Next week DoD generally will begin its furloughs, involving the most workers of any agency imposing them, 650,000, and one of the larger number of days, 11. DoD’s basic policy is that employees should spread out that time as two days per pay period through the remainder of the fiscal year. Specific scheduling decisions are largely up to each work unit, though, and in unionized workplaces scheduling is negotiable within limits. Therefore, there could be a range of practices. Some employees are seeking to bundle days—and at least one Navy facility is allowing it—in an attempt to qualify for unemployment compensation but policies on those benefits vary by state and it’s unclear if they would qualify even if they could group their days. Many employees also have been looking into the prospects of taking part-time jobs elsewhere; that too could be difficult, and ethics restrictions could arise. A group of unions representing DoD workers recently launched yet another attempt to prevent the furloughs, by pressing Capitol Hill to provide the Pentagon with more flexibility to reprogram funds. However, Congress is out of session this week and DoD already has used up many of those possibilities in reducing the number of days from the originally projected 22. Meanwhile a group of House members has written to the Pentagon challenging furloughs of employeespaid through certain revolving funds not operating on a fiscal year basis. In its latest guidance, the Pentagon reminded components that they are not to make up for the missed work of furloughed employees by accepting volunteer work from them or by shifting work onto contractors, military personnel, or employees who are in pay status.