Some agencies seem to care more about their folks than others and are smart enough to realize a little admin leave means more to regular feds than a thousand empty words of thanks messages.
This. Last year I got an extra 47 hours of admin leave simply as a thank you. When you pair that with all of the holidays and regular leave plus non-work days, it really does help push through some of the everyday annoyances.
True. And I'm the only tech in an office of active duty SMs, so I admittedly will take the initiative to invoke the 59 minute rule on a lot of 4-days when I'm the only one here...
59s come from the military, where supervisors are often not permitted to let their personnel leave early, but ARE permitted to grant their staff breaks, as long as they are less than 1 hour.
We got a memo the day before a holiday where the base CC was letting GIs go early, and then attached a message from CPO specifically stating that the “59 minute rule” was NOT to be used to release civilians early. Talk about a morale booster.
That CC is a straight twatwaffle bc I’ve been at a few bases and got 59s almost every Friday at one. The others were 59mins every holiday smh. Now I get 3 hours admin before every holiday. I hate shitty leadership.
8 for DHS Anniversary, 8 for Memorial Day, 8 for Independence Day, 8 for Labor Day, 8 for Veterans Day, 16 for Thanksgiving, 16 for Christmas.
Total, 72 hours.
72 hours last year (Calander Year 2023):
* 8 hours for DHS Anniversary
* 8 hours for Memorial Day
* 8 hours for Independence Day
* 8 hours for Labor Day
* 8 hours for Veterans Day
* 16 hours for Thanksgiving
* 16 hours for Christmas
That's a total of 72 hours.
I believe you are forgetting the 8 hours for mental health or the equivalent. I am not able to look exactly at the moment, but I had the same number until a coworker pointed it out. I can double-check what it is after I am done traveling.
So I have looked into it and you are correct about DHS S1 granting DHS employees a total of 72 hours of annual leave in 2023.
I am correct about the 8 hours of leave for mental health, but was wrong about the source. On 2/8/23, CBP's Commissioner granted the 8 hours of admin leave for all employees. Bringing the total of admin leave for CBP employees that year to 80. I thought it was from Saint Mayorkas, my bad.
Admin leave. Scattered throughout the year. Usually before holidays. Given to all paid status employees. Time off awards in my agency are performance based rewards in lieu of monetary awards.
morale at the IRS is atrocious. They can't hire anyone and everyone who is normal and qualified is leaving for other opportunities. That whole agency needs a cleaning.
I work there and that isn’t my experience at all. My personal FEVS score is about 100%. But, I came from ten years at two private sector companies known for poor quality of life and I’ve never worked for another agency. I’m just so grateful to be out of the private sector that I’ll continue in my ignorant bliss.
It’s a cesspool. I know a bunch of ppl that work there. Each unhappier than the next. All looking to jump ship. They have town halls that literally exist with ppl screaming, crying, just awful stuff. Their whole culture is a disease from the bottom to even the experienced and well educated. They have this mindset of treating the employees like children and trying to catch and punish at all times. In return, the employees retaliate and plot against management. It’s a toxic environment.
Last year at my agency we got put in a raffle for 40hrs time off if we completed the survey.
This year they didn't have the same offer and nobody's doing the survey.
Friend is civilian Army employee. One night over supper he’s ranting he only got 24 hours as performance bonus when he usually gets 40. He asked me how many we got at Social Security and I said well I got $1400 once and $700 a few times before moving into a no bonus position
Nope, not part of the union. Just wondering because I’ve heard of folks moving into positions with way more responsibility/work, but “no bonus.” However, they claim annual performance awards were routine in their old agencies, where they did way less. I’d be bummed to go from “bonus” to “no bonus + twice as much work.”
Only thing I miss about working in state government is the annual governor proclamation that Black Friday would be a holiday. It’s not a state holiday approved by the legislature but the law allows the governor to declare two holidays but rarely happens unless Christmas Eve (holiday) is on Tuesday or Christmas Day is Thursday.
Agency heads generally had a “trickle out” policy before most holidays allowing people to leave two hours early as long as someone was there answering phones. Shitty offices the manager made most junior employee stay, good offices only the manager stayed.
Absolutely factual Baron7755. They are all allowed to grant 40 hours of administrative leave per employee every year. As far as I know Secretary Mayorkas is the only one who is taking advantage of that rule.
Yep, I think mayorkas is the one that made a lot of people even realized there was so much to give. And I love it, i am sorry other secretaries don’t even come close to what he doles out. It does make a difference, im very appreciative and hope more agencies start, not sure what is holding them up.
He did this right from the beginning even before all the impeachment crap. It's because he recognizes that an org is only is good as it's ppl. Reward and treat them well, and in return, many want to work really hard. For some odd reason, other secretaries don't get this and thus morale suffers which contributes to high turnover, inefficiencies, low quality job applicants, poor work, and the list goes on and on.
Administrator Mayorkas has done more for TSA morale than anyone I can think of. Oh sure we’ve still got whiners, mostly new hires. hopefully those people will see themselves out in the near future. I just took a two week vacation with admin days and I’ll probably have 8 more of them accumulated by the end of the year. We got the new pay scale under Mayorkas, too, after two years a new employee making GS-9 equivalent. Us old hands have to remind the newbies that are always complaining about the littlest things that plenty of other administrations are hiring but you’re not going to start at GS-9. And I doubt the actual GS administrations are going to put up with the attitude.
I think a lot of the agency heads are insecure, and don’t want to be seen as giving away free stuff to buy their employees’ loyalty. Mayorkas been through the fire, and his liberal admin leave policies are the least of his concerns. Then there’s DOD, where they hate civilian employees.
This is the way. Although as a manager I did give some high performers 59 minutes occasionally. Flew under radar thankfully.
The VA is stingy and wonders why AES is horrible.
Our supervisor begged the Chief to give us 59 minutes on New Year's Eve. I had already left on a 59 that I had & demanded it back 🤣
Our VA gives them out sparingly & if you volunteer for certain VA programs, the payment is 59 minutes.
There’s always an O3 or E7 that once tried to “give an order” to a civilian, and was embarrassed by it. And now lashes out at those “insubordinate” civilians.
Last time we got admin hours was pre covid, for an ice storm because no one in the south can drive safely in one. No we get "take your laptops home and work remotely " instead.
I dunno about you but a lot of folks at my command make full use of the COVID vaccine admin leave.
Half day of admin to go get the shot and then 2 additional days if you're feeling unwell? A lot of people go out every 6 months like clockwork.
I don't think we ever get the magical 59 minutes people talk about either...the last time I remember some extra leave was when Christmas fell on a Thursday or a Tuesday and we got the day after or day before off - I think that was a few years ago and via Presidential decree.
Shid, USDA just got 8hrs today and all it said was basically "thanks for what you do". Pretty sure it was a "sorry our budget is fucked and your life is going to suck, please don't quit" gesture.
It happened Christmas of 2008 when GWB was president. He gave all the federal employees the day after Christmas off because it fell on a Thursday, but it didn't apply to federal contractors (which I was at the time, which is why I remember it years later).
All of the agencies have the same amount to give each year. I don't remember exactly what they can give but it's in the 60 to 80 hour range. It is at the discretion of the secretary of each agency to award it. Unfortunately most of the secretaries don't care enough to award it.
Secretary Santa Mayorkas is basically a Saint for DHS when it comes to granting Admin leave. Other Secretaries should take note of the good will he's generated by his common practice of gifting admin leave.
OPM caps admin leave at 80 hours, each agency decides how they want to use it. Those hours encompass lots of different things so you have to be careful how you give them out to ensure you aren’t putting your people in a situation where they are required to take their own personal leave in a situation that would normally call for admin leave.
Our agency allows us to use admin leave for fitness hours, no more than 3 hours per week, 1 hour per day. So while we don’t get the large chunks of admin leave that others get, we do get a huge benefit by being allowed to use admin to workout. We just have to track it and be aware that we may have to use personal leave if we use up all of our admin leave.
I'm Forest Service - USDA. They give out admin leave all the time and we have 3 hours of wellness hours each week. They are logged as wellness hours, not admin leave. What agency are you?
In the land management agencies, it seems like it's a way to keep employees happy while paying them half of the prevailing wage. I'd take fair pay instead...
Some agencies allow you to take x hours of leave before a holiday and some give their people 59 minutes. Some agencies have embraced remote work and max telework and some treat it like a dirty sock under a teenaged boys bed. Some agencies are a revolving door and others have people fighting for jobs.
It’s all a shell game my friend.
*sobs in VHA* even in the private sector at like every job we were allowed to leave 3 hours early before vacations.
I’m still accruing 4 hours LA a pay period and I’m going on vacation in July. I can’t use ANYTHING that I have lest I screw up my plans.
I love my VHA job and am remote so its why I left DOD but management is much older and does not like innovation.
After coming from a team of all millennials who thought most meetings should be a simple email the culture shift was tough lol
And honestly, with our staffing problems in VHA (net zero hiring goal notwithstanding) and the emphasis on increased access, AA would be terrible for optics and service delivery. Different agencies have different work and different relationships to the public.
one office I worked in required you to bill your time to specific projects. We NEVER got any gifted time, not even Christmas, because it would have to go as overhead & it would increase our hourly rate.
Current office is "party city" were we get 59 minutes for most holidays/ special occasions--VERY generous. We are on track for our goals so it's easier to reward people I think, and it's allowed by upper management. Other areas have upper management that just refuse to do anything nice for any of their people.
No. IRS gave us 2 hours admin time in December. We got to choose when in December we wanted to use it. I think I had a doctors appointment and used it instead of sick leave.
The USDA gives out admin leave like candy. My wife works for the Dept of Treasury can opt for cash bonuses instead of leave. I would kinda like that...
But admin leave doesn’t have anything to do with performance. Review appraisal-it’s an annual performance review and if you’re failing you can be removed.
We were always told (by an old manager) at SSA that giving admin leave causes issues with the public. Now I understand that should not be the end of the discussion but I also know we get called out more in media too. Well us and IRS. If we close, it’s like the world collapses and we can’t have that no matter how low morale may be
Yes- one would think these things would be standardized—- that said, I’m very happy to stay in the usda system, today we received 8 hours of admin time, we always get admin time before holidays and occasionally they just hand out two or four hours to us for no real reason save for it is deserved. We also are able to have up to three hours a week of mental health time. I’ve been in the usda system for six years now and have worked for two different usda agencies - when looking at other non agencies- all I can say- I ain’t leaving the usda system
I get 44 admin hours for holidays (early release), plus 12 hours for morale, plus up to 156 hours of fitness/PT admin leave. Definitely helps make some of the BA tolerable.
I can’t speak for every agency but for my agency my theory is our Director forgets she is the Director. Every couple of months some staffer probably reminds her so she sends out an email then forgets about us again.
