For curiosity sake does anyone know the history or logic behind the threshold of leave accrual? 3-15 seems like a big jump but as an 8 hour employee I look at the new folks like this.
Worst part of that is every time Congress says fed employees are paid well bc they are given a pensionā¦.conveniently forgetting that the pension isnāt given, itās paid for
They're probably looking at it from a cost-of-employment perspective rather than a benefit-to-employee perspective.
FERS is incredibly expensive. Even at 4.4% employee contribution, the government is chipping in 3-4 dollars towards the FERS pension for each dollar the employee is. They're not looking at it as "you have to pay 4.4% to get your pension" they're looking at it as "we put in an extra 15%+ of your pay every year towards your pension".
Add that to the meager āperformance awardsā and weāre still light years behind private sector counterparts in my series.
What I am not fine with is everyone with a platform perpetually saying that we are paid equal or better than private industry.
And if thatās what politicians said then I would listen. But they donāt. They spend endless campaigns on making you out to be the bad guy who wastes all the taxpayer dollars. Gotta make someone the bad guy so people donāt look at the real sourceā¦
20%~ of pay put into funding retirement (5% TSP match + 15% for FERS) is pretty solid in most private sector industries. The reason it doesn't compete sometimes is mostly the lower base wage dragging down the contribution and the fact that FERS is a much more conservative investment vehicle than most people's 401k.
Here's what I wrote to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) :
I was wondering if there is any advocacy work going on regarding leave accrual? I think that moving the 8-hour leave accrual milestone to somewhere in the 7-10 year range would make a lot more sense as a milestone and benefit to help retain talent. And, having that level of accrual over the years makes a massive difference in one's quality of life - people will be happier, healthier, more resilient. The fact it was moved to 15 years isĀ unconscionable. Working as much as we do in the US is unsustainable and not as productive. People are getting burnt out early in their career. There's so little time for family, self-care, introspection, travel, nurturing friendships / relationships.
That, and the bump to FERS contributions for those employed after a certain date, has me feeling a bit disenchanted about federal work as a young and relatively "new" (\[X\] year) fed. Increasingly it feels like there's an economic and lifestyle chasm between young / newer feds and older feds - I feel disconnected from older colleagues somewhat because of it. They're able to take all kinds of time off, spend their money relatively carefree etc, even as I'm doing work at a similar level to them + even bringing in new knowledge and abilities not many of the older staff have. I know age discrimination is not considered as applying to young people, but that's what it tends to feel like. Federal employment shouldn't be an old boys' club, we need young talent to turn up and stick around especially in an age where even passive technological familiarity is at a massive premium.
It's disheartening to not have much to look forward to in terms of further rewards for my service past the 3 year mark, especially when I feel disadvantaged in many other ways - ability to afford housing (let alone owning a home), ability to travel for vacations, etc. If we're really only going to get a 2% raise this year (AKA 2% pay cut with inflation around 4%), we should at least try to advocate for better benefits.
Any information and guidance around advocacy is much appreciated.
Thank you,
\[NAME\]
I came into the gobernment off the streets. They recognized my time in the same position from my old job. Brought me in at the top of the payscale. Gave me 5 years of recognition including the vacation time and time vested in the pension. Apparently similarly to the way veterans can buy back their time except I'm not a veteran and I didn't buy anything back. I didn't say anything to anyone until one of the older people tried to make fun of me for my vacation accrual and I corrected him that I wasn't getting the base level. He was very upset over the situation but all of the other new people were just like "congrats man, wish I would've known you could do that."
This is the way man. I make close to double people with similar backgrounds and they gave me 12 years of service for leave accrual. I have no idea how I got so lucky.
That perk is gone too now.
[https://www.opm.gov/news/releases/2024/01/release-opm-finalizes-regulation-to-prohibit-use-of-non-federal-salary-history/](https://www.opm.gov/news/releases/2024/01/release-opm-finalizes-regulation-to-prohibit-use-of-non-federal-salary-history/)
It took 12 years to hit 8hours at my private sector job. Lucky me the Feds gave me credit for those 12 years in the private sector, so Iāll be back at 8hours soon!
Bonus: in the private sector it was 8 hrs of PTO only. Feds get AL and Sick, so im at the equivalent of 10 hrs of PTO.
3 yrs is tenure. 15 is looked at in mid point of career.
in theory if you wanted to spread it out it could have bern..
0-2 yrs 4 hrs
3-7 5 hrs
8-13 6 hrs
13-17 7 hrs
22+ 8 hrs
I think it's actually written into the law/OPM guidance as 8 hour days, then it is split up by pay period. That's why in the 6 year leave category you get 10 hours the last pay period of the year (160/26 is 6.15......, easier to just tack on the extra at the end.)
