Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The NFC (National Finance Center) website is still down. My Dad is certain that we will be able to do timekeeping on time next week. Being in the data center business as a contractor, he said he’d be surprised if the managers of NFC didn’t hit the road with the necessary back-up materials on Saturday/early Sunday when they were first getting word of Katrina heading for New Orleans. Every data center has contingency plans in place for this kind of thing. He also said that in his Navy days when he was with the Bureau of Personnel, they had a pay period when the system was not fully functional so they duplicated the previous pay period’s pay to ensure that folks did get a paycheck. They worried about fixing the over/underpayments once the system was back up. So I’m hoping for the best but won’t be surprised at the worst.

As far as I know, not all federal employees are paid through NFC. I know that all components of DOJ is and it’s why I’m posting about it. I wish I could remember the other agencies that I have seen listed on their website. I’m drawing a blank at the moment. If you work for a federal agency, take a look at your last paystub - if you get paid through NFC it will say so somewhere on the statement.

UPDATE (10:10am): No sooner had I clicked on SUBMIT when I got an email from our HQ contact. NFC is working on getting back-up sites going in Pennsylvania and Texas. So it’s looking good for being able to get our timekeeping data in. We’re being told that a schedule for transmittal may be dictated - seems reasonable enough. Given what the good folks with NFC are enduring, I’m happy to do whatever they want.