June 12,2012

We have learned that a furlough is coming soon - at first, I thought it was this week but they have to give us at least 5 days notice. I was talking on the elevator with a couple of the managers and they said that the temp. seasonals (they are so temp that they do not get benefits) were kept on past their 'due date' and now get benefits; this is hint that there might not be much of a furlough. The rule for seasonals is that they have to be furloughed for at least one pay period each year or they become permanent (or some other harsh punishment). Yesterday, I had my 2 vacation requests okay-ed; 2 weeks in September so I can go to Argentina with beef crowd (we buy a cow every year and split the meat after it is butchered. Our farmer is a Mennonite from across the mountains gets them at 6 months and finishes them on grass. Anyway, we are 6 couples who are renting a 6 bedroom house for 2 weeks in Buenos Aires - should be fun. I am taking my birthday off + the rest of the week. They denied my request for the week of the 4th of July.

The issue with the furlough this year is that there has been so much ID theft (you know, where people buy ss#s and names so they can file a couple hundred return hoping that a couple get past the internal testing. Most of the returns are stopped from refunding out but it causes an immense burden on the real people who have to go through the process. It generally takes 120 days for the ID theft unit to send a letter of confirmation that they are indeed victims of ID theft and that we will watch their account for the next 3 years. We have no time frame for when the refund will come out - it could be 6-8 weeks, it could before Christmas, or you might get next years refund before this years. Some estimates are that there are of a million victims of ID theft this year. We are swamped; we log on in the morning and do support all da