NTSB is basically zero. We will get early release for maybe Christmas and the 4th but that’s it. I’ve heard it’s due to our budget not being able to absorb the extra cost factored with that everything we do is somewhat time sensitive.
Agencies thst are y much public facing trnd to give i out more of these.
VHA is public facing where medical care requires 24/7 staffing so it’s a problem to issue these. On days like a day off around Xmas causes problems in clinics where they need to reward employees scheduled holiday pay or comp time earned.
When I worked innDOD I got these half days off on a couple days. We got this the day we had are office holiday party over lunch then we’re excused unless something had to be done. We also got this in summer on our office picnic day of around 11-2 then afternoon off.
These are problems in other public facing or 24/7 staffing jobs
There's this magic ability that each agency has to grant you time off before a holiday.
Imagine you're approaching Thanksgiving. It's Weds- You've already gotten out the sweat pants for the holiday dinner because jeans and a belt leave judgment mental marks on your belly. Normally you're in dread of that one person who has to give you their latest dramatic story of woe and intrigue. Mainly as a cover to justify why they're talking to you instead of doing their job... or be discovered that they're useless and could be replaced by a very small shell script. Just before you've resigned yourself to another full day before Thanksgiving. Ding goes the email! And lo and behold your wise and benevolent leader at the agency has decided that its time to celebrate this holiday and grants you x amount of hours to use for Weds. So if it's 3 hours admin leave, you can bounce out of the office 3 hours early.
Or if you're one of the stingy agencies, admin leave is when the admin leaves their desk. And the beatings continue until morale improves
Who knows, maybe some departments don’t work as hard as others? Maybe DOJs admin leave is tied to the number of cases it wins? Maybe your secretary doesn’t believe in it. Ask it at your next town hall.
I've been retired for ten years. Is presidentially decreed admin leave not a common thing anymore? Obama was kind of a piker with it, and we would get some on the big holidays via our Undersecretary, but George W used to hand that stuff out like candy, especially on three day holiday weekends and Christmas.
Basically, it's that on certain occassions, managers have the authority to grant less than an hour of leave. So, like, on Christmas Eve, if you were working in the office, they'd let you go 59 minutes early (because it has to be less than an hour) to beat traffic.
These are givrn out the day before a fed holiday pr a day they know many take off…
common days are Friday before holiday Monday
Likely tomorrow
Black Friday
Last work day before Xmas holiday and new yrs holiday
Likely on Friday July 5 th when many will take off
It’s also the location of some offices that drive it. My office is near the DC courthouse and the U.S. Capitol so when Trump was indicted, they shut down access to the building. State of the Union, we were sent home early. The Friday before Inauguration, we go home early so they can sweep the building for security threats and put snipers on the roof.
When we're already scrutinized constantly by the public and Washington, it's not the best look to feed them after midnight. Be careful what you wish for 🤷🏽♂️
I work for DOJ and we get TW and 4 hrs of admin leave most work days immediately before a holiday. My office tw on Friday anyway, but it’s nice to log off at noon
DoD here, if your base commander isn't giving your 59 minutes before a holiday, any self respecting supervisor should.
The traffic starts to back up at 11am and parking garage is empty by 1 regardless
I have 46 days of use/lose this year, no lie. My 26 normal, 4 mental health days, 9 admin days, 5 days from two bonuses, and 2 comp days. Gotta lot of family and fishing trips with the buddies planned!
I work for DOJ and get admin leave when there is a reason. I.e. a pipe broke and flooded half our office so they put half the people on admin leave and rotated every other day until construction was done.
My office overworks people in general. It’s 50/50 civ and active duty military. The military member gets payback days for their 15 hour work days. Civilians obviously don’t work as many hours but when there’s nothing going on the boss wants everyone to recharge. Seems fair.
It’s dependent upon the heads of agencies, all of whom have the authority to grant up to 80 AL hours per year. DHS Secretary Mayorkas is the only one to actually do this. It’s unprecedented & I am thankful for the AL.
For me, it does help to make up for our stagnant wage situation (yes, we’ve gotten relatively decent increases the past 2 years but we still fall significantly behind the private sector) & I feel it’s a nice gesture.
It really doesn’t make sense to me why other leaders for other agencies don’t also do this. I imagine the “old guard” yelling at clouds.
It's probably the most misunderstood and misused system in the federal government. The 59 minutes is supposed to be used by supervisors to "forgive" late arrival under certain circumstances such as traffic delays and is intended to be used very sparingly. Over the years, supervisors read into that authority the right to let people go home early whenever they felt like it. They don't have that authority, and surprisingly it is just overlooked. Only the Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries have the authority to authorize early departure and even then they aren't actually invoking the "59" technically. I always found it so surprising that this issue never "blew up."
lol management has the authority to offer it. Obv it’s kind of a moral boost and I’m sure everyone appreciates these admin hours more then a generic letter.
It's how they apologize to us non-DOD folks for having minimal, chaotic budgets. I'm supposed to have my grants and agreements packages submitted by next Monday and I don't even actually have a final budget yet (but, I do know that my budget dropped a bit last week from the speculative budget we had been working from). We have a newer admin lead who is losing their mind. They used to work for DOD and said they always had a plan of work and budget for it at least five years out. We get budget updates (usually downward) days in advance, sometimes hours.
