Last paychecks and new side hustles: Government workers’ TikToks show shutdown life

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — “Good morning, my fellow federal furloughed employees!”

That’s the start of one of scores of TikTok videos that have been posted by federal workers in the two weeks since the government shutdown began.

A growing number of affected employees — both furloughed workers and essential staffers who must continue showing up to work with no pay — have been chronicling their shutdown experience on the video app to educate other users about the situation. Some hope the videos might earn them a bit of extra cash, as they have no timeline for their next paycheck.

The videos provide a window into the human impact of the budget fight that’s largely played out among lawmakers on Capitol Hill and across TV screens, with little apparent progress toward reopening the government.

Roughly 1.4 million federal employees have been furloughed or are now working without pay. Many recently received their final paychecks for the foreseeable future.

“I really want people to see that federal workers are real people and their lives are being impacted … I felt like no one was hearing us or seeing us,” Aubrey, a federal government employee working in public health, told CNN of her decision to post TikTok videos about the shutdown.

CNN agreed not to use staffers’ full names in this story to protect their jobs.

The hashtag #federalemployees has racked up nearly 10,000 posts on TikTok, including videos from employment lawyers and other service providers looking to reach larger audiences.

While not all of those posts are from federal employees, the surge in content underscores how TikTok has become both a forum for federal workers in limbo and a source for the general public seeking information about the shutdown.

Day in the life of a furloughed federal worker

Aubrey’s “day in the life” videos include information on topics like what it means to be an essential versus non-essential federal worker, and what the shutdown could mean for Americans who don’t work for the government.

She also shares how she’s applying for new jobs. Aubrey has been on a short-term assignment that she’d originally hoped would lead to a permanent position. But she’s no longer optimistic about that possibility after the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency made sweeping cuts earlier this year.

She hopes TikTok could turn into a temporary side hustle, although her account doesn’t yet meet the size requirements to receive payments from the app’s creator fund.

“I didn’t ever think I would be really financially successful from it,” she said. “Obviously, I was hoping that it would reach a lot of people, but that was another desire: that I could help supplement the (missing) income.”

Ashton, an air traffic controller, gained several thousand followers in recent months on the TikTok account he runs with his wife posting content about home repairs, thrift shopping and budgeting. But when the government shut down, the page offered an opportunity for Ashton to explain what the situation meant for essential government workers like him.

“Today is day 11 of the government shutdown and I just received my last paycheck for the (foreseeable) future,” Ashton said in a recent post. “As expected, it was a day short because of how the pay period works … with getting this last check, it literally just hit me that this is the last time I’ll be getting paid” until the shutdown resolves. The video received more than 70,000 views.

Ashton and his wife are currently dipping into savings and rethinking upcoming travel plans, he told CNN.

Other videos on his page address fears and misconceptions around how the shutdown could impact air traffic control — including what it could mean for safety and why staffers like him can’t just stop showing up to work, as some comments on his page have suggested.

“It’s technically illegal for federal workers to take any form of action against the government or calling out sick on purpose out of retaliation for a government shutdown,” Ashton said, adding that his videos are intended to be “about education. We just can’t do that.”

‘Have some compassion’

The White House created additional uncertainty last week when it questioned whether furloughed staffers should receive back pay after the government reopens, like in past shutdowns. Thousands of affected workers have already begun to receive layoff notifications.

“If I hear one more person or read one more comment that says, ‘Oh, you’ll get paid when this is all over, I don’t know why you’re worried.’ Getting paid when this is all over is not paying my bills today,” one TikTok user who said they’re a government staffer said in a video earlier this week. “Have some compassion.”

Another user, who said they are categorized as essential and are still going into the office, said in a post that their team had set up a food pantry in the office for colleagues who might struggle to afford essentials while not getting paid.

Because it’s TikTok, not all the videos are deeply serious. A string of federal workers summed up their experience with videos using a popular voiceover sound from comedian Bo Burnham that says: “How we feeling out there tonight? … I am not feeling good!”

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