No short term disability in federal government

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

Govt is not asking, your collogues are asking. Govt's job is to facilitate and make it possible to donate. Your leaves are for emergency/non emergency uses. There are other products you can purchase to cover yourself. Most people (like OP) don't.

That's not the point. It's essentially a thinly disguised GoFundMe. How humiliating for people to have to ask, and I find it surprising to be asked for monetary donations at work.

If you are too humiliated, then don’t ask. Federal employees are very caring and we all understand and want to donate. If you just want free money, you’re out of luck. Op should have purchased STD. Many of us fought to have STD options available to us. When I started working and wanted to have a baby there wasn’t anything open to me. I didn’t have enough AL/SL as a new fed and we were prohibited from STD like aflac. I’m glad STD exists now.

Yes, you sound very caring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t like how this was handled in fedgov you’d absolutely hate how it would have been handled in private sector.

This is OP. I’ve had short and long term disability in every private sector job that I’ve had. Sure, I paid for it, but it was one of the options that I could sign up for during onboarding and I elected to sign up for it. With this job, there was no short or long term disability offered. I even asked HR about it and they said they didn’t offer it. I asked a financial planner at one point about buying a policy separately and she said I needed 3 months of savings, and there was a leave bank, and then after that there was disability retirement if I need it. She said I didn’t need short or long term disability insurance as a federal employee. That was bad advice. There’s a HUGE gap between the end of your sick and annual leave and what you get from the leave bank and when you can or need to take disability retirement. And fed gov has no plan for employees in that gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

What I mean is that if you want to donate, you cannot donate sick leave, which most people have a lot of. Annual leave has a cap on how much can be carried over and sick leave doesn’t. Annual leave has more monetary value because it’s paid out when you leave the government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t like how this was handled in fedgov you’d absolutely hate how it would have been handled in private sector.

It really depends on how good of a worker you are and how important you are to a company. WHen my friend's husband had a major medical crisis and she was out indefinitely, her boss said take as longs you need, your job will be here when you get back. She was worth her weight in gold and he knew it.

Pretty rare and only reserved for exceptional employees with a personal relationship.

OP doesn’t sound like she’s an exceptional employee, just average. They would have her go on disability, and when she comes back she would underperform and be gone in 6 months.

[Anonymous]

We purchased side LTD insurance and have been paying monthly premiums for this for years, especially for this situation

NP. Could you share the name of your LTD vendor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

What I mean is that if you want to donate, you cannot donate sick leave, which most people have a lot of. Annual leave has a cap on how much can be carried over and sick leave doesn’t. Annual leave has more monetary value because it’s paid out when you leave the government.

Right. This is why I think it’s awful that people are asked to donate their annual leave that has monetary value, which sick leave does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t like how this was handled in fedgov you’d absolutely hate how it would have been handled in private sector.

It really depends on how good of a worker you are and how important you are to a company. WHen my friend's husband had a major medical crisis and she was out indefinitely, her boss said take as longs you need, your job will be here when you get back. She was worth her weight in gold and he knew it.

Pretty rare and only reserved for exceptional employees with a personal relationship.

OP doesn’t sound like she’s an exceptional employee, just average. They would have her go on disability, and when she comes back she would underperform and be gone in 6 months.

What information do you have that OP is "just average"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

What I mean is that if you want to donate, you cannot donate sick leave, which most people have a lot of. Annual leave has a cap on how much can be carried over and sick leave doesn’t. Annual leave has more monetary value because it’s paid out when you leave the government.

Right. This is why I think it’s awful that people are asked to donate their annual leave that has monetary value, which sick leave does not.

Sick leave has value added on to your retirement time calculation which can be significant.
One year of sick leave is an extra year of time your retirement is added on to/ calculated.
If you have unused annual leave, always use that (if under 240 carry over) before using sick leave that can accrue indefinitely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

You can say the same thing over and over but I think you maybe the only one. You are completely misreading the whole leave donation stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

What I mean is that if you want to donate, you cannot donate sick leave, which most people have a lot of. Annual leave has a cap on how much can be carried over and sick leave doesn’t. Annual leave has more monetary value because it’s paid out when you leave the government.

Right. This is why I think it’s awful that people are asked to donate their annual leave that has monetary value, which sick leave does not.

What a dumba$$. You don't get it so why not just move on rather than saying he stupid stuff over and over again!! We get it. You don't like the program. MOVE ON!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a new fed and I find the whole concept of leave bank to be borderline offensive. The govt is asking people for essentially monetary donations to colleagues and making colleagues beg each other for money instead of setting up a system that pays for emergency coverage. It’s so inappropriate.

And you have to donate annual leave (vacation time), not sick leave, even though it will be used by recipient as sick leave.

You don't HAVE to donate anything--but the idea that others have to beg for paid sick leave is so degrading.

What I mean is that if you want to donate, you cannot donate sick leave, which most people have a lot of. Annual leave has a cap on how much can be carried over and sick leave doesn’t. Annual leave has more monetary value because it’s paid out when you leave the government.

Right. This is why I think it’s awful that people are asked to donate their annual leave that has monetary value, which sick leave does not.

My SL is adding over $3000 to my pension, until I die and, if I die first, $1500 to my spouse until she dies. Not much but it definitely adds value.

[Anonymous]

I think we have STD as an option but it is really expensive because the govt does not contribute any portion of the premium. At my last law firm it was free.

[Anonymous]

Leave donation program is a wonderful program. True lifesaver for those in need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We purchased side LTD insurance and have been paying monthly premiums for this for years, especially for this situation

NP. Could you share the name of your LTD vendor?

Doesn't sound like LTD (Long term disability) or FERS disability would pay out in OP's situation.

Do feds use Aflac for short term? Does it actually pay when you make a claim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t like how this was handled in fedgov you’d absolutely hate how it would have been handled in private sector.

It really depends on how good of a worker you are and how important you are to a company. WHen my friend's husband had a major medical crisis and she was out indefinitely, her boss said take as longs you need, your job will be here when you get back. She was worth her weight in gold and he knew it.

Pretty rare and only reserved for exceptional employees with a personal relationship.

OP doesn’t sound like she’s an exceptional employee, just average. They would have her go on disability, and when she comes back she would underperform and be gone in 6 months.

What information do you have that OP is "just average"?

She works for the government and hasn’t saved a six month emergency fund. That is hardly a go-getter. No skin off my back, I value work life balance.

- another Fed