--- title: Government Told Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent description: Federal government advised federal employees to ask creditors for leeway in repaying debt as the government shutdown drags on. canonical: https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/ author: Gina Martinez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-29T18:31:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:22:26.055Z article:section: Politics og:title: Government Advised Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent Reductions og:description: 'I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments' og:url: https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd13ce23cad19f22c/6989423eab6d7793df6b4831/national-christmas-tree-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Partial Government Shutdown Continues As Congress And President Fail To Reach Deal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Government Advised Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent Reductions twitter:description: 'I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd13ce23cad19f22c/6989423eab6d7793df6b4831/national-christmas-tree-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Federal Government Advised Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent During Shutdown > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Dec 29, 2018 6:31 PM UTC  The gates to the National Christmas Tree are closed to the public due to a partial shutdown of the federal government on December 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. The gates to the National Christmas Tree are closed to the public due to a partial shutdown of the federal government on December 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Image by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Dec 29, 2018 6:31 PM UTC As the [partial shutdown](http://time.com/5490274/museums-national-zoo-close-shutdown/) drags into its second week, the federal government has advised federal employees to ask creditors for leeway in repaying mortgages and other debt. One sample letter even suggested that they offer to trade manual labor in exchange for reduced rent payments. That guidance appears to have been removed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which posted the advice on its Twitter account Thursday – but not before it was noticed by [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/opm-shutdown-advice-to-furloughed-workers-try-bartering-for-rent/), [Axios](https://www.axios.com/impacts-government-shutdown-prolonged-trump-970e80e6-4bd2-4593-afac-d567201e624c.html) and other news outlets. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security managed to ensure that the members of the U.S. Coast Guard – the only military service affected by the partial government shutdown – would receive their final paycheck of 2018\. However, it could be their last one until a deal is struck to fund the government. According to [_Stars and Stripes_,](https://www.stripes.com/news/us/coast-guard-finds-way-to-pay-its-members-next-week-but-jan-15-checks-are-not-guaranteed-1.562454) Coast Guard service members received a letter from Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Ray informing them they would be paid Dec. 31\. The next scheduled pay date is Jan. 15. An estimated 380,000 government employees have been furloughed and another 420,000 will have to work without pay, [according to Senate Democrats](http://time.com/5486113/goverment-shutdown-effects/). Among those employees deemed too essential to furlough are the 42,000 active-duty Coast Guard service members and Border Patrol agents. When their agencies run out of funding, they will be working without pay. On Thursday, OPM posted two sample letters for federal workers to use with creditors and landlords. > [](https://twitter.com/USOPM/status/1078309890832166912) According to reports, one passage in a sample letter to a landlord reads: “I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments.” That passage no longer appeared on the sample letters by Saturday morning. However, the letters do lay out a case for federal employees asking for reduced payments. “As we discussed, I am a Federal employee who has recently been furloughed due to a lack of funding of my agency,” the sample letter states. “Because of this, my income has been severely cut and I am unable to pay the entire cost of my mortgage, along with my other expenses.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/"},"headline":"Federal Government Advised Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent During Shutdown","datePublished":"2018-12-29T18:31:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:22:26.055Z","description":"\"I would like to discuss with you the possibility of trading my services to perform maintenance (e.g. painting, carpentry work) in exchange for partial rent payments\"","url":"https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd13ce23cad19f22c/6989423eab6d7793df6b4831/national-christmas-tree-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Gina Martinez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd13ce23cad19f22c/6989423eab6d7793df6b4831/national-christmas-tree-shutdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Partial Government Shutdown Continues As Congress And President Fail To Reach Deal","caption":"Partial Government Shutdown Continues As Congress And President Fail To Reach Deal","creditText":"Win McNamee—Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Image","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5490296/government-workers-furlough-work-rent/","name":"Federal Government Advised Furloughed Employees to Offer Manual Labor for Rent During Shutdown"}}]}] ```