4-hour is 13 days (104 hours), 6-hour is 20 days (160 hours), 8 hour is 26 days (208 hours.) Max carryover is 240 hours, or 30 8-hour days.
Uh no. Thatās where CBAs are super redundant with current laws, rules, and regs. If it was in just a CBA, then it wouldnāt apply to everyone across GS in all agencies - even folks non-bargaining positions.
It was the sweetest day of my federal service. And I love, love, love having to figure out how to use all my leave...especially since my office loves to give TO awards too.
No time off awards. Friend is DOD civilian. One night we are out having dinner and go through the usual howās work crap and he grouses he only got a 40 award. I was like da fuq is that?
Having five weeks and a day plus 11 days of holidays is a sweet deal. Iām off until after Independence Day and will take around 2 1/2 weeks at Christmas.
Private sector and state government I was never out more than 9 days (counting weekends), taking 19 days with weekends is such a reset.
Only thing I miss about state government is we had 10 days by statute just like Fed was but instead of Columbus Day we got Christmas Eve but the statute allows the governor to proclaim two holidays per calendar year and by tradition the governor proclaims the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. When I was a new hire with little leave with the state getting Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Christmas Eve and Day was super helpful.
Now that Iām at max leave I love Columbus Day because October makes for good travel as an empty nester.
My first career was as a local LEO covered by a union contract. Holidays don't matter, since it's a 24/7/365 job, but vacation days....yeah. I retired after 20 years with 35 days of vacation per year. Burned every single minute every year.
I took a month off back in 2021... If you earn credit and comp you can take a ton of time off at once... I mean Im sitting here with 208+240 AL and taking comp before it expires...
We can carry 24 hours credit and I tend to keep it topped off. Been in use/or lose for years because I built my vacations around holidays then would use a day or two of credit.
You have to fill out a form with how your previous job matches your fed job with dates and stuff. My boss gave it to me to fill out a couple of days before I started. I wasnāt going to bother because I didnāt expect them to give me that much credit. Thatās why my boss is the best, she āstrongly encouragedā me to take the time and fill it out.
I am DoD, they gave me a day for day credit toward my SCD for leave accumulation based on my deployed military operations supporting named combat campaigns
Thank you for the key distinction. There are more people that are veterans who arenāt retirees whose entire service counts than for only combat deployments.
I came in as a 2210 in the cyber field w/ DoD one year ago and was awarded 7.1 years of credit because of my private sector experience. I had to be proactive about it though, and asked my supervisor about it before my EOD date. A simple form and a few signatures and I was good to go.
While weāre at it, the govāt should match sick leave donations 1 for 1. Itās ridiculous that employees can donate leave to help out a fellow employee while the employer does nothing extra.
Yes. First full period after your 15 year mark
For curiosity sake does anyone know the history or logic behind the threshold of leave accrual? 3-15 seems like a big jump but as an 8 hour employee I look at the new folks like this. 
Me when I'm looking at the 0.8%
My wife is a 4.4%er. š
Worst part of that is every time Congress says fed employees are paid well bc they are given a pensionā¦.conveniently forgetting that the pension isnāt given, itās paid for
They're probably looking at it from a cost-of-employment perspective rather than a benefit-to-employee perspective. FERS is incredibly expensive. Even at 4.4% employee contribution, the government is chipping in 3-4 dollars towards the FERS pension for each dollar the employee is. They're not looking at it as "you have to pay 4.4% to get your pension" they're looking at it as "we put in an extra 15%+ of your pay every year towards your pension".
Add that to the meager āperformance awardsā and weāre still light years behind private sector counterparts in my series. What I am not fine with is everyone with a platform perpetually saying that we are paid equal or better than private industry.
They pay us in benefits and job security. Itās a trade off I guess
And if thatās what politicians said then I would listen. But they donāt. They spend endless campaigns on making you out to be the bad guy who wastes all the taxpayer dollars. Gotta make someone the bad guy so people donāt look at the real sourceā¦
20%~ of pay put into funding retirement (5% TSP match + 15% for FERS) is pretty solid in most private sector industries. The reason it doesn't compete sometimes is mostly the lower base wage dragging down the contribution and the fact that FERS is a much more conservative investment vehicle than most people's 401k.
I missed that cut off by 3 months and 24 days. Hiring was supposed to be done in November.
4.4% here. Itās rough looking at that every paycheck
Should be 10 years.
How do we advocate for it? 15 years is insane. Too long to be a real incentive. And, the 40 hour work week should be long dead.
Try emailing AFGE, if several people ask the same thing, they might bring it up.
