Four Reforms That Federal Employees Need During The Biden Presidency

Fredrick W. Lee
6 min readFeb 22, 2021

It is time to modernize the sick and annual leave policies for federal government employees

Morning fog spread along mountain range

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policy, views, opinions, or positions of organizations associated with the author.

Since January 20, 2021, a new administration has been in place and issuing various executive orders as part of changes within the United States and federal government. These changes include those related to parental leave for federal employees. With the new administration, many career federal employees have hope for better recognition of civil service.

As the Biden administration settles into their roles and work towards creating a stronger federal workforce, there is the question of whether it is time to consider reforms to two benefits for federal employees. Specifically, it is time for the new administration, the Officer of Personnel Management (OPM), members of the House of Representative and Senate to look into reforming parts of the sick leave and annual leave policies for federal employees. Both have been beneficial to federal employees over the years. However, there are some areas within both leave categories that could be changed to better enhance these benefits for federal employees.

Sick Leave Reforms

For the sick leave policy, there are three areas of consideration for reform to help federal employees:

  1. Option to donate sick leave to other federal employees in need,
  2. Option to cash out excess sick leave at calendar year end, and
  3. Include sick leave cash out amounts on the federal employees’ annual personal benefits statement.

Did you know that current regulations prohibit federal employees from donating sick leave to other employees in need? Currently, federal employees are allowed to only donate a certain amount of annual leave to other employees in need. Federal employees can only donate annual leave even those same employees have accumulated unused sick leave. Many individuals could ask why the federal government does not…

--

--

Fredrick W. Lee

21+ years of compliance audit experience; licensed certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner; founder/CEO of ClearCompliance Group and F+C Group;