ShutdownTok: federal workers detail life without pay amid government’s closure

As the US government shutdown stretches on after becoming the longest in history, influencers and content creators have stepped into improvised public-service roles by chronicling life without paychecks.

Across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, federal workers have been publishing “shutdown vlogs” that mix dark humor with practical tips. The federal shutdown has created its own internet sub-genre of resource directories, budget-stretching advice threads and mental health check-ins.

Courteney Bush, a longtime federal employee, is chronicling daily life and coping tactics in a TikTok series called the “Shutdown Diaries”. She is a public affairs specialist for the federal government in Washington DC and has worked in communications since 2011.

Bush described coping as keeping busy to avoid going awry. She rated her mood during the shutdown as a “B-minus” overall.

“It’s a day-by-day process. I’m just trying to find the positives every day,” she said. “We’re all trying to think of this as normally as possible, so that we don’t spiral out.”

She is one of many individuals who are documenting their journeys and “shutdown shenanigans” as furloughed employees who are aiming to find new routines amid frozen paychecks.

She began her TikTok series organically, already regularly sharing day-in-the-life videos. Having already endured three extended shutdowns as a government worker, she saw it as both a creative outlet and a daily purpose.

And the trend has reached far beyond just TikTok. Reddit communities for federal workers have become informative guides for financial hardship programs, legal updates and day-to-day coping advice. Similarly, Instagram accounts have popped up to chronicle users’ shutdown experiences.

Essential workers who aren’t furloughed are also posting videos about the trials and tribulations of having to go into work while not receiving a paycheck.

“One of the beauties of social media is that you can build community with people you’ve never met in real life, and connect deeply just through shared experience,” Bush said. The response to her videos have been overwhelmingly positive, she says, and she’s heard from viewers that her videos helped them feel “less alone”.

For Deidre Drakes, an army wife, the shutdown is absurd enough to warrant satire. “You can either stress about things or laugh,” she said. “And I figure laughing burns more calories, so I’ll just do that.”

Drakes’s videos mix comedy and brutal honesty. Her first shutdown video joked: “I may have to do something strange for some change, since the government won’t pay us.” The line resonated widely. “People were very supportive … they were sorry my family had to go through this, and they were reposting, sharing and just sending words of encouragement.”

Her following has grown significantly since. “I leaned into the funny and leaned into the realness behind what people are feeling,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people are going through this.”

Drakes also sees social media as a crucial support network, an outlet for “giving information and finding that community.”

Now, with a pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits looming, several creators have devoted their accounts to giving advice for people whose food security is threatened. Some tutorials aim to keep a household fed for as little as $40 a week if benefits lapse.

It has inspired a surge of “cheap meal” TikTok content, centering on viral clips where creators demonstrate ultra-budget cooking and share lived experience with food insecurity. Some creators have even assembled and circulated a living list of free resources for furloughed federal workers, food banks, bill-pay assistance and neighborhood-level aid.

Lola Ajayi, a DC-area content creator, has turned her platforms on TikTok and Instagram into a hub for information. Known for covering life in the Washington metropolitan area, she opted to create a now viral resource list for federal workers in and around DC.

“When the government shutdown first started, I thought people may not necessarily know about the resources,” Ajayi said. “So I decided to put out a video with the few resources that I had found at the time.”

Her Google document of local resources quickly became an ongoing project that she updates every day. “If I see something on social media, I’ll verify it and add it.”

The response was “very overwhelming, very positive”. Even those outside DC reached out, such as a government employee in Salt Lake City struggling to pay rent. “They thanked me for just making my video,” Ajayi said. “People were sharing it with their neighbors and friends.”

For Robert Perez, an ultramarathoner and government contract worker, the shutdown inspired an endurance challenge. Perez runs a mile each day the government remains closed and films a video explaining a new aspect of the shutdown while he does it.

“On day one of the shutdown, I just had this idea,” he said. “I thought, if it gets up to 30 days, I could do a mile every day. It was a good time to study up on my own civics lessons.”

His videos are intentionally focused on being informative rather than taking a political stance. “I figured if I do it in a way that’s fair to both sides, people can’t really get upset,” he said. The series became a hit, with Perez’s account having nearly 100,000 followers on TikTok alone. “It’s been 99% support. People are learning, people are appreciative.”

And like many creators, he hopes his videos leave a lasting legacy on what the shutdown looked like and how it affected people across the US. “It’s tough to know that all because of 500-something members of Congress … the rest of the country is suffering,” he said. “I wish people understood that as the shutdown goes on, that suffering is going to continue to grow.”

Drakes agrees with this sentiment. “Social media is such a big outlet,” she said. “Once you see something that resonates with you, you’ll say: ‘Oh man, I thought I was going through this alone.’”