By Day 15 of the federal government shutdown, Sean Pumphrey, a federal worker who lives in Baltimore, was willing to do pretty much anything to keep some cash in his pockets.

“Anyone need a temp worker? Need something hauled to the dump?” he wrote in a neighborhood Facebook group. “Not afraid to do manual labor. ... Have a kid, a wife with cancer, and bills.”

The nation’s civil servants haven’t been paid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. But bills keep coming, their personal savings are taking a hit, and President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold back pay for some 750,000 furloughed employees — perhaps even firing thousands of them.

With their full-time jobs on pause, civil servants are turning to temporary work and odd jobs to stay afloat while they wait out what on Wednesday would become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

“I would always be like, there’s a law that we’ll get back pay, so it was kind of like a paid vacation a little bit,” Pumphrey, who’s been a federal worker for three years, said in an interview. “But once I actually stopped getting paid, it just started stressing me out.”

He said he typically works from home in Baltimore but asked that The Banner not disclose his agency for fear of retaliation.

Some 327,000 Marylanders work for the federal government, according to U.S. census data. It’s unclear how many of them are working without pay, and how many are furloughed.

After Pumphrey posted on Facebook, someone asked he could knock down a hornet’s nest. Another neighbor asked if he could build things. Others recommended he look into catering companies for work.

His most lucrative gig so far has been doing maintenance for a local golf and country club for $20 an hour, one day a week.

He has attempted to unclog a sink, installed a light fixture, cleaned an Airbnb and used his truck to move a dishwasher in what he calls “little dump runs.”

That last paying gig ended up being a net drain: During it, a FedEx truck hit his vehicle, and repairs cost around $5,000, Pumphrey said.

And these side jobs aren’t enough to cover his mortgage.

“I might stop working because the daily grind of not making that much money sucks,” he said. “It’s like, all this working really hard to barely make any money — it kinda sucks.”

While this is Pumphrey’s first shutdown, many fellow federal workers are familiar with these unusually unproductive days.

There was a 16-day shutdown in 2013 during Barack Obama’s presidency and a 35-day freeze that spanned December 2018 and January 2019 during Trump’s last presidency. If they’ve been around even longer, they may have experienced the 21-day shutdown in 1995 under former President Bill Clinton.

Courtney Coulter, a 19-year employee of the Department of Defense who lives in Harford County, has seen these anxious periods come and go, but this is her first experience being a furloughed civilian worker with the agency.

With time on her hands, she’s fully leaning into her side hustle of being a content creator on social media. Coulter, known as Black Suburban Mom on social media, posts lifestyle content about motherhood, books and self-care.

She started posting in 2015, after the birth of her son, as an outlet for creativity and a way to build community. A decade and more than 5,000 followers on Instagram later, her account brings in extra money for times like this.

“I would say it’s like one of the little bright spots, now that I have a chance to invest in myself a little bit during this time,” Coulter said.

More federal workers are likely to take on a side hustle or start a small business in the future, according to a GoDaddy and HarrisX survey released this month. Some 41% of federal employees who responded said they would likely turn to entrepreneurship in the event of another government shutdown.

Brittany Veney, a Harford County resident and civilian worker at the Department of Defense until recently, hasn’t experienced a government shutdown. But threats of one always hovered around.

Her more seasoned colleagues were never too worried about it. This time is different, she said.

A job with the federal government meant long-term stability. The pay isn’t always great, but the benefits are above average compared to many other sectors.

Civil service became a less certain career path earlier this year when the Trump administration began threatening federal workers with reductions in force, return-to-office demands and buyouts.

At the Social Security Administration headquarters in Baltimore County, employees were abruptly terminated and departments within the agency were eliminated. Veney said similar moves at the Department of Defense left workers feeling uncertain and anxious.

She was one of many who signed up for the deferred resignation program that allowed federal workers to resign while continuing to receive pay and benefits until their official resignation date on Sept. 30.

Veney left her job with the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County to go full-time with her side hustle.

About four years ago, she started her strategic brand and design solutions firm, B. Real Creative Studio, as a way to earn money as a stay-at-home mom. When she was ready to go back to work and landed a job with the federal government, she kept up the studio as an after-hours and weekend gig.

She said those years of building up B. Real Creative Studio helped her prepare to bid farewell to federal work.

Veney and Coulter said they’ve met other federal workers who have balloon decorating, photography, baking and commercial real estate businesses on the side.

Federal workers are required to disclose activities like this to their department’s ethics officers, and they can’t take on work that’s similar to their day jobs.

Federal workers do have other resources if a side hustle isn’t an option right now.

The Maryland Department of Labor is offering no-interest $700 loans. USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union also have interest-free loans for eligible government workers.

But taking out a loan isn’t ideal, and asking family and friends for money feels “awkward,” Pumphrey said.

This past month has made him think seriously about what side hustle he could lean into in future shutdowns.

He said he considered taking classes to become an HVAC technician, but was turned away because of the assumption that he would eventually return to his full-time job and wouldn’t want to actually be in the trade.

“I‘ve been looking,” he said, “but maybe I just haven’t found the right side gig yet.”