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Leave types

Current employees can use this , external,TTS-only, leave comparison chart.

Before you take leave, check out of office expectations.

Reasons someone can take leave

TTS has leave types for the following scenarios. Talk with your , external,TTS-only, Workforce Relations HR Specialist about ways to combine leave types.

For general uses and vacation, you can use:

For sick or medical reasons, you can use:

Other medical reasons:

For bereavement, you can use:

For birth, adoption or placement of a new child, you can use paid parental leave. You can also use annual and sick leave for parental leave reasons.

For religious observances, you can request an adjustment to your work schedule for religious observances, instead of taking leave.

To vote, register to vote, participate in early voting, or volunteering as a poll worker, you can use Administrative Leave.

For jury duty and other court-related leave, use Court Leave.

If you can’t work or stay in your home for weather or safety reasons, you can request Administrative Leave.

When going on active duty, active duty training, and inactive duty training in the National Guard or as a Reservist, you can use Military Leave.

You can work with your supervisor to use up to 4 hours of work time pursuing options from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

If you are running out of leave hours, you can request:

Types of leave

Annual leave

You may use annual leave for any reason. Annual leave accrues based on how long you’ve worked for the federal government:

  • Fewer than 3 years: 4 hours per pay period
  • Between 3 and 15 years: 6 hours per pay period
  • 15+ years: 8 hours per pay period

Your leave increases on the first full pay period following your work anniversary. You can refer to either HR Links or the bottom of your paystub for your leave balances.

You can carry over a maximum of 240 annual leave hours, from one , external,leave year to the next. If you’ve transferred to TTS from another federal agency, your accrued annual leave will transfer with you.

Use or Lose

Use or Lose is the number of annual leave hours you would forfeit at the end of the , external,leave year, if you do not use any of your annual leave hours between now and then. As noted above, there is a 240 hour limit on the number of hours you can carry over from one leave year to the next. Use or Lose only applies to annual leave.

For example: You look in HRLinks and see "182 Hours (96 Hours Use or Lose)." Today, January 25th, 2022, you have 182 hours of annual leave available. If you continued to accrue annual leave for the rest of the year, and you did not use any of those hours, you would forfeit 96 hours of annual leave at the end of the year. You would be 96 hours over the 240 cap.

182 current hours + 154 more hours accrued throughout the year = 336 hours.

336 hours - 240 hour cap = 96 Use or Lose hours that would be forfeited.

Award leave

Award leave is offered for End of Year Performance Awards and Special Act Awards.

You can receive a maximum of 80 hours of award leave in a single fiscal year. If you receive a Special Act Award after hitting the 80 hour cap, your award will be monetary.

Award leave expires one year after it is issued. You must use it by the end of the pay period in which the expiration date falls. Expired award leave cannot be recovered - please monitor your leave balances and consider using award leave first. If you leave TTS, award leave is not paid out.

You can check the amount of Award leave you have in HR Links. You may receive an automated email reminder from HR Links 3 months before your leave expires, even if you have already used it.

OPM Policy:

Sick leave

You can use Sick Leave for:

  • Doctor and medical appointments for you or a family member
  • Mental health care
  • Recovering from illness, for you or a family member
  • Any other health need

All federal employees, no matter how long they have worked in government, accrue four hours of sick leave per pay period. There is no maximum amount of sick leave you can accrue, and if you've transferred to TTS from another federal agency, your accrued sick leave will transfer with you.

You can use sick leave for your physical and mental health needs. You can also use up to 13 days of sick leave per year for family health needs and bereavement.

For bereavement purposes

Civilian

You can use up to 13 days (104 hours) per year of your sick leave for bereavement, funeral planning, and/or attending the funeral of a family member.

Military

You can receive 3 days (24 hours) of funeral leave to plan or attend services of an immediate relative who has suffered a combat-related death. Additionally, veterans can take funeral leave to participate in a funeral ceremony for a member of the Armed Forces.

OPM Fact Sheets:

Parental bereavement leave

You can receive two weeks (80 hours) of parental bereavement leave for the passing of your child. Contact your , external,TTS-only, Workforce Relations HR Specialist for assistance.

OPM Policy:

Taking advanced leave

Talk to your supervisor if you need to use advanced leave.

Advanced annual leave

You can only take advanced annual leave in the amount that you would earn back by the end of the current , external,leave year. TTS has a , external,TTS-only, Leave Calculator that you can use for this calculation.

For example: It is June 19th, 2022, and the , external,2022 Leave Year ends on December 31st. You earn 4 annual leave hours per pay period and there are 14 pay periods left until December 31st. You will earn 56 more annual leave hours (14 pay periods x 4 hours per pay period). Therefore, you can request up to 56 advanced annual leave hours.

OPM Fact Sheets:

Advanced sick leave

You can request up to 240 hours of advanced sick leave. If you are a term employee, you can request up to the total amount that you’ll earn during the rest of your term.

Refer to the advanced sick leave page for more information, including how to request it.

