Shutdown Pain May Make Working at IRS a Tougher Sell

The ongoing government shutdown is setting up a serious question for IRS employees: is working there even worth it?

The last several years have been rocky for the tax agency. It weathered fallout from its scrutiny of tax-exemption applications, its former commissioner John Koskinen faced an impeachment effort in Congress, and it has been hampered by repeated budget cuts. And now a job at the Internal Revenue Service may seem even more unappealing as the government shutdown has left tens of thousands of agency employees without a paycheck.

The agency has already been dealing with employee attrition. It could now ...