Obligatory disclaimer: The republicans are once again acting like fucking clowns, and this is a completely unnecessary hardship for many.
However, I worked for the DoD (civilian) in the early 2010’s when this happened a couple times. We actually looked forward to shutdowns.
As far as I’m aware, we had always been given back pay, so as long as you weren’t living paycheck to paycheck it was just a free vacation.
:x