and the occasional headquarters staff person in keeping processes and instructions consistent, understandable, and applied. I’ve trouble-shot systemic and procedural issues. I’ve enjoyed the job.

Nowadays, with all the negativity around the Federal workplace, there’s not much joy for me in my job. A lot of folks who aren’t government workers assume I have a cushy job, great pay, huge benefits, and lots of ego. Instead, after 25 years I have an uncertain future, casual acquaintances sneering disdainfully at me in misunderstanding, fewer benefits that cost more than ever…

…and less than $33,000 per year to show for it. Not exactly what the media portrays, is it?

I’m maxed out at my income level, and unless I get another job (hard to do with a hiring freeze all over), I will stay at this income for a long time. We haven’t even had a minimum cost-of-living increase for years. There are many reports of government spending and high incomes floating around the ether. Well, I can promise that most of us who work for the government stare in shocked amazement at those reports right along with most of the public.

While depression and anxiety descends on my Federal family, I’m struggling to deal with my own realities and there isn’t a lot of sympathy out there. So many around me focus on the negative, the news reports of a broken government and selfish political maneuvering, that I fall through the cracks with my employer and my neighbors at the same time.

How do I deal with this?

Mindfully, if at all possible.

A Mindful Fed (Part 1)

Hey, did ya hear? The Federal government shut down. Yeah, no really. Just up and shut the doors.

And right now it’s really starting to pinch.

In March 2013 I received my 25 year award. I didn’t get money. I didn’t get time off. I didn’t get a party.

I did get a plaque, a certificate, and an e-mail congratulating me on being a dedicated and faithful employee for the last quarter or a century. A co-worker got her 40 year award at the same time. We've spent some time serving our nation and its people.

The award came right up against the news that we were going to start having furlough days: for one or two days per month we would be ordered to stay away from the workplace and forbidden to engage in any official duties or act in any official capacity.

We tightened our belts and made adjustments, but no matter how many concessions we made locally, we were only able to limit the number of furlough days. Then October 1 came along. As of this writing, I’ve been off work for 2 weeks without any income. And there is very little good news on the horizon.

Sure, we’ve been told we’ll get paid for this time once the budget gets put in place. But that will be a lump sum check, and until then we have bills to pay, groceries to buy, roofs to keep over our heads. Our children need school lunch money. Our family members need medicines. Our loved ones need us to provide security and we just don’t have very much of that at the moment.

What about those who applied for unemployment? Well around these parts, as soon as we get our Federal paycheck, those folks will have to pay all of that back right away. After taxes are taken out, of course.

Perhaps we could just get a part-time job. We have guidelines about that too. We can’t just take any old job opportunity while we’re still technically employed by the Federal government, and in many cases we need to fill out a form to request permission to get outside employment before we can get that job.

Then there are the poor folks who are ordered to report to work almost daily without getting a cent for gas to drive to the campus (particularly rough for folks who live 30 or more minutes away). I know of at least one instance where an employee drove to work, was told to do something, and then told to go home 15 minutes later. Those deemed “Essential” occasionally feel worse than those who just stay in bed without pay.

In many ways, it’s like I’ve been in a relationship for 25 years, and even though things have been rocky lately, I took it in stride. What relationship doesn’t have troubles sometimes?

Well I’ve discovered that while my “partner” of 25 years has been telling me how much they love me, when the chips are down it turns out I’m really just a guy they know. And that kinda stings.