Using donated leave

If you have a personal or family medical emergency and have exhausted your earned leave, you can enroll in the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program (VLTP). Your colleagues can donate their annual leave for you. Reach out to your , external,TTS-only, Workforce Relations HR Specialist to start the process.

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

If you need more than 13 sick days at once to care for a loved one, you can apply for Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) status. Refer to the FMLA page for more, including applying for FMLA.

You are entitled to 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth, adoption or placement of a new child. It can be taken all at once or intermittently. Refer to the Paid Parental Leave page for more information, including requesting PPL.

Court leave (jury duty)

When you are called to jury duty, your absence is marked as Court Leave and does not count against any of your other leave balances.

You would also request court leave if you are asked to serve as a witness in a judicial proceeding to which the Federal government, a state government, or a local government is a party.

You can receive Court Leave for however long you serve on a jury. To report Court Leave, follow the typical steps for Entering a leave request in HR Links.

OPM Fact Sheet:

Military leave

You can receive 15 Military Leave days each year for active duty, active duty training, and inactive duty training in the National Guard or as a Reservist. You can carry over a maximum of 15 days into the next fiscal year.

Military Leave will not appear in HR Links until after you have requested it for the first time. For a two-week annual training or any other first-use of your 15 paid days, request the leave using Code 51 - Regular Military. You and your supervisor won’t see an available leave balance, and HR Links will show an error, but your timecard will process and the leave balance adjustment will be made by Payroll.

Going on active duty

If you are called to active duty, no matter the length of time, contact the , external,TTS-only, FAS Benefits Specialist who corresponds to your last name. They can help with GSA’s Checklist for Employees Entering Extended Active Duty.

OPM Fact Sheet:

Military spouse relocation

If you are a civilian employee who must accompany the relocation of your military spouse, you are entitled to 5 days of administrative leave to help make that moving process easier.

Disabled veteran leave (DVL)

If you are a veteran with a service-connected disability rating of 30 percent or more, you can receive up to 104 hours of disabled veteran leave to receive medical treatment related to your disability.

DVL is a one-time benefit: you have a single, 12-month eligibility period, beginning on the first day of your federal employment, in which to use the leave. After that period, it is forfeited with no opportunity to carry over hours.

DVL will not automatically appear in HR Links: reach out to your , external,TTS-only, Benefits Specialist to get started.

OPM Fact Sheet:

Administrative Leave

Administrative Leave is called “Other paid absences” in HR Links.

Voting and poll volunteering

You can receive Administrative Leave in order to vote, register to vote, and/or participate in early voting.

You can receive up to 4 hours for each election event. This includes primaries and caucuses, at the federal, state, local (i.e., county and municipal), tribal, and territorial level.

You should only enter the number of hours actually used, i.e. if you need less than 4, enter the appropriate amount in HR Links.

You are also able to receive 4 hours of Administrative Leave per leave year to serve as a non-partisan poll worker or to participate in non-partisan observer activities. You can volunteer in an election at any level, as listed above. This leave is in addition to any administrative leave you use to vote.

OPM Memorandum:

Blood, bone marrow, and organ donation

You can access up to 7 days of Administrative Leave during a calendar year to serve as a bone marrow donor, and up to 30 days serve as an organ donor.

You can also be granted up to 4 hours of Administrative Leave for blood donation.

OPM Fact Sheets:

COVID vaccination

You can take up to 4 hours of Administrative Leave to get a COVID vaccine or booster for yourself or a family member. You can also take up to 2 days of Administrative Leave when recovering from vaccine side effects.

Weather and safety

You can receive ad hoc “Weather and Safety Leave” if you are prevented from safely working because of an unexpected event such as:

  • Weather-related damage to your home that makes occupying the home unsafe
  • Loss of power at home (which makes your home not an approved location under agency telework policies)
  • Not being prepared for teleworking when the conditions could not be anticipated (tornado or earthquake)

Weather and Safety Leave does not count against any of your other leave balances.

Your safety is paramount. It is expected that when possible, you’ll communicate with your supervisor if you’re unexpectedly unable to work. Your supervisor is responsible for approving/denying your Weather and Safety Leave request; they can work with your , external,TTS-only, Workforce Relations HR Specialist if they have questions on whether it is appropriate to approve the request.

If a supervisor doesn’t hear from you, and suspects you are facing a weather/safety issue, they should try contacting you as well as notifying your , external,TTS-only, Workforce Relations HR Specialist so there’s a record that you may be affected by a weather event.

This leave is entered in HR Links under Administrative Leave Code 094 - Weather & Safety. You should include a reason in the Comments/History section: for example, Cook County evacuation order of 9/10/20. Supervisors can enter the request if you are unable to access HR Links.

Resources:

Emergency Leave Transfer Program

OPM may establish an emergency leave transfer program for certain disasters. If eligible, you may receive donated leave from your colleagues to take paid leave. You can use this paid leave to help you or a family member recover from the disaster. This includes coordinating with insurance adjusters, carpenters, flood mitigation and restoration companies, and roofing contractors.

Resources:

Unpaid leave

If you have exhausted all other paid leave options, you can request Leave Without Pay (LWOP). It is exactