Does anyone understand federal Leave Without Pay?

[Anonymous]

I'm considering a set up where I technically remain a full-time employee at 80 hours a pay period, but take 10 hours LWOP each pp to reduce my schedule (and salary).

The guidance my HR has given is confusing me, and I was hoping someone here had a better grasp of it than I do. The guidance says that while in a non-pay status, no annual or sick leave will be accrued. It's my understanding that by me taking only 10 hours and working the remaining 70 hours, I will actually be in a paid status and will continue to accrue leave. I then have another piece of paper that says "At the point you accumulate 80 hours of LWOP, none of the leave you otherwise would have earned in that pay period will be credited to your leave accounts. Plus, you will not earn any more leave until you return to a pay status." Shouldn't I always be in a pay status? I'm confused because when I took my last maternity leave, I took a total of 595 hours of LWOP and made sure to take what amounted to around 21 hours of paid leave each pay period (so 69 hours of LWOP each pp) in order to keep me in a paid status. I did continue to learn leave during that time and never saw that after each 80 hour LWOP segment, I didn't earn leave for that PP the way the HR guidance states.

All LWOP in excess of 180 days in a calendar year will affect retirement and leave computation. I will only have 32.5 days of LWOP a year, at the most, so I should be safe here, correct?

The guidance goes on to say that at my step level, I can only take 160 hours of LWOP before the within grade increase waiting period is affected, but it doesn't say exactly how that waiting period is affected and I can't find anything on OPM.

I have health insurance through my husband, so that won't be affected.

[Anonymous]

I did just what you are talking about. If you take 10 hours LWOP a week, after 8 weeks and 80 hours, you will not acrrue 1 pay period of A/L and sick. Then the count starts again. You would be returning to pay status just the next week and would accrue again until you took 80 hours of LWOPpay. If you finish the last pay period of the year with 79.5 hours LWOP you won't lose leave and the counter starts again. The 6 month rule is also true for retirement..I never took that much. As to the step level, you just don't get credit for the time you don't work.so if you took 6 weeks LWOP over the course of the year, it would take 1 year and 6 weeks to hit the next grade. It's all pretty fair. I also was insured through DH.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for your response- much clearer and more succing than anything HR or OPM has produced!

[Anonymous]

I remember your other question, OP. Glad your schedule issue worked out.

[Anonymous]

Err, that should be "succint"...

Thanks again. HR actually hasn't approved it yet. My associate director was the one who brought it to their attention, not me! Looks like there will be a showdown btwn HR and him, as they say it's unallowable and he's saying they don't get the final say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Err, that should be "succint"...

Thanks again. HR actually hasn't approved it yet. My associate director was the one who brought it to their attention, not me! Looks like there will be a showdown btwn HR and him, as they say it's unallowable and he's saying they don't get the final say.

Wow...great boss. Squeezing 3.5 hours out of my boss was like pulling teeth. He's a MAJOR micromanager (and general shithead).

[Anonymous]

Agree with the poster who described the process well. I also had health insurance through the Federal Government while using some LWOP for maternity leave purposes and it did not impact anything; I just paid the same rates I always paid for the insurance that covered myself and my family. Ditto for the two years I was working part time. I know this isn't an issue for the OP, but in case others are wondering about this, I wanted to put it out there.

[Anonymous]

Honestly I'd be more concerned about HR and the timekeepers F-ing things up.

Can I just ask, why don't you use AL every pay period, then use LWOP when you need to take vacations? Do you not have enough AL or have you been in the govt for less than 5 years?

[Anonymous]

This may not directly respond to your question about LWOP...if instead of reducing hours worked each PP using LWOP, could you instead request to change schedule to 35 hours per week, i.e., 70 hours in a PP? I believe per OPM you would still be considered a full-time federal employee, i.e., your benefits would not be pro-rated as they are for part-time federal employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I'd be more concerned about HR and the timekeepers F-ing things up.

