Federal supervisor withholding award?

[Anonymous]

Your supervisor probably doesn't have it. We are in post COVID world now. They don't mail a stack of certificates to the office for the supervisor to distribute. They send out emails with names and no certificates and have virtual ceremonies.

The money and the eOPF notice is it these days, but go ahead and ask your supervisor to please forward the certificate if it is available. Try not to sound accusatory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your supervisor probably doesn't have it. We are in post COVID world now. They don't mail a stack of certificates to the office for the supervisor to distribute. They send out emails with names and no certificates and have virtual ceremonies.

The money and the eOPF notice is it these days, but go ahead and ask your supervisor to please forward the certificate if it is available. Try not to sound accusatory.

This is great advice.

[Anonymous]

I'd ask the supervisor, but frame it as thanks. "Hi, I noticed this in my pay. Thank you for nominating me! I appreciate you noticing my efforts and putting in the time to submit it." This might prompt them to give you the certificate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not looking for public recognition. The award, which consists of a certificate and cash, was shared with my supervisor who was expected to share it with me. I was expecting an email with the certificate attached.

Then ask about it! Sheesh. She probably was waiting for you to give her confirmation the cash hit your paycheck. Sometimes there's a huge lag.

Why would she wait for me to find out about it through my paycheck? What's wrong with a "Hi Larla. Congratulations, you received an award for X. Here's a copy of the certificate. You should expect to see $X in an upcoming paycheck."

Are you sure there is an "it"? In my office, the "it" is the form a supervisor fills out to get that payment processed to hit your bank account. It requires about 2-3 sentences of justification. The employee doesn't even see it. But there is an SF-50 issued to reflect you got a performance award. That's your documentation. Yeah, an announcement is nice, but the money is the thing.

This. In my office, there is no "it" - there is an online form that only the supervisor sees, and the end result is the SF-50 and cash or time off.

We used to have a genuinely excellent employee who the boss would just try to recognize regularly, but the employee made it awkward by always wanting to know what specific accomplishment the award was for. It was usually for something limited and easy to write up, rather than something important or ambitious, because from the boss's perspective the point was the money. Finally the boss caught on to this employee's "love language" and started verbally recognizing the employee ... but as an unintended side effect the number of cash awards went down. Bosses only have so much bandwidth.

[Anonymous]

I usually have to tell my DPM I got an award, they don't always get told...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd ask the supervisor, but frame it as thanks. "Hi, I noticed this in my pay. Thank you for nominating me! I appreciate you noticing my efforts and putting in the time to submit it." This might prompt them to give you the certificate.

Too passive, OP should also mention the certificate. After what you wrote "Did they happen to forward a certificate?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not looking for public recognition. The award, which consists of a certificate and cash, was shared with my supervisor who was expected to share it with me. I was expecting an email with the certificate attached.

My husband had this happen when he switched agencies, both within DoD, and his old work gave him a Meritorious or something. His current boss received it and shoved it in a desk and kept forgetting to give it to him. Those don’t come with money so it was just a matter of handing him the award.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not looking for public recognition. The award, which consists of a certificate and cash, was shared with my supervisor who was expected to share it with me. I was expecting an email with the certificate attached.

My husband had this happen when he switched agencies, both within DoD, and his old work gave him a Meritorious or something. His current boss received it and shoved it in a desk and kept forgetting to give it to him. Those don’t come with money so it was just a matter of handing him the award.

Before Covid days, this happened a lot mostly because nobody cares of some stupid certificate. OP, for whatever reasons, seems obsessed by it.

[Anonymous]

I'm a relatively new supervisor who gave my first performance awards last year. Didn't get a certificate.

[Anonymous]

If you need this level of validation OP, you won't last in work places. You are emotionally too invested.

[Anonymous]

I started informing my employees early after one had a nervous breakdown over an "unknown" direct deposit that was "going to cause the government to garnish her pay." You have to get ahead of these anxious people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not looking for public recognition. The award, which consists of a certificate and cash, was shared with my supervisor who was expected to share it with me. I was expecting an email with the certificate attached.

My husband had this happen when he switched agencies, both within DoD, and his old work gave him a Meritorious or something. His current boss received it and shoved it in a desk and kept forgetting to give it to him. Those don’t come with money so it was just a matter of handing him the award.

Before Covid days, this happened a lot mostly because nobody cares of some stupid certificate. OP, for whatever reasons, seems obsessed by it.

Actually, my husband was quite annoyed.

Having worked at higher organizational levels, I can tell you that most people actually do care. It is generally obnoxious for a supervisor to be so self involved they can’t even be bothered to hand a piece of paper to someone. These are the things that ruin morale for no reason.

[Anonymous]

Have you contacted your HR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Not looking for public recognition. The award, which consists of a certificate and cash, was shared with my supervisor who was expected to share it with me. I was expecting an email with the certificate attached.

My husband had this happen when he switched agencies, both within DoD, and his old work gave him a Meritorious or something. His current boss received it and shoved it in a desk and kept forgetting to give it to him. Those don’t come with money so it was just a matter of handing him the award.

Before Covid days, this happened a lot mostly because nobody cares of some stupid certificate. OP, for whatever reasons, seems obsessed by it.

Actually, my husband was quite annoyed.

Having worked at higher organizational levels, I can tell you that most people actually do care. It is generally obnoxious for a supervisor to be so self involved they can’t even be bothered to hand a piece of paper to someone. These are the things that ruin morale for no reason.

Over 30 years in Govt, never met anyone who cares about certificate. People do care, however, about $ amount. That's all that matters.

[Anonymous]

Op, I am going to side with you. I had a near identical circumstance earlier this year. I received a surprise and substantial cash award from another office. At the time in my office of assignment, I was being managed by an acting and hyper competitive peer. I am certain the peer intentionally withheld the certificate.

At my agency, certificates accompany all time off and cash awards. I’ve submitted employees for awards as recent as last summer, and each time the certificate arrived ahead of the award hitting the employees account. There is no way to submit an employee for an award without the written justification, which is then included on the certificate.

I decided to let not receiving the certificate go, but I totally understand what you mean.