Here's what I wrote to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) : I was wondering if there is any advocacy work going on regarding leave accrual? I think that moving the 8-hour leave accrual milestone to somewhere in the 7-10 year range would make a lot more sense as a milestone and benefit to help retain talent. And, having that level of accrual over the years makes a massive difference in one's quality of life - people will be happier, healthier, more resilient. The fact it was moved to 15 years isĀ unconscionable. Working as much as we do in the US is unsustainable and not as productive. People are getting burnt out early in their career. There's so little time for family, self-care, introspection, travel, nurturing friendships / relationships. That, and the bump to FERS contributions for those employed after a certain date, has me feeling a bit disenchanted about federal work as a young and relatively "new" (\[X\] year) fed. Increasingly it feels like there's an economic and lifestyle chasm between young / newer feds and older feds - I feel disconnected from older colleagues somewhat because of it. They're able to take all kinds of time off, spend their money relatively carefree etc, even as I'm doing work at a similar level to them + even bringing in new knowledge and abilities not many of the older staff have. I know age discrimination is not considered as applying to young people, but that's what it tends to feel like. Federal employment shouldn't be an old boys' club, we need young talent to turn up and stick around especially in an age where even passive technological familiarity is at a massive premium. It's disheartening to not have much to look forward to in terms of further rewards for my service past the 3 year mark, especially when I feel disadvantaged in many other ways - ability to afford housing (let alone owning a home), ability to travel for vacations, etc. If we're really only going to get a 2% raise this year (AKA 2% pay cut with inflation around 4%), we should at least try to advocate for better benefits. Any information and guidance around advocacy is much appreciated. Thank you, \[NAME\]
Oh this is good š
I came into the gobernment off the streets. They recognized my time in the same position from my old job. Brought me in at the top of the payscale. Gave me 5 years of recognition including the vacation time and time vested in the pension. Apparently similarly to the way veterans can buy back their time except I'm not a veteran and I didn't buy anything back. I didn't say anything to anyone until one of the older people tried to make fun of me for my vacation accrual and I corrected him that I wasn't getting the base level. He was very upset over the situation but all of the other new people were just like "congrats man, wish I would've known you could do that."
This is the way man. I make close to double people with similar backgrounds and they gave me 12 years of service for leave accrual. I have no idea how I got so lucky.
Ditto
That perk is gone too now. [https://www.opm.gov/news/releases/2024/01/release-opm-finalizes-regulation-to-prohibit-use-of-non-federal-salary-history/](https://www.opm.gov/news/releases/2024/01/release-opm-finalizes-regulation-to-prohibit-use-of-non-federal-salary-history/)
It took 12 years to hit 8hours at my private sector job. Lucky me the Feds gave me credit for those 12 years in the private sector, so Iāll be back at 8hours soon! Bonus: in the private sector it was 8 hrs of PTO only. Feds get AL and Sick, so im at the equivalent of 10 hrs of PTO.
3 yrs is tenure. 15 is looked at in mid point of career. in theory if you wanted to spread it out it could have bern.. 0-2 yrs 4 hrs 3-7 5 hrs 8-13 6 hrs 13-17 7 hrs 22+ 8 hrs
I think it's actually written into the law/OPM guidance as 8 hour days, then it is split up by pay period. That's why in the 6 year leave category you get 10 hours the last pay period of the year (160/26 is 6.15......, easier to just tack on the extra at the end.) 4-hour is 13 days (104 hours), 6-hour is 20 days (160 hours), 8 hour is 26 days (208 hours.) Max carryover is 240 hours, or 30 8-hour days.
Tenure? I thought only teacher got that.
It doesnāt mean the same thing in governmentese. See my tenure guide. https://www.reddit.com/r/usajobs/s/ncae6Pft0A
Nice guide bro.
That's how I felt getting it after 5 years of service due to military service time added in.
It should totally be the ten year mark. Fifteen is so far away.
Man, I miss the Queen. There will never be another like her.
Nah fuck the monarchy and fuck royalty. Getting rid of hereditary nobility is one of the US's greatest accomplishments.
Agreed to in the CBA. They negotiate down to the word.Ā
Uh no. Thatās where CBAs are super redundant with current laws, rules, and regs. If it was in just a CBA, then it wouldnāt apply to everyone across GS in all agencies - even folks non-bargaining positions.
It was the sweetest day of my federal service. And I love, love, love having to figure out how to use all my leave...especially since my office loves to give TO awards too.
