Imagine your boss announces that- due to no fault of your own- there is a good chance that in a couple of months the company will temporarily shut down and simply stop paying you… he is having an argument with the chief financial officer of the company, and feels that stopping your paychecks will be a good way to make his point.

He tells you there is no way to know how long you might have to go without a paycheck… it really depends on how long it takes him and the CFO to come to some sort of agreement.

Will you be eventually paid your missing paychecks once this dispute is resolved? Maybe, maybe not- it really depends on whether the company CEO’s vote to pay you- don’t get your hopes up- the last time this happened many of them argued that the employees were all lazy and didn’t deserve to be paid- and that contingent of CEOs have gotten much more power since then.

You try explaining that the rest of the world keeps going, your bills still have to be paid on time, your landlord expects the rent at the first of the month, etc…
You try explaining that clearances that you need to do your job can be revoked if you start missing payments…
You try explaining that ‘shutting down’ will cost the company more than it ‘saves’
Important deadlines – like launch dates- are not going to wait for the boss to work out his needless conflicts…

None of this matters. Your boss grins and says “A shutdown is just what we need!”

This is what federal workers are facing in the upcoming government shutdown Trump is threatening if he doesn’t get the taxpayer money to pay for a useless wall that he promised Mexico would pay for…