When the shutdown ends, federal employees will have a massive backlog of work to tackle when they return to the office. Keeping up morale and productivity will be hard but not impossible.

The shutdown battle continues on the Hill. When the debate over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling finally ends, federal employees will find some big challenges waiting for them when they return to the office.

The private sector depends on the federal government to be the nation’s number one supplier of data. But the shutdown’s crippling data collection programs and the country is already starting to feel the effects of data blindness.

When the government shutdown is lifted, federal contractors will need to know how to jump back into the game. But they’ll have to be patient because agencies have their own challenges to deal with, too.

Federal contractors haven’t gotten paid by the government in two weeks. And even if the government shutdown ends by Friday, they may still have to wait another month to see any income.