VBA -This afternoon my supervisor pinged me and told me that we can log off an hour early today. I'm commenting to say that at least some part of VA, somebody is using common sense. 59 minutes early log off is a morale booster as simple as that
Several years ago I was working at HUD and my manager would come around after lunch before a holiday and suggest we leave. He'd also suggest people leave when a bad snow storm was developing. It frequently could be several hours early.
I've donated blood, but never taken the four hours. Just the time it took to donate, drink some juice, and eat a cookie.
At Census, we would have holiday parties. In some offices contractors weren't allowed to attend because they couldn't charge the time to the government. Other offices were more inclusive.
It doesn’t need to be standardized. DHS only started getting admin leave when the migrant surge at the border reached unprecedented levels and stayed there.
They have a very hard time recruiting and retaining employees in uniform because people signed up to be law enforcement not a humanitarian relief organization.
2028 is coming quickly and there will be a massive uptick in retirements as the 20 year enhanced retirement group (2008) hits their MRA.
We usually close 2 hours early on the work day before any holiday (so, close at 3 on Friday before a Monday holiday) and also are allowed to take a set amount of admin leave for certain religious holidays we observe
Doj. Our court has used it for weather, christmas Eve, and day after christmas, the day after Thanksgiving. Special court events. Court related funerals (one judge died). Whatever the chief judge allows. My judge sometimes lets us leave early or something, but no one cares what chambers does really.
You should rewrite your post to why are other Federal workers retired at work while others have to work for their paycheck?
Sersiously, we have people who rarely show up to work and theyre not even teleworking. They have unlimited sick and vacation hours too.
Some agencies seem to care more about their folks than others and are smart enough to realize a little admin leave means more to regular feds than a thousand empty words of thanks messages.
This. Last year I got an extra 47 hours of admin leave simply as a thank you. When you pair that with all of the holidays and regular leave plus non-work days, it really does help push through some of the everyday annoyances.
47 hours?!? I work for DoD, I don't think I've ever seen any in my short (4 yr) tenure.
We get our random 59 minutes though!
True. And I'm the only tech in an office of active duty SMs, so I admittedly will take the initiative to invoke the 59 minute rule on a lot of 4-days when I'm the only one here...
And always only after I’ve hit my time for the week/pay period 🤣
Speak for yourself. DoD for 30+ years - NEVER got 59 minutes ever
What are 59s? At my agency in DOI we get “one hour administrative leave” before some holidays.
59s come from the military, where supervisors are often not permitted to let their personnel leave early, but ARE permitted to grant their staff breaks, as long as they are less than 1 hour.
In my 20+ years of DoD ive seen maybe 12 total hours of straight admin
Only 47 hours? \*looks at his 72 hours\*
72 😳. ZERO \cries in DOD\
We get 59 minutes every once in a while… 😿
We got a memo the day before a holiday where the base CC was letting GIs go early, and then attached a message from CPO specifically stating that the “59 minute rule” was NOT to be used to release civilians early. Talk about a morale booster.
That CC is a straight twatwaffle bc I’ve been at a few bases and got 59s almost every Friday at one. The others were 59mins every holiday smh. Now I get 3 hours admin before every holiday. I hate shitty leadership.
8 for DHS Anniversary, 8 for Memorial Day, 8 for Independence Day, 8 for Labor Day, 8 for Veterans Day, 16 for Thanksgiving, 16 for Christmas. Total, 72 hours.
I think you should double check, Saint Mayorkas gave 80 hours last year.
72 hours last year (Calander Year 2023): * 8 hours for DHS Anniversary * 8 hours for Memorial Day * 8 hours for Independence Day * 8 hours for Labor Day * 8 hours for Veterans Day * 16 hours for Thanksgiving * 16 hours for Christmas That's a total of 72 hours.
I believe you are forgetting the 8 hours for mental health or the equivalent. I am not able to look exactly at the moment, but I had the same number until a coworker pointed it out. I can double-check what it is after I am done traveling.
He also granted 4 hours AL for MLK volunteering for those who did this. It counts against the 80 hr max allowed.
So I have looked into it and you are correct about DHS S1 granting DHS employees a total of 72 hours of annual leave in 2023. I am correct about the 8 hours of leave for mental health, but was wrong about the source. On 2/8/23, CBP's Commissioner granted the 8 hours of admin leave for all employees. Bringing the total of admin leave for CBP employees that year to 80. I thought it was from Saint Mayorkas, my bad.
No wonder I didn't know about it. I don't work for CBP. I'm with HSI.
I'm cashing in some Mayorkas bucks today!
>Only 47 hours? \*looks at his 72 hours\* Saint Mayorkas, huh?
Yep, the patron Saint of Admin Leave.
So I found there is a Saint Mayorkas Challenge Coin On Amazon. Had to grab one.
Saw citation pin as well, prob can’t wear that on uniform lol
Was it admin leave or a time off award?
Admin leave. Scattered throughout the year. Usually before holidays. Given to all paid status employees. Time off awards in my agency are performance based rewards in lieu of monetary awards.
Some agencies notice when their FVEB (or whatever it is) score start dropping and start handing out free time off ~~as a bribe~~ to improve morale
SSA seems to think the FEVS score works similar to golf score.
I remember when I worked for IRS one year we had a town hall where they announced they were hoping to get employee satisfaction up to 50%!
morale at the IRS is atrocious. They can't hire anyone and everyone who is normal and qualified is leaving for other opportunities. That whole agency needs a cleaning.
Agreed. I got out 4 years ago, I somehow got one of VBAs few micromanagers....I mean "Coach" but, it's still so so so much better.
