I’m a federal employee. Everyone falls in one of three categories: Exempt, Excepted, Non-Excepted.

Exempt people are expected to come to work normally and they are paid normally. They probably don’t really see a change.

Non-Excepted people are furloughed. They were sent home Wednesday morning and will wait it out doing whatever they’d like and they will get all wages that were missed when everything is over. They will be paid for doing nothing.

Excepted people have the worst of both worlds. They have to come to work because they’ve been deemed critical but won’t get paid for it until its over. I’m in this category. I’m doing my job but im taking my time to accomplish anything.

The law that governs this is the “Government Employee Fair Treatment Act” of 2019.