Fannie, Freddie workers say business almost as usual

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Workers at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, under new leadership since the U.S. government seized the companies over the weekend, say there's little talk of finding new jobs as they wait to see what their new bosses have in store.

"People are joking that, 'I work for the government now. I might as well go on vacation,'" said an employee who works on a contract basis in the finance department at one of Fannie Mae's Washington D.C. offices. "But no one's actually doing it."

A number of employees from different divisions said they weren't searching for jobs just yet. One worker in the finance division at Fannie Mae said people were shrugging their shoulders and waiting to get word from their bosses about the companies' futures.

"Operationally nothing's really different day-to-day," he said. "We're just waiting to hear."

Employees said they weren't that surprised when the U.S. government on Sunday seized control of the mortgage finance companies in what could be the nation's largest financial bailout.

The move, prompted by persistent worries over the companies' shrinking capital, was an effort to support the U.S. housing market and stave off fears of their collapse in global financial markets.

"We knew something was coming," said an employee in Fannie Mae's single-family mortgage business, who has worked at the company for four years. "When the stock market's crashing, and your CEO tells you everything is fine, who are you going to believe?"

The companies' stock has plummeted about 95 percent over the past few months, from the $60-per-share range in October, to the $2.50-to-$3.50 range last month. Shares dropped below $1 on Monday.

Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron were both ousted as part of the takeover, with the government placing two veteran bankers in the corner offices.

Mudd posted a farewell message to employees on Sunday, praising their hard work and reminding them that millions of homeowners are still in pain and need their help.

Other senior executives may not have it much better than the CEOs. At Freddie Mac, many of the top people have been tethered to representatives from the companies' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as the government learns the ropes of the day-to-day business.

And lobbyists have seen a strong account abruptly cut off, as Fannie and Freddie are now barred from any lobbying or other political activities. The mortgage giants racked up $170 million in lobbying bills in the past decade.

But the workers closest to the companies' basic operations -- making loans and buying up others to repackage for resale -- say the mood Monday was not much different from weeks before.

"We've been short staffed for so long that we're going to continue working 12-, 13-, 14-hour days," said a 14-year veteran in Fannie Mae's single-family housing division.

"It's 'I gotta go back to my desk, I gotta go back to my computer, go, go, go,'" she said.

She said no projects have been halted or deadlines altered. But she said there's been some relief in that at least the workers know more about the fate of the companies, instead of hoping the U.S. Open tennis tournament or hurricane season would deflect attention from Fannie and Freddie.

But for workers at the two companies, it's still a waiting game.

"I don't expect anything big to happen until after the election," one Fannie Mae employee said.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain supports a long-term plan to scale down Fannie and Freddie and then to privatize them, his advisors said.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said he believed some form of federal intervention into Fannie and Freddie was necessary, but he has not been as explicit about his vision for the companies' future.

In the meantime, workers say they haven't been told much and are keeping a "business as usual" attitude.

"Something had to happen," said a 4-year Fannie employee. "Now we'll just have to wait and see."

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and Patrick Rucker; Editing by Andrea Ricci)