City Workers Make Themselves Scarce

Web Urbanist

Hello, hello, hello? Is there anybody in there?

​You can argue if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's most certainly a thing: You just don't find many native San Franciscans in this here city.

As a result, San Francisco tends to empty out during Thanksgiving, as residents head "home." (It thins out during Burning Man as well, but it's just not the same thing).

So, this week -- assuming you stick around -- not only will you be rubbing shoulders with fewer San Franciscans, you'll be less likely to walk into a city worker as well. Many have the week off, and most have a mandatory furlough day on Wednesday.
 
Wednesday is, in government-speak, a "minimum staffing day." Other than the folks who repair ruptured water mains, or run into burning buildings, or drive black-and-white cars rapidly through the streets, city workers will be "enjoying" a little time off -- on their own dime.

This will be the case in the week between Christmas and New Year's as well. "People tend not to be very productive anyway," says one city source. Well, fair enough.

While Wednesday is one of a dozen furlough days city workers will "enjoy" this year, Thanksgiving and the day after are legal paid holidays.

Finally, considering the breakdown of which city employees live here and which don't, you're still relatively likely to bump into some on Wednesday -- whether you know it or not. Higher-paid employees -- and that'd be cops, firefighters, and other emergency workers -- tend to live out of town. Lower-paid workers are more likely to live here in the city.

Who knows -- perhaps some of them were even born here.

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