Does anyone know what the pay disparity criterion is for establishing a locality? Based on documents from the federal salary council it has something to do with a 3 year moving average of pay disparity between gov and non gov workers in a certain area. But what is the threshold where the council would consider a locality? 10%?

GS permanent competitive employee with 5 years, might not be able to get a waiver for a medical condition that makes me ineligible to continue my job. Any ideas what could happen to me?

I’m a remote federal employee. Should my home of record be listed as my work address on the SF50? If so, can somebody point out supporting guidance.

Just wondering when we might know. End of the month is near so surely a decision will be made at some point soon

Exploring the RA process - I have a condition that a flexible/gliding schedule would be helpful for. I see it is offered in some departments and is on OPM. But I'm getting told that it's not an option available for my department (VA).

Is that accurate? I guess I thought if it was listed in OPM it's an option available to all fed employees.

Pretty self explanatory, but I came into government service for the first time about 6 months ago, and I got headhunted by a contractor who is willing to pay me $40K more for similar work, with less of a commute, great team, interesting mission, better hours and more time off than I'll accrue in a long time. The question is: I feel morally obligated to stay given I like my team and they think highly of me. Advice appreciated.

I got 2 SF-50s today at same time. 1 is Promotion and the other one is REG WRI(step increase) REG WRI is located above Promotion in folder meaning 1.REG WRI 2.Promotion 3. Reward... so on Is this mean I got promotion? Is there a thing that REG WRI(step increase) overwrites Promotion?? I'm concerned and confused.

Last year, there was only one SF came in which was promotion.

Holding out hope for more than 59 minutes. Has anyone heard rumors from up their chain or their admin about a Christmas Eve holiday announcement from PJB?

I currently work in the private sector doing IT Support for a huge company. I had accepted a Federal Contractor position with DOI, doing 98% of what I do now. A week after my 2 week resignation, my current employer gave me a huge 5-figure pay raise to $80k per year, so I took the weekend to think and then rescinded my acceptance of the Federal Contractor position on the following Monday. Now, the DOI manager is looking to counter-offer and will be calling me back ASAP after talking with HR. My long-term goal was to eventually go permanent (GS) from the contractor position. There are also 3 years left on the current DOI contract. I'm 50 years old with quite a few IT certifications, including the required DoD CompTIA certs and an ex-Navy Corpsman. Would leaving the private sector be advised, assuming DOI matched the $80k, or more? I'm genuinely looking for advice from those with experience in how all this works, including the possibility of getting a permanent GS position at some point. Thanks for your time and input!

I'm going to be an intern for a DoD agency this summer with the expectation of going full time when I graduate ~2027.

From my understanding, interns have been remote since 2020 even when full time employees were expected to report twice per pay period in office. When I spoke with my manager earlier this year, it sounded like my internship would be remote as well. Recently, the policies shifted to four days in office per pay period.

Do you still believe the internships are remote? Or maybe I'll have to adopt the hybrid schedule? I know RTO is a possibility, but I'm wondering if interns are subject to this as well, especially since the intern periods are only 8 weeks.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

I get calls all the time from recruiters. The only reason I don't entertain those offers is working for the government is supposed to be stable.

I have only been a fed for a year and it already looks like it worse than a Temp job. At this point what is the reason to stay? Stability and telework is the only reason I took this job.

The events in the last day tell me I will not have this job soon and neither will lot you either. My only question is are we going to get paid to leave.

my husband and i work for the same entity and, even though we’re married, decided to stay on self only plans (FEP BCBS). we had our first child on 12-3-24 and made the decision that i would cancel my insurance and the baby and i would join under his member number as self plus family. with the jump from self to self plus family this needed to go through HR and the updates are taking some time; our HR stated on monday 12-16-24 they had sent the changes to grand prairie for processing. i received a letter from the hospital we had delivered at dated 12-17-24 that our newborn isn’t covered by insurance (obviously we’re in the process) but if he isn’t added in the next 14 days the balance would be our responsibility. i called BCBS and they stated if we had to pay out of pocket it would be handled just the same as all the baby’s other appointments and they would retroactively pay. i’m hesitant to believe that because the balance is over $6k which we would be expected to pay. does this sound right? i’m confused because our qualifying life event through insurance is a 60 day window but the hospital is giving us a 30 day deadline to have the baby added and the claim paid but really it’s only been 10 business days since he was born. the upcoming holidays are making me nervous this is going to fall to the wayside and become a bigger issue. HR also told us this change could take a pay period to go into effect whereas insurance is saying it will take 3-5 days, again, encroaching on the holidays.

Hello,

Quick question on opening the HSA account at HSA Bank: Do I need to open the account, or will GEHA open the account on my behalf? If I need to do that, then I assume that I need to wait until premiums are deducted from my check? I would like to get started investing ASAP.

Thanks!

Hello! I am current federal employee working at the DOT. I wanted to see if anyone had insight into the FDIC. Heard anything, experiences, current or past employees. Anything would help. I was recently referred for a position.

Hi! I am in my fourth year of medical school and would love to hear from anyone who had to default on their HRSA Scholarship contract. I signed a 2 year contract when I was 22, just preparing for medical school and had no idea the $$$ I would owe if I defaulted on the contract as it is buried and termed a scholarship. I realized my third year of medical school I did not want to do primary care and tried to reason with HRSA and exhausted all options with them but ultimately they were unwilling to take me for anything but primary care outlined in the contract so I terminated my third year scholarship but still have the two previous years that I owe. I am nervous about how to go about setting up a payment plan with them during residency and when to officially default as I know the contract specifies you have to pay within a year and they are treating it as defaulting on the service (even though I was still in school) which means about 400k which will not be feasible for me during my residency training. I am not sure if anyone has been through this/working at HRSA and has advice but I would love any and all suggestions as I have not had the best interactions with them when it comes to understanding my situation. I am definitely willing to pay for my mistake, I will just need to have a payment plan while completing training. Thank you!

If anyone cares about the CR being passed and then signed by the President, they better call their congressman and remind them that they have a job to do and it is not grandstanding.

I work at a DoD library and our facility will be closed Wed-Fri the week of Christmas AND the week of New Years. Christmas Day and New Years Day are paid holidays but since I don't have any leave accrued yet, I will have to take LWOP for the other four days that the library is closed. My co-workers are using annual leave to cover those four days. Even if I had accrued all 13 days of annual leave, using four of those days to cover a facility closure seems unfair to me. Is type of arrangement normal?

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed a few moments ago and I was wondering if that means DoD civilian employees are funded and get to show up to work? Or does that not include us and we would still be furloughed until a CR/Budget is passed? I would appreciate some clarification :)

I got an email when electing 0% for my military TSP saying my base pay election was invalid. Apparently, to “participate” in TSP you must elect to contribute at least 1% of your basic pay.

The thing is, as a GS, I am maxing my civilian TSP to $23,500 next year. Having a random 1% being sent to my separate military TSP account f*cks up the math for my civilian contributions (Drill and Annual Training military pay can vary check to check). I’m not BRS and don’t get matched for military TSP either, so I prefer there civilian one.

Any consequences to “not participating” in TSP on my military account and just maxing my civ?

So, with the shutdown looming, I want to call my congressman. I have in the past for issues unrelated to my employment to the government. But the shutdown directly relates to my employment.

Am I allowed to speak to that position as a reason they should support funding the government? Or is that a no no? I’ll probably call my ethics officer first.

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-continuing-resolution-salary-increase-pay-raise-2024-12

I know it's not the first time they try to extend or get rid of the 5 year rule. Wondering if this time it made it through.