But the stagehands, who began striking almost a week after the writers, are most likely the ones who will be heading back to work first.
"That doesn't mean someone who's always raising their hand and saying, 'I'm just like Ted,' " Ms. Marsh said, "but someone who will be fighting to get people back to work, first and foremost, and to get them health care".
"In any case, yes, once they are put back down, they will get back to work, after first trying just to get away from the very large thing that just picked them up and could have eaten them," Dr. Siddall said.
The Tea Party caucus in the House is entrenched in its position that it will not let the government get back to work without first putting a major dent in the Affordable Care Act, which lurched into glitchy operation on Tuesday.
Less than a week after her first IndyCar victory, Danica Patrick put away her smile and went back to work, qualifying third for the I.R.L. race at Kansas Speedway.
"I was back to work the second week after the operation," he said.
Its government spends barely more than 0.1% of GDP on "active labour-market policies" to get the less skilled back to work, one-fifth of the OECD average.
On a warm, sunny Saturday morning, along an immaculate green and brown baseball field, the Anaheim Angels quietly went back to work for the first time since they ended 42 years of misery with their first World Series title.
"When Congress comes back to work this week, their first order of business should be making this right," he said.
Aurimas Medvedevas, 23, inflicted terrible injuries on two-month-old Aukse on 5 September last year, the day her mother went back to work for the first time since giving birth.
Mr. van Inwegen went back to work almost immediately, first from his home in Montclair, N.J., then from an office in Piscataway, N.J., and finally at a new office in Midtown Manhattan.
