Maybe I've been working for myself for too long.
Pay cut = same work, less pay = sucks.
Lay off = really sucks.
Furlough = a day off to get stuff done. I'm sorry if your time is worth more in tax dollars than in "free market". If you are going to spend the day off watching TV - that's all you deserve. I wish I had a weekday off to work on MY house, or MY car, or further MY education .... This is a free country - nobody makes you work for the government; if you think your time is worth more and you can be more productive - get a job in private sector; Oklahoma has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates. Furlough sucks only if YOU make it suck.
And, yes, being raised in Soviet Union, I do find government employees complain about the government very amusing.
I've been through furlough talks before. It is NOT a "vacation day" which is what you seem to think it is. I was a single mom with 3 kids and another job besides the .gov job that was talking about furloughing so I was panic-stricken. Your work load is NOT reduced. It is just crammed into 4 days instead of 5. And I've got news for you, the hardest I ever worked was at my .gov job. Do all .gov employees work as hard as I did? Admittedly, no. And that kept me in trouble with my peers, and, believe it or not, sometimes my supervisors. I've met, and am friends with many of the guys here who are Tinker employees. They all, to the very last man (just because they are all fellas and not because I'm being sexist -- seems like I feel the need to put a disclaimer in everything these days) take their jobs very seriously.
Just for ****s and giggles I did the math ... I'm not real sure what GC and I would do if he came home and said "Hey, babe, we gotta take a 20% pay cut starting next month" if we had a family to take care of. Even with just the two of us it sure wouldn't be any fun because what would happen is he would be working a part-time security gig somewhere or I would have to go back to working for those damned lawyers -- which is not something either of us want -- AND which was NOT part of the deal when DPS offered him a FULL-TIME position. I'm sure these guys feel used and abused right now -- and they have every right to feel that way. IMHO, that is.