“An excepted employee may be excused from duty for intermittent periods during a shutdown furlough,” OPM wrote. “While excused from performing excepted duties, the employee will be placed in furlough status unless the employee elects to use paid leave . Employees placed in AWOL status will be denied backpay for the time they miss and carries the potential for discipline or termination. “There is also a process for employees to follow if they request to be placed on furlough status, which is unchanged. So these workers are simultaneously deprived their pay and denied time away from work to sort things out.”