The Shutdown Is Over. Now The Federal Workforce Faces ‘Untold Morale Problems’

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February 1st, 2019

Environmental activists Liz Brandt (from left), with her daughters, Natalia, 3, and Valencia Bednar, 5; Martha Roberts; and Molly Rauch pose for a photograph while welcoming Environmental Protection Agency employees back to work on Jan. 28 in Washington, D.C. Furloughed employees returned to work following the end of the longest-ever partial federal government shutdown.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers received their first partial paychecks this week as the government reopened Monday after a 35-day partial shutdown.

Some 400,000 workers had been furloughed, and another 400,000 had been on the job but were not getting paid.

While the financial costs for those workers were high, the shutdown also took a heavy toll on employee morale. And it may have the longer-term impact of making it more difficult to bring new people into the government.

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