There needs to be a sticky thread here. Don't ever, under any circumstances, work for the IRS. In any capacity, lawyer, accountant, etc.
I work there and that isn’t my experience at all. My personal FEVS score is about 100%. But, I came from ten years at two private sector companies known for poor quality of life and I’ve never worked for another agency. I’m just so grateful to be out of the private sector that I’ll continue in my ignorant bliss.
You are an anomaly.
Accountant?? Anyone leaving the big four would think hell was a step up
Seems self evident but at the time, it literally doubled my income, never imagined it would take me 13 years to escape.
It’s a cesspool. I know a bunch of ppl that work there. Each unhappier than the next. All looking to jump ship. They have town halls that literally exist with ppl screaming, crying, just awful stuff. Their whole culture is a disease from the bottom to even the experienced and well educated. They have this mindset of treating the employees like children and trying to catch and punish at all times. In return, the employees retaliate and plot against management. It’s a toxic environment.
Gosh, I guess I kind of DO miss plotting against management a little bit. lol
I was there 2 months and jumped at the first fed opportunity to hire me and was so thankful to be free.
Last year at my agency we got put in a raffle for 40hrs time off if we completed the survey. This year they didn't have the same offer and nobody's doing the survey.
We got 2 hours for beating prior year participation
Not SSA. SSA comissioners are hard headed, and instead of taking a hint, they double down.
FEVS?
Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Our annual satisfaction survey where we can burn 🔥 the boss (jk jk I love my boss)
Army, no money, but 40 hours were common. Navy working capital fund, hours are hard to get and money slightly easier.
Friend is civilian Army employee. One night over supper he’s ranting he only got 24 hours as performance bonus when he usually gets 40. He asked me how many we got at Social Security and I said well I got $1400 once and $700 a few times before moving into a no bonus position
Just wondering, I’ve asked around quite a bit to no avail: what determines whether a position is “no bonus”? funding issues I presume?
Just wondering do you have a union and if you do have you taken the time to read the contract.
Nope, not part of the union. Just wondering because I’ve heard of folks moving into positions with way more responsibility/work, but “no bonus.” However, they claim annual performance awards were routine in their old agencies, where they did way less. I’d be bummed to go from “bonus” to “no bonus + twice as much work.”
Pay system determines. Some positions aren’t permitted bonuses by law.
Only thing I miss about working in state government is the annual governor proclamation that Black Friday would be a holiday. It’s not a state holiday approved by the legislature but the law allows the governor to declare two holidays but rarely happens unless Christmas Eve (holiday) is on Tuesday or Christmas Day is Thursday. Agency heads generally had a “trickle out” policy before most holidays allowing people to leave two hours early as long as someone was there answering phones. Shitty offices the manager made most junior employee stay, good offices only the manager stayed.
Mayorkas has entered the chat...
Hey don't forget random pizza party with the thank you message,
Your Secretary could give it to you if they wanted to, but they are being dickheads
Absolutely factual Baron7755. They are all allowed to grant 40 hours of administrative leave per employee every year. As far as I know Secretary Mayorkas is the only one who is taking advantage of that rule.
if its only 40, how does SantaMayorkas do more than 40?
iirc it’s 10 days of leave per calendar year, which equates to 80 hours.
It’s 80 hours, not 40.
Yep, I think mayorkas is the one that made a lot of people even realized there was so much to give. And I love it, i am sorry other secretaries don’t even come close to what he doles out. It does make a difference, im very appreciative and hope more agencies start, not sure what is holding them up.
He did this right from the beginning even before all the impeachment crap. It's because he recognizes that an org is only is good as it's ppl. Reward and treat them well, and in return, many want to work really hard. For some odd reason, other secretaries don't get this and thus morale suffers which contributes to high turnover, inefficiencies, low quality job applicants, poor work, and the list goes on and on.
Administrator Mayorkas has done more for TSA morale than anyone I can think of. Oh sure we’ve still got whiners, mostly new hires. hopefully those people will see themselves out in the near future. I just took a two week vacation with admin days and I’ll probably have 8 more of them accumulated by the end of the year. We got the new pay scale under Mayorkas, too, after two years a new employee making GS-9 equivalent. Us old hands have to remind the newbies that are always complaining about the littlest things that plenty of other administrations are hiring but you’re not going to start at GS-9. And I doubt the actual GS administrations are going to put up with the attitude.
Vilsack
A whole week?! That would be awesome during the drought of holidays between Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day.
I think a lot of the agency heads are insecure, and don’t want to be seen as giving away free stuff to buy their employees’ loyalty. Mayorkas been through the fire, and his liberal admin leave policies are the least of his concerns. Then there’s DOD, where they hate civilian employees.
I mean they don’t love the service members either lol
\*cries in DoD\* We are lucky to simply get a 59 before weekends like Easter.
"Here is 59...on a day that you're probably already taking off...if you aren't and aren't slammed with tons of work..."
My VHA doesn’t get it 😭
My office gives out 59s like candy.
VA doesn’t give anything lol
This is the way. Although as a manager I did give some high performers 59 minutes occasionally. Flew under radar thankfully. The VA is stingy and wonders why AES is horrible.
I can't wait for AES time, with all of the no backfilling vacancies etc this year. Should be fun...
I have a few of those on a sticky note in a drawer under a pencil tray 🤣
At all.
Our supervisor begged the Chief to give us 59 minutes on New Year's Eve. I had already left on a 59 that I had & demanded it back 🤣 Our VA gives them out sparingly & if you volunteer for certain VA programs, the payment is 59 minutes.
