Rivers was a senior social science advisor in the Office of Research and Development in the Environmental Protection Agency before he was laid off.
"All the funding had been stopped and almost everything we were doing was stopped," Rivers said. "It was extremely stressful."
Now, he's a professor at NC State and running for the Chapel Hill Town Council. But as the government shutdown looms, he said he's concerned about the uncertainty for federal workers here in the Triangle.
If government funding legislation isn't passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed.
"I'm concerned that if there's a shutdown, they will just fire people," Rivers said. "It's especially hard because ... this is the first time that they've been put in this position where they need to ask for help, or they need to go after services to support their unemployment. So, it's just putting a lot of people in a very bad position right now."
Economists say there are roughly 13,000 federal government jobs in the Triangle that could be potentially impacted if congressional leaders and the White House can't reach an agreement.
"We've actually seen job losses in the Triangle overall for the last three months," UNC economist Gerald Cohen said.
Although it's unclear exactly how the Triangle will be impacted, Cohen said he's worried about the economic uncertainty.
"Are we going to see outright job losses? Will it slow down consumer spending?" Cohen said. "I think there are significant worries, and the government shutdown heightens those worries."