Can I just ask, why don't you use AL every pay period, then use LWOP when you need to take vacations? Do you not have enough AL or have you been in the govt for less than 5 years?

Because I would rather not get paid for 8 hours every pay period than dip into the 240 hours I carry over each year. I maintain that for emergencies. And yes, I'm also a member of the Leave Bank, but you never know what can happen and I want to be prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I'd be more concerned about HR and the timekeepers F-ing things up.

Can I just ask, why don't you use AL every pay period, then use LWOP when you need to take vacations? Do you not have enough AL or have you been in the govt for less than 5 years?

OP here. I hadn't thought about doing it that way, actually. I forsee doing this schedule for at least 8 years...I've been with the govt for 11 years so only 4 more to go until 8 hours of leave per pay period! Now you've got me thinking...10 hours per pp equals 260 hours. I would still need to take LWOP to cover the difference, which would amount to 156 hours. Presumably any sick days would just be straight LWOP then, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Err, that should be "succint"...

Thanks again. HR actually hasn't approved it yet. My associate director was the one who brought it to their attention, not me! Looks like there will be a showdown btwn HR and him, as they say it's unallowable and he's saying they don't get the final say.

Wow...great boss. Squeezing 3.5 hours out of my boss was like pulling teeth. He's a MAJOR micromanager (and general shithead).

with that attitude you should either be fired or denied a raise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may not directly respond to your question about LWOP...if instead of reducing hours worked each PP using LWOP, could you instead request to change schedule to 35 hours per week, i.e., 70 hours in a PP? I believe per OPM you would still be considered a full-time federal employee, i.e., your benefits would not be pro-rated as they are for part-time federal employees.

OP here. Trust me, I've tried; that was my preference for sure. My agency won't allow that- while OPM still considers 70 hours full-time, HR here only considers FT as 80 hours. I can't do anything less than 80 but more than 64, unfortunately. I guess an agency has discretion to be more stringent than OPM? So to get around this, my AD was actually the one who suggested the LWOP scheme b/c others here also do it (but quietly, without involving HR).

[Anonymous]

I don't know if OPM has rules that are to apply to everyone. When I asked my HR person about it at my agency, she said one could not take more than 40 hours LWOP ever, without documentation of an emergency. I wanted to take off 1 day a month LWOP, and she said "will never happen." So I think it depends on agency interpretation of any OPM rules, or individual agency rules.
That said, when I took LWOP as maternity leave a few years ago (different fed. agency) it just slowed my vacation accrual and time in grade/at job accrual rates. As another poster said, I took 12 weeks off total, so my time in grade/job changed by 12 weeks.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I'd be more concerned about HR and the timekeepers F-ing things up.

Can I just ask, why don't you use AL every pay period, then use LWOP when you need to take vacations? Do you not have enough AL or have you been in the govt for less than 5 years?

OP here. I hadn't thought about doing it that way, actually. I forsee doing this schedule for at least 8 years...I've been with the govt for 11 years so only 4 more to go until 8 hours of leave per pay period! Now you've got me thinking...10 hours per pp equals 260 hours. I would still need to take LWOP to cover the difference, which would amount to 156 hours. Presumably any sick days would just be straight LWOP then, right?

That's the thing, if you are 80 hrs/pp, then you are still earning sick leave, and any sick time would be straight up sick leave. So really, only 'fun' time off would need to be LWOP. I don't know what your policy is about pre-approval for more than 2 or 3 LWOP days in a row...but if your manager is on board, then getting him to pre-approve your vacas wouldn't be an issue.

If you are 11 years in then I'd consider this...my old boss did it for a while after she had her second kid and HAD to leave at 4pm.

I myself have had a nightmarish experience when HR had to take over my timekeeping, so if at all possible I'd recommend keeping it within your department. I know at least 2 other people who have had similar bad experiences....our leave balances STILL don't add up, over 4 years later.