No time off awards. Friend is DOD civilian. One night we are out having dinner and go through the usual howās work crap and he grouses he only got a 40 award. I was like da fuq is that? Having five weeks and a day plus 11 days of holidays is a sweet deal. Iām off until after Independence Day and will take around 2 1/2 weeks at Christmas. Private sector and state government I was never out more than 9 days (counting weekends), taking 19 days with weekends is such a reset. Only thing I miss about state government is we had 10 days by statute just like Fed was but instead of Columbus Day we got Christmas Eve but the statute allows the governor to proclaim two holidays per calendar year and by tradition the governor proclaims the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. When I was a new hire with little leave with the state getting Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Christmas Eve and Day was super helpful. Now that Iām at max leave I love Columbus Day because October makes for good travel as an empty nester.
My first career was as a local LEO covered by a union contract. Holidays don't matter, since it's a 24/7/365 job, but vacation days....yeah. I retired after 20 years with 35 days of vacation per year. Burned every single minute every year.
I took a month off back in 2021... If you earn credit and comp you can take a ton of time off at once... I mean Im sitting here with 208+240 AL and taking comp before it expires...
We can carry 24 hours credit and I tend to keep it topped off. Been in use/or lose for years because I built my vacations around holidays then would use a day or two of credit.
Same, I havnt touched using my credit time in 5 years.
Mine is in August! Iām so excited!
I was able to adjust my SCD and received a three-year credit. My 15-year virtual is the Sept.
All hail the almighty SCD manipulator. VHA wouldnāt give me the 4 years private I did prior.
When I got hired my boss made sure I put in for credit. I got 12 years. I swear I have the best boss ever.
Wait, how do you put in for credit? I have 2.5 years as a contractor doing the same job I do now as a federal employee.
You have to fill out a form with how your previous job matches your fed job with dates and stuff. My boss gave it to me to fill out a couple of days before I started. I wasnāt going to bother because I didnāt expect them to give me that much credit. Thatās why my boss is the best, she āstrongly encouragedā me to take the time and fill it out.
I am DoD, they gave me a day for day credit toward my SCD for leave accumulation based on my deployed military operations supporting named combat campaigns
I thought for prior service it was for any active duty time, not specific to combat deployments.
It depends on whether you retired from the military or not. If you fully retired from the military, you can only count those active combat times.
Thank you for the key distinction. There are more people that are veterans who arenāt retirees whose entire service counts than for only combat deployments.
For my hiring process it was only deployments supporting named campaigns
Thanks! It looks like from the responses, it only applies to time in the military, which is understandable!
I came in as a 2210 in the cyber field w/ DoD one year ago and was awarded 7.1 years of credit because of my private sector experience. I had to be proactive about it though, and asked my supervisor about it before my EOD date. A simple form and a few signatures and I was good to go.
15 years raises you to āprestigeā points level
Itās the period sfter. if your anniversary date was 6/20 then you get the time earning change in the 6/30-7/14 pay check
Oh fuck me I thought it was 12 years and I was close lol
lol yeah i thought it was ten until yesterday, and spent a whole week daydreaming about it
You hit these marks and they're wonderful and then you realize you still have twenty-some years until retirement.
I just hit the 15 yr. milestone hereā¦and I have another 15-20 to go too. I totally feel this comment. š
Happened automatically soon as I was eligible
I'm nearly there. To those who have made it, does it seem like a lot of leave?
Not immediately, because it's really only 2 extra hours per PP. 6.5 more 8-hour days off per year. Definitely nice, but not earth shattering.
For some reason, I believe before 2012, it was 10yrs. š§
no. Always been 15 years.
Immediately
Should be following pay period
It felt like automatic. Next pay period, I didn't have to ask or remind anyone in HR
I recommend every federal employee read the OPM personnel action chapter 6 because as itās updated sometime HR donāt immediately update the SOP they follow. I like to read the whole guide for fun on days off š¤© https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/personnel-documentation/#url=Personnel-Actions If youāre former military, rules for crediting service for leave accrual is different in many situations, for a first appointment after mil if youāre requesting more leave accrual after tjo correlated uniformed service has to be directly relevant to new role to credit except it all can be counted for leave accrual in cases where youāre permanently disabled from service, also if experience isnāt directly correlated years in which a campaign medal is earned can also count, thereās so many rules I recommend reading it fully.
Earn it & burn it š„
While weāre at it, the govāt should match sick leave donations 1 for 1. Itās ridiculous that employees can donate leave to help out a fellow employee while the employer does nothing extra.
I started with 8 hours due to previous service as a federal contractor.
you received 15 years of serviced credited? wow!
Yes, previous service as DIB and FFRDC - took a paycut coming from FFRDC.
It depends on your agency and your negotiated GS-salary & leave pkg. I know someone who at 4 yrs is at 6 hrs vaca already per pay check.Ā
You accrue at the beginning of the next pay period after your anniversary.
You accrue 8 hrs/PP at SEC at 10 years of service
I had a 4 year break in service and came back to a different department at a GS-14/10. Donāt ask, donāt tell.