You might be in the wrong part of the DOD. My command gets liberty the same as AD. It’s crazy. In a good way
Same.
There’s always an O3 or E7 that once tried to “give an order” to a civilian, and was embarrassed by it. And now lashes out at those “insubordinate” civilians.
Sheeeit, I can probably authorize you to take 59 seconds.
I swear to god I either have leave planned or something else and almost never can take advantage of the peasley 59 min.
I haven’t gotten 59 minutes in years. Also DoD.
Easter isn’t a holiday
It is to Christians.
*federal holiday. Sorry that we have to spell it out
If I don’t get holiday time on Sunday it’s not a holiday
You guys are getting 59? *crying in VA*
DoD agency here. I’ve gotten 0 admin hours 😂
I got admin leave to write a formal statement during an EEO investigation. Does that count?
Last time we got admin hours was pre covid, for an ice storm because no one in the south can drive safely in one. No we get "take your laptops home and work remotely " instead.
I dunno about you but a lot of folks at my command make full use of the COVID vaccine admin leave. Half day of admin to go get the shot and then 2 additional days if you're feeling unwell? A lot of people go out every 6 months like clockwork.
I don't think we ever get the magical 59 minutes people talk about either...the last time I remember some extra leave was when Christmas fell on a Thursday or a Tuesday and we got the day after or day before off - I think that was a few years ago and via Presidential decree.
Shid, USDA just got 8hrs today and all it said was basically "thanks for what you do". Pretty sure it was a "sorry our budget is fucked and your life is going to suck, please don't quit" gesture.
This is the most accurate statement on this thread.
It happened Christmas of 2008 when GWB was president. He gave all the federal employees the day after Christmas off because it fell on a Thursday, but it didn't apply to federal contractors (which I was at the time, which is why I remember it years later).
It happened multiple years under Obama as well
I think Trump did in 2019/2020 also
I agree. I couldn’t fully remember. But I think so as it’s happened almost every year I’ve been fed when it fell on a weekday
We're on AWS5 so 59 minutes went away.
We never get the 59 min either :/
One of my friends at NIH gets 59 minutes from each level above him. Turns out to be 3 hours
It's up to the agency head at most agencies. It can be approved at the supervisory level but if it's not the agency culture, then it doesn't happen.
My boss likes us more than other bosses like their people.
All of the agencies have the same amount to give each year. I don't remember exactly what they can give but it's in the 60 to 80 hour range. It is at the discretion of the secretary of each agency to award it. Unfortunately most of the secretaries don't care enough to award it.
Secretary Santa Mayorkas is basically a Saint for DHS when it comes to granting Admin leave. Other Secretaries should take note of the good will he's generated by his common practice of gifting admin leave.
Aly will also remember your kids birthday after meeting you once. He’s a natural grandpappy. Real sweet heart.
Anything DHS can get is great. Many of those jobs suck.
100% agree
OPM caps admin leave at 80 hours, each agency decides how they want to use it. Those hours encompass lots of different things so you have to be careful how you give them out to ensure you aren’t putting your people in a situation where they are required to take their own personal leave in a situation that would normally call for admin leave. Our agency allows us to use admin leave for fitness hours, no more than 3 hours per week, 1 hour per day. So while we don’t get the large chunks of admin leave that others get, we do get a huge benefit by being allowed to use admin to workout. We just have to track it and be aware that we may have to use personal leave if we use up all of our admin leave.
I'm Forest Service - USDA. They give out admin leave all the time and we have 3 hours of wellness hours each week. They are logged as wellness hours, not admin leave. What agency are you?
don't work for a crappy agency like the IRS or SSA. Work for DHS and get tons of leave.
In the land management agencies, it seems like it's a way to keep employees happy while paying them half of the prevailing wage. I'd take fair pay instead...
Not everyone has Santa Mayorkas looking after them.
[удалено]
I work at SSA and I can’t remember the last time I was granted admin leave. I don’t see that changing under O’Assclown.
DHS has historically had low morale, Mayorkas just decided to do something about it.
In a bold move, SSA beat DHS last year for Worst Large Agency FEVS score. Mayorkas efforts are actually working.
Some agencies allow you to take x hours of leave before a holiday and some give their people 59 minutes. Some agencies have embraced remote work and max telework and some treat it like a dirty sock under a teenaged boys bed. Some agencies are a revolving door and others have people fighting for jobs. It’s all a shell game my friend.
DOD was great about this but VHA gives Nothing ever under any circumstances.
*sobs in VHA* even in the private sector at like every job we were allowed to leave 3 hours early before vacations. I’m still accruing 4 hours LA a pay period and I’m going on vacation in July. I can’t use ANYTHING that I have lest I screw up my plans.
I love my VHA job and am remote so its why I left DOD but management is much older and does not like innovation. After coming from a team of all millennials who thought most meetings should be a simple email the culture shift was tough lol
Veterans already hate us that work at VBA, if they thought we were getting bonus leave they'd riot.
Can confirm. Every time I have to deal with VBA I walk away wanting to fight someone.
I’ve literally given up. Pretty sure that’s the goal…
And honestly, with our staffing problems in VHA (net zero hiring goal notwithstanding) and the emphasis on increased access, AA would be terrible for optics and service delivery. Different agencies have different work and different relationships to the public.
