Dear Bureaupat,
I've had it with my government job
and have decided to strike out on my own. But I have several weeks of
annual leave in the bank and I'm wondering what happens to it when I
leave. If I'm going to lose it, then I'll plan on taking a long vacation or two before I put in my notice, but my supervisor is making me crazy and I want out as soon as possible.
Dear Fedup,
No need to call your travel agent yet, your generous Uncle Sam has a
provision for folks like you who've had it with working for the
bureaucracy but have unused annual leave on the books.
The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) tells us that you can elect to receive a lump-sum payment for any
unused annual leave when you separate from federal service. Generally,
a lump-sum payment will equal the pay you would have received had you
stuck around to the end of the period covered by your annual leave
balance. This also applies to anyone going on active duty in the
military.
Viva Las Vegas! Your payment will be calculated using your
rate of basic pay and includes such goodies as retention allowances,
locality pay, within-grade increases, across-the-board annual
adjustments, supervisory and night differentials, foreign area post
allowances, and holidays. Maybe it's time to get that suite at the Venetian and act like a high roller for a couple nights. You could even go the weekend of a federal conference and rub your newfangled freedom in the faces of your former colleagues. Immature for sure, but still fun!
One word of warning: should your spouse send your ass back to work with the feds prior to the end of the period of annual leave you've been paid for,
you will be required to refund the portion of the payment that
represents the period between the date of reemployment and the
expiration of the lump sum period. In English, don't blow all the money and expect to come crawling back to your job without paying back the man.
The Only,
- Bureaupat
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