How long is an employee considered as new?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Fed employees have a one-year probationary period.

Unless you work at CSOSA (a little known horrible to work at agency), where the probationary period is two years.

Or you're in excepted service at any agency. All excepted service employees have a two-year probationary period.

[Anonymous]

Very job-dependent. At my workplace you're new for at least two years because it takes that long to learn enough subject matter to be reasonably competent. if you happen to come in knowing the area already (rare but happens sometimes), then the newness may be more like a year in terms of actual skills.

But also, since many people stay in my workplace for decades, people are considered "new" for quite a while. I was promoted after 6 years and had people expressing shock that I had the temerity to apply, being so new!

[Anonymous]

I've been in my job for 6 months and I'm still treated like an associate.


My boss hates taking the training wheels off.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the job but typically up to 10-12 months.

[Anonymous]

I’m at GAO where our training program is two years and often the employees have already completed an internship. I changed subject matter areas after many years at the agency and, while I understood a lot, there was definitely a learning curve and I felt new in many ways for at least the first few projects (very different topics) I worked on.