Abstract
The recent mandatory, unpaid California state furloughs were unprecedented, yet we know little about how state workers themselves reacted to this major change in working conditions. This thesis set out to obtain this information, and to assess four hypotheses: 1) Most employees viewed the furloughs unfavorably due to the financial hardship they created; 2) Some employees viewed the furloughs favorably due to their benefits, which include more time for family, and childcare cost savings; 3) Most eligible employees volunteered to work over-time, and those who did not lived in dual-income households; 4) Employees who were eligible to retire within the next five years considered doing so sooner as a result of the furloughs. To complete this thesis, I distributed a survey to about 173 employees at the Sacramento Disability Determination Services Division, in November 2010. I developed the survey after completing a literature review on employee motivation in the public sector, desired employee work hours, and popular news articles on the furloughs. Based on the survey findings, frequency distribution reports, and statistical analyses, I was able to confirm the first hypothesis, partially confirm the second and third hypotheses, and was unable to confirm the fourth hypothesis. Notably, I discovered that there was a higher than expected rate of 19 percent of respondents who found the furloughs to be beneficial. Also, despite the hardship brought on by the furloughs, the majority of DDSD employees reported a high rate of job satisfaction and job meaningfulness. I confirmed that nearly half of respondents had state careers of five years or less, 44 percent were under the age of forty, and nearly 75 percent had college degrees. Finally, I considered implications of the findings for executives in state public service and suggestions for further research.