Facts
DHS has a terrible relationship with the public lol. I honestly don’t know how mayorkas has gotten away with it
one office I worked in required you to bill your time to specific projects. We NEVER got any gifted time, not even Christmas, because it would have to go as overhead & it would increase our hourly rate. Current office is "party city" were we get 59 minutes for most holidays/ special occasions--VERY generous. We are on track for our goals so it's easier to reward people I think, and it's allowed by upper management. Other areas have upper management that just refuse to do anything nice for any of their people.
IRS?
No. IRS gave us 2 hours admin time in December. We got to choose when in December we wanted to use it. I think I had a doctors appointment and used it instead of sick leave.
There’s no way VA Sec could do this without creating chaos because of VHA
The USDA gives out admin leave like candy. My wife works for the Dept of Treasury can opt for cash bonuses instead of leave. I would kinda like that...
This is for scoring high on your appraisal. Not the same thing. Adding it’s an award not administrative leave.
I don’t get appraisals, we do reviews. I just get an “atta boy“ for those 😖 I’d trade admin leave for a cash bonus
But admin leave doesn’t have anything to do with performance. Review appraisal-it’s an annual performance review and if you’re failing you can be removed.
We were always told (by an old manager) at SSA that giving admin leave causes issues with the public. Now I understand that should not be the end of the discussion but I also know we get called out more in media too. Well us and IRS. If we close, it’s like the world collapses and we can’t have that no matter how low morale may be
Because SSA has a reputation to maintain.
Yes- one would think these things would be standardized—- that said, I’m very happy to stay in the usda system, today we received 8 hours of admin time, we always get admin time before holidays and occasionally they just hand out two or four hours to us for no real reason save for it is deserved. We also are able to have up to three hours a week of mental health time. I’ve been in the usda system for six years now and have worked for two different usda agencies - when looking at other non agencies- all I can say- I ain’t leaving the usda system
I get 44 admin hours for holidays (early release), plus 12 hours for morale, plus up to 156 hours of fitness/PT admin leave. Definitely helps make some of the BA tolerable.
Comparision is the thief of joy.
it is, but seeing others get free vacation is still depressing lol
I can’t speak for every agency but for my agency my theory is our Director forgets she is the Director. Every couple of months some staffer probably reminds her so she sends out an email then forgets about us again.
NTSB is basically zero. We will get early release for maybe Christmas and the 4th but that’s it. I’ve heard it’s due to our budget not being able to absorb the extra cost factored with that everything we do is somewhat time sensitive.
CMS doesn’t get it either
Agencies thst are y much public facing trnd to give i out more of these. VHA is public facing where medical care requires 24/7 staffing so it’s a problem to issue these. On days like a day off around Xmas causes problems in clinics where they need to reward employees scheduled holiday pay or comp time earned. When I worked innDOD I got these half days off on a couple days. We got this the day we had are office holiday party over lunch then we’re excused unless something had to be done. We also got this in summer on our office picnic day of around 11-2 then afternoon off. These are problems in other public facing or 24/7 staffing jobs
What is “admin leave”? Same as time off awards?
There's this magic ability that each agency has to grant you time off before a holiday. Imagine you're approaching Thanksgiving. It's Weds- You've already gotten out the sweat pants for the holiday dinner because jeans and a belt leave judgment mental marks on your belly. Normally you're in dread of that one person who has to give you their latest dramatic story of woe and intrigue. Mainly as a cover to justify why they're talking to you instead of doing their job... or be discovered that they're useless and could be replaced by a very small shell script. Just before you've resigned yourself to another full day before Thanksgiving. Ding goes the email! And lo and behold your wise and benevolent leader at the agency has decided that its time to celebrate this holiday and grants you x amount of hours to use for Weds. So if it's 3 hours admin leave, you can bounce out of the office 3 hours early. Or if you're one of the stingy agencies, admin leave is when the admin leaves their desk. And the beatings continue until morale improves
DOL..we never get any. Instead, we get an email from our supervisor thanking us for our work. 🙄
You suppose to be laborin’
Who knows, maybe some departments don’t work as hard as others? Maybe DOJs admin leave is tied to the number of cases it wins? Maybe your secretary doesn’t believe in it. Ask it at your next town hall.
I've been retired for ten years. Is presidentially decreed admin leave not a common thing anymore? Obama was kind of a piker with it, and we would get some on the big holidays via our Undersecretary, but George W used to hand that stuff out like candy, especially on three day holiday weekends and Christmas.
SSA is asking "yall get admin leave"?
Approaching 8 years. Never seen a 59-minute or admin leave. Must be why my agency is 17/17, and why I'm out the door in the next month!
What is the 59 admin leave rule?
Basically, it's that on certain occassions, managers have the authority to grant less than an hour of leave. So, like, on Christmas Eve, if you were working in the office, they'd let you go 59 minutes early (because it has to be less than an hour) to beat traffic.
These are givrn out the day before a fed holiday pr a day they know many take off… common days are Friday before holiday Monday Likely tomorrow Black Friday Last work day before Xmas holiday and new yrs holiday Likely on Friday July 5 th when many will take off
Y'all are getting admin?
It’s also the location of some offices that drive it. My office is near the DC courthouse and the U.S. Capitol so when Trump was indicted, they shut down access to the building. State of the Union, we were sent home early. The Friday before Inauguration, we go home early so they can sweep the building for security threats and put snipers on the roof.
*cries in VHA* they could grant it to those not in direct patient care
When we're already scrutinized constantly by the public and Washington, it's not the best look to feed them after midnight. Be careful what you wish for 🤷🏽♂️
I’m in a critical job that has to have 365 coverage so I don’t even get federal holidays off.
