Resigning and retiring are different. If one qualifies for retirement, it is much better to retire than to resign.

Anonymous wrote:If as a fed you put in paperwork to resign, but want to use your leave before your last date (terminal leave), but then the agency decides to fire you while on terminal leave, what happens to the remaining leave?

You must be FEMA. If so, I’m so sorry, that place is such a toxic cesspool right now.

Terminal leave is an active duty military term. You seem to be asking if you can annual leave before your last day. That depends on the agency. However, annual leave is paid as a lump sum. What happens to sick leave depends on whether you are retiring or just quitting.

If one cashes out AL, it usually does not count towards time served and might (slightly) reduce the pension.

If one takes AL and then returns to work for a few days before officially retiring then that AL counts towards time served.

The Civil Service does not have the concept of "Terminal Leave" that the Uniformed Services have. Best not to think about it that way.

Anonymous wrote:it's better to use/burn annual leave at the end of your career (vs. lump sum pay). it adds to your service time, and you get paid the same amount

Are you saying that any sick and annual leave left that I don't take or cash out when I leave would then be added to my years of service?

There is no such thing as terminal leave in the fed civilian world.

Anonymous wrote:If they decide to fire you, you should just resign immediately. Annual leave is paid out.

This would only be good advice if you are being fired for cause. It is terrible advice if you are a fed worker and not being fired for cause.

If you are RIFed without cause (i.e. your agency is downsizing but there is nothing wrong with your performance) various things kick in such as severance or discontinued service retirement (DSR) and you still get the lump sum for unused leave. Not resigning and letting the RIF occur also allows for credit for unused sick leave if you qualify for DSR.

If you are terminated with cause you still get your vacation pay you have accrued. You don’t get sick leave.

So the COA depends on why the firings are occurring.

Notwithstanding the above, if you’ve given notice of quitting/retirement prior to leave, I’m not sure why an agency would bother with RIFing you or firing you for cause. It seems more likely they’d just let the clock run out.

it's better to use/burn annual leave at the end of your career (vs. lump sum pay). it adds to your service time, and you get paid the same amount

If they decide to fire you, you should just resign immediately. Annual leave is paid out.

Terminal leave is a military term - it’s not a different category or anything, just a way to denote the leave used at the end of your career.
Any remaining annual leave can be converted into a lump sum payment.

What’s terminal leave?

Fired as in for cause? Or RIF?

What is terminal leave? Regardless, annual leave is yours. Sick leave is credited as time in service. Are you saying you want to use your sick leave before you resign?

If as a fed you put in paperwork to resign, but want to use your leave before your last date (terminal leave), but then the agency decides to fire you while on terminal leave, what happens to the remaining leave?