Are you a Part Time Federal Employee?

[Anonymous]

I work for the feds and would love to convert my full time schedule to part time. I know several persons in my agency who are part time, but none in my particular division. If you are a part time fed...I'm curious:
1) How long were you a fed before requesting a part time schedule? Was there any push back to going PT? 2) How many hours do you work? Is there flexibility w/regard to how you structure your time (for example, can you do half days or just a shorter work week)? 3) What is your general position? Ie, lawyer, program analyst, IT, etc. 4) Are you happy being part time? Is it worth the hit to pay and leave?

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Here we go again.......

[Anonymous]

I was part time for 3 years and I loved it. There was no push back, in fact it went so well that 3 other women in my division followed suit within a year of me. I was with my agency for about 4 years before going part time. I worked 32 hours a week, regular days 4 days a week but every Monday off. In retrospect, it was really dumb of me to pick Mondays to have off because I missed out on about half of the federal holidays (if a holiday falls on your day off when you are part time, you don't get it). To answer your last question, I work in the national security field.

[Anonymous]

I went part-time (my agency doesn't follow OPM exactly, but often follows some of the rules).

Here is my advice to you.

Go to the OPM website and look up all the rules on part-time. When you request part-time, you need to have all the answers you can. It helps to look informed.

My guess from personal experience and from talking to friends in various Federal Agencies is that what is allowed varies by agency and even by the manager. So figure out what you would really want (shorter days, less days) - and what would be your second and third choices.

When you approach whoever it is, you have to sell it. Why should they let you go part-time. For me, its about their bang for the buck. I can produce a lot of work, even going part-time, and I was willing to get a blackberry so that I could be connected even on my days off (so that something didn't just sit in my e-mail - I could forward it on or quickly reply).

Managing the workload is a tough one. It takes a long time to really have your workload reduced and I wouldn't say mine was ever fully reduced - but it was worth it to me to spend time with my son. Luckily at the time I went part-time I had "cushion" in my workload (I could get it done without working really hard).

[Anonymous]

20:35 here - I agree what PP said - my work load was never reduced. I had the same amount of work, I just had to be more efficient with my time.

[Anonymous]

If you go part time, at a fed agency, how does your pay get altered? Do you get paid half of your original salary?

[Anonymous]

They calculate how much you make by the hour and then pay you for however many hours you work each week.

[Anonymous]

Everything is effected. Your leave is effected . . . for example, when I was working 80%, I only accrued leave at 80% of the normal rate. I know your other benefits are effected too - for example, they would have had to recalculate my share of health insurance costs, but my husband is also a fed and our family is signed up through him so it wasn't an issue. But definitely check with HR about that.