Isaac Stein, 31, has been working as a lawyer at the IRS for 3 years. He was recently furloughed as a result of the ongoing government shutdown. That's given him more time to pursue a passion project: running a hot dog stand. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been sent home amid the government shutdown. One of them has been using his newfound free time to sell hot dogs. "This is self-expression," Isaac Stein, the 31-year-old owner of "Shyster's Dogs," told Business Insider at his hot dog stand in Washington, DC's NoMa neighborhood. "This is me having artistic fun." Stein has a day job: He's been working for three years as a lawyer at the Internal Revenue Service, where he handles tax regulations around employee benefits. But for the last three weeks, he's been working as a full-time hot dog vendor on the corner of First and M Street NE. The hot dog stand idea came to Stein months before the shutdown cleared his schedule. He said that he first made the decision to start the business in June, though it took months to obtain all of the necessary permits. Stein said he invested a "five-figure sum" into buying all of the equipment. By the time he was ready to go, it was September. He had originally planned to operate the stand outside of work hours, on Thursday and Friday evenings and over the weekend. "To be real, Thursday was a bit ambitious," Stein said. "It's hard to function in the office without enough sleep, and I want to be good at my legal job." Then, on October 8, he was "furloughed" — essentially suspended from his job until the shutdown ends. That turned his side gig into a nearly full-time job, and he now typically sells hot dogs from noon to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Stein's hot dog stand is laden with humor. The name "shyster," a slang word referring to a deceptive or unethical lawyer," is about wanting to "bring a laugh to the legal community," he told Business Insider.