Time Off

Hm. What have I been up to the past few weeks? Seems forever since I’ve come up with anything to write. My company’s had another week-long shutdown, which means we don’t get paid but instead collect Massachusetts Unemployment. I don’t have a problem with it, really, I can get by; I’m used to the government taking 30% out of my pay, and I put 25% into my 401k, so unemployment comes out just a bit less than what I normally take home anyway. Of course, this means I’m putting in less than normal for retirement, so I’ll try to make it up in the coming year. So this year we get like six weeks of vacation, in return for less money. OMG it’s so worth it. And everyone in the office is so relaxed. My boss was saying the other day “You know, I hate to admit it, but this shutdown stuff is really nice. My lawn looks awesome!” Totally, I’ve trimmed hedges, cleaned up the yard, cleaned the gutters, grouted the kitchen floor, caulked the bathroom sink; all the stuff I never had time for.

So I wonder, is this a sustainable business model for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? I haven’t heard warnings about the state going bankrupt from having to pay so much Unemployment. Is this a workable solution – for companies to shut down for weeks and offload their payrolls onto the State in lean times? From the company’s point of view, by saving on payroll they don’t have to lay off as many workers, and deal with finding and hiring new people when things do turn around. From the State’s point of view, they have to pay a lot of people Unemployment benefits for a month or two, does that offset the cost of otherwise having a few more people genuinely unemployed, probably for longer periods of time? If this is workable, have we found the optimum model for a capitalist welfare state?