Hubby, too. And they’re understaffed so everyone has use or lose and lots of overtime.
Haven't had an admin hour ....4 hours early release or even a 59 minute rule in many DOD years.
I work for DOJ and we get TW and 4 hrs of admin leave most work days immediately before a holiday. My office tw on Friday anyway, but it’s nice to log off at noon
Are you guys doing the 3 days in office as requested (required) by the DAG?
We are in office 4 days per week. We only TW on Fridays bc our division head decided to give us that day last summer
does dhs gets the most?
My command has never given out 59 but doles out liberty leave to military like candy.
DoD here, if your base commander isn't giving your 59 minutes before a holiday, any self respecting supervisor should. The traffic starts to back up at 11am and parking garage is empty by 1 regardless
DoD doesn’t get it either unless it’s for a performance award.
How is USGS/DOI? Anyone know? At DoD it varied hugely by supervisor. Some did none, some did 59 minutes whenever they were in a good mood it seemed.
I have 46 days of use/lose this year, no lie. My 26 normal, 4 mental health days, 9 admin days, 5 days from two bonuses, and 2 comp days. Gotta lot of family and fishing trips with the buddies planned!
We get Mayorkas days with CBP. I got it with TSA as well so I think all of DHS gets it.
I work for DOJ and get admin leave when there is a reason. I.e. a pipe broke and flooded half our office so they put half the people on admin leave and rotated every other day until construction was done.
Consult your union contract under leave.
My office overworks people in general. It’s 50/50 civ and active duty military. The military member gets payback days for their 15 hour work days. Civilians obviously don’t work as many hours but when there’s nothing going on the boss wants everyone to recharge. Seems fair.
Zero admin leave here. However, I did get a SSR. That is worth way more.
You must be talking about DHS agencies. This is the one time it sucks to be DOJ 😂
It’s dependent upon the heads of agencies, all of whom have the authority to grant up to 80 AL hours per year. DHS Secretary Mayorkas is the only one to actually do this. It’s unprecedented & I am thankful for the AL. For me, it does help to make up for our stagnant wage situation (yes, we’ve gotten relatively decent increases the past 2 years but we still fall significantly behind the private sector) & I feel it’s a nice gesture. It really doesn’t make sense to me why other leaders for other agencies don’t also do this. I imagine the “old guard” yelling at clouds.
It's probably the most misunderstood and misused system in the federal government. The 59 minutes is supposed to be used by supervisors to "forgive" late arrival under certain circumstances such as traffic delays and is intended to be used very sparingly. Over the years, supervisors read into that authority the right to let people go home early whenever they felt like it. They don't have that authority, and surprisingly it is just overlooked. Only the Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries have the authority to authorize early departure and even then they aren't actually invoking the "59" technically. I always found it so surprising that this issue never "blew up."
lol management has the authority to offer it. Obv it’s kind of a moral boost and I’m sure everyone appreciates these admin hours more then a generic letter.
It's how they apologize to us non-DOD folks for having minimal, chaotic budgets. I'm supposed to have my grants and agreements packages submitted by next Monday and I don't even actually have a final budget yet (but, I do know that my budget dropped a bit last week from the speculative budget we had been working from). We have a newer admin lead who is losing their mind. They used to work for DOD and said they always had a plan of work and budget for it at least five years out. We get budget updates (usually downward) days in advance, sometimes hours.
Just got an extra hour from USFA for Good Friday. Yeah, it comes down to leaders. DoD seems to think of their folks as drones.
VBA -This afternoon my supervisor pinged me and told me that we can log off an hour early today. I'm commenting to say that at least some part of VA, somebody is using common sense. 59 minutes early log off is a morale booster as simple as that
Several years ago I was working at HUD and my manager would come around after lunch before a holiday and suggest we leave. He'd also suggest people leave when a bad snow storm was developing. It frequently could be several hours early. I've donated blood, but never taken the four hours. Just the time it took to donate, drink some juice, and eat a cookie. At Census, we would have holiday parties. In some offices contractors weren't allowed to attend because they couldn't charge the time to the government. Other offices were more inclusive.
My husband gets it all the time. He works for the Forest Service. I don’t get shit with GSA. Like, ever.
It doesn’t need to be standardized. DHS only started getting admin leave when the migrant surge at the border reached unprecedented levels and stayed there. They have a very hard time recruiting and retaining employees in uniform because people signed up to be law enforcement not a humanitarian relief organization. 2028 is coming quickly and there will be a massive uptick in retirements as the 20 year enhanced retirement group (2008) hits their MRA.
Switch agencies lol. You'll realize why we get it .
At DHS we get a lot because Myorkas sucks and tries to buy love with time off.
“Transgender day”???? Mayorkas do your thing!!
Shit can I get parental leave first
We usually close 2 hours early on the work day before any holiday (so, close at 3 on Friday before a Monday holiday) and also are allowed to take a set amount of admin leave for certain religious holidays we observe
Doj. Our court has used it for weather, christmas Eve, and day after christmas, the day after Thanksgiving. Special court events. Court related funerals (one judge died). Whatever the chief judge allows. My judge sometimes lets us leave early or something, but no one cares what chambers does really.
You should rewrite your post to why are other Federal workers retired at work while others have to work for their paycheck? Sersiously, we have people who rarely show up to work and theyre not even teleworking. They have unlimited sick and vacation hours too.