Thousands of state workers, furloughed for the first time today, are likely to greet the unfamiliar Friday at home with a range of emotions.

Some, struggling from paycheck to paycheck, will worry about the lost income. Others will welcome the time off for household chores and family bonding.

Many will be glad just to have a job to go back to Monday.

That, at least, has been the experience of Yolo County government workers – for whom unpaid time off has become the norm over the last seven months.

Beginning last spring, when county officials realized they had to cut costs, Yolo County employees either volunteered to take time off or eventually faced mandatory furloughs.

Many say their experience has been surprisingly positive, despite the pay cut.

Take, for example, Mindi Nunes, the county's director of human resources and single parent of a 12-year-old son.

Nunes, like nearly everyone in her office, volunteered to take time off when the call went out last year.

She offered up 64 hours – twice the required amount for the current fiscal year.

Some of it she spent getting ready for Christmas. She plans to use unpaid days to take her son to Disneyland in April, when he's on spring break.

"I don't have many more years where he's going to enjoy Disneyland," Nunes said.

On top of the 64 hours, she altered her work schedule. She now works four days a week, nine hours a day, for a total of 36 hours.

That reduces her paycheck by 10 percent, she said. Weekly trips to the movies have become a thing of the past, and Nunes said she now clips coupons to save on groceries.

But she does her housecleaning on Fridays, and spends more time on the weekends with her son.

This winter they went skiing for the first time.

"We never had the time to do that before," she said.

Hundreds of employees of the city of Sacramento and Placer County are being furloughed now, as are workers at some private companies and other local governments, including El Dorado County.

Yolo County started sooner than most, having used mandatory furloughs in the past to try to close budget gaps.

This time, the county's unpaid time-off program started as voluntary, with about a third of the county's workers signing up starting in May, said county spokeswoman Beth Gabor.

Those voluntary furloughs saved the county about $1 million, she said.

Public Defender Barry Melton said his office had a nearly 100 percent volunteer rate.

Employees didn't want to lose chunks of their paychecks. But they also didn't want to get laid off or see others lose their jobs.

The county prides itself on a sense of shared responsibility, Melton said.

The public defender said President Barack Obama got it right in his inaugural address when he called for sacrifice.

"If this country's going to get through hard times," Melton said, "we're going to have to do it together."

In December – when things were worse than projected, with a $3.5 million budget shortfall – Yolo County's Board of Supervisors decided to impose mandatory furloughs, Gabor said.

Many employees saw the writing on the wall and volunteered so they could take the time off during the holidays or spread the losses over a greater number of paychecks, Gabor said.

Others waited – and mandatory furloughs started last month.

Sedona Cassevah, a buyer in the county's procurement unit, said she was among those forced to take 32 hours of leave before the end of the fiscal year in June.

The 34-year-old mother of two, who makes about $40,000 a year, is currently the major breadwinner in the family. Her husband is on disability.

Cassevah said the family's money never lasts until the next paycheck, and the furlough represents a painful loss of at least $100 a month.

"It's not easy to put food on the table and gas in the car," she said. "We never go to the movies. We never eat out. There's nothing extra."

Her children, ages 9 and 12, want to play soccer and football, but there's no money for fees and equipment.

"They both want to play sports, and I can't afford that," Cassevah said. "It breaks my heart."

Still, she said she's glad to have a good job when so many of her neighbors are out of work.

Just about every employee of Yolo County faces furloughs or an equivalent pay reduction, officials said.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Gorman, who has been involved in a high-profile trial for weeks, said he has to take four furlough days before June 30, like it or not.

He took one furlough day last month, working from home on the case.

But he said he loves his job and is grateful to have it. He remembers times when he had less seniority and was faced with being laid off. He doesn't want others to go through the same ordeal. "If a furlough is what it takes to save other people's jobs in the county, then furlough me," he said.

"There are times in our lives when things happen to make us realize how fortunate we are with what we have."

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.