Top ten things to do before leaving the office

Budget talks continued overnight. As a sign of how things went, a new CR is being prepared and CNN\'s Bob Constantini tells us feds are being told to turn in ti...

By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

In the rush for the door and the worry about a possible shutdown, Federal News Radio has put together a few reminders before you leave the office. In no particular order, they are:

    10) Subscribe to FederalNewsRadio alerts and emails at your PERSONAL email address.

    9) Update your pay information.

    8) Make sure your phone number is current in the system.

    7) Water the plants. You may be gone for a while.

    6) From Dixie @ DoD: “Have a go at writing (your) respective Congressional member and letting them know what we do and how we feel.”

    5) Learn from Senior Correspondent Mike Causey’s experience: write down those passwords you carry in your head and save them someplace safe. It’s easy to forget them without frequent use. **

    4) Update email and phone out of office message.

    3) Throw out what you have in the office fridge. Replace it when you come back.

    2) And no matter what happens, plan on showing up for work Monday, at least to turn in your BlackBerry.

    1) And the final tip comes from CNN’s Bob Constantini. He tells the Federal Drive, federal employees who ride the morning MARC train with him said they “haven’t heard that much from their bosses about what to do. They were told to turn in their timecards today to make it faster, perhaps, that they might get paid.”

    Constantini added, “and nobody knows how this is going to play out. We do know one thing: members of Congress will be paid no matter what happens (see #6 above.) They turned down the idea of not getting paid while there’s a government shutdown, but nobody really knows how this is going to play out.”

To learn more about last night’s budget negotiations, and why they fell short, listen to the entire interview with Constantini using the player at the top of the page.

Late author addition: this comment was received via email after posting from a “system administrator”:

    “I saw the top ten things to do list on federal news radio and was shocked to see number 5. Please please please get rid of that. People should never write their passwords down. If they are out of the office so long that they forget their password their IT people can always help them reset it when they get back. There is never a good reason to write them down. Thank you.”

So, don’t do that. It could be bad. sk.

What’s on your pre-shutdown to-do list? Comment here or email fnrcomment@federalnewsradio.com. You can also post to our Facebook page or tweet us.

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