And I’d put money on the bet that there is no agreement by the end of Christmas day.

So technically, the shutdown didn't start until Saturday at 12:01 am.

They don't get a week paid holiday for Christmas.

an executive order was signed a week or so ago granting Christmas Eve as an extra holiday this year.

Which is not something people in the private sector generally get. If they want the day off, they use their own leave time. It should be the same for federal employees.

It costs federal and state governments millions, if not billions to close up for the weekend, open one day, then close again for Christmas, then open again on Wednesday. The same issue is also the rationale to move most federal holidays to Monday.

Notwithstanding, I wish folk wouldn’t fall into the right wing anti-government worker swamp of insisting that, if a private employee supposedly doesn’t get something, federal employees shouldn’t, either. Government isn’t private industry and for every “perk” people think a federal employee gets, there is also a downside that private-sector employees don’t have to deal with (including being punching bags and boogeymen for the anti-government crowd).

a Monday or a Friday?

Plus, businesses all somehow manage to open one day, close the next, and reopen the day after the holiday. While their employee numbers are not quite like that of the federal government, they would likewise have costs that, according to your explanation, that would be saved by being closed that extra day.

Some years when New Year's falls on a Tuesday, presidents have issued executive orders to give federal employees the Monday off.

However, as I said, the federal government isn't a private business. Opening the entire federal government for one day and then closing it again affects millions of people and costs millions and even billions of dollars - a different cost impact than individual businesses doing the same thing thing.

But you seem to be suggesting that no private business shuts down on Christmas or New Year's Eve. In fact, many do, even when those holidays don't fall on a Monday, at their discretion as a cost-saving measure or employee perk. I once worked for a company that shut down completely from Christmas Eve through January 2. We were given paid leave on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but we were required to use our annual leave for the other days.

off by federal order was in 1973. That's hardly often.

And yes, I do know some companies shut down over Christmas and New Years, but those are generally fairly small ones, and ones who simply won't be doing much of their business or work during that period. Large companies? Not so much.

You seem hell-bent on convincing us that government employees - who are spending this Christmas wondering when they'll see another paycheck - aren't suffering from the shutdown because they enjoy special privileges that people in the private sector don't have. But since that fallacious argument doesn't work on me, I suggest you directed at someone whose view of government makes them receptive to that kind of fallacious talking point or just doesn't know any better.

Plus, the justification for Christmas Even granted as a paid holiday to save money doesn't really hold up when New Year's Eve, exactly one week later, same day of the week, somehow doesn't have that same rationale.

Oh, well.

And what I do know is that in every other previous shut down the employees all got paid. Not entirely sure who makes that decision, probably Congress.

Employees were expected to work on Monday or use 8 hours of accrued annual leave of they wanted to take the day off.

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/holidays-work-schedules-and-pay

That said, what's with all of the "So what if federal employees are furloughed? It's no big deal for them" posts?

It traditionally is when Christmas falls on a Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/19/trump-signs-executive-order-making-christmas-eve-holiday-federal-workers/?utm_term=.04db92038a6b

But I'm still puzzled by the number of posts insisting this shutdown isn't a hardship for federal employees.

My sister is TSA, so she's highly stressed right now. I work for a department that got funded for the entire year.

Yes, public service runs in the family. Military, police, public works, Government etc.

progressives.

I'm aware that granting the day after Thanksgiving as an extra holiday often occurs. I can recall one year, when I was working at DCA, National Airport, listening to federal employees complain bitterly that whoever was President that year hadn't granted them the extra holiday the day after Thanksgiving, and they were forced to use personal leave.

It closed at midnight. Which was hours after normal weekday workers were done for the weekend. Actually, for the next four days since federal employees had already been granted Christmas Eve as an extra holiday. In the past they've always wound up getting paid for the time of the shut down, it's simply not, at least at the beginning, quite as terrible as it might be.

I believe the shutdowns wind up costing more money than keeping the government open would.