The government shutdown is now in its tenth day. Thousands of furloughed federal employees sit at home as their offices remain locked up and dark. One of those agencies is the IRS.

Elizabeth McPeak, the first vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34, says the situation is hurting the rank and file as well as American taxpayers. 

"There's nobody there to help you right now if you have to go to a walk-in office," McPeak said.  

"We are asking Congress to do its job so we can do our job," McPeak added.

She says the way this shutdown has been implemented leaves a lot to be desired.

"This has been mass chaos," she said. 

McPeak says roughly 600 federal workers represented by the union have been furloughed.

"This is the most demoralizing shutdown in my 20-year career as a federal worker. And then the threat that we might get fired, we might never get back pay, that's just adding gross insult to injury," she said. 

President Trump has indicated he'd have no issues with making the furloughs potentially permanent for some government employees. But McPeak says 25% of the agency's workers were axed by the Department of Government Efficiency in the spring and more cuts will make an already bad situation worse.

"It's just not conceivable that the American tax system will work if we all get let go. It won't work," McPeak said. 

For now, McPeak and the rank and file are waiting for the call to head back to the office. With bills stacking up, she's hoping to get back pay guaranteed by a 2019 bipartisan bill that Mr. Trump signed into law. 

"The light bill isn't going to stop, the electric bill isn't going to stop, the mortgage, the rent, the car payment, the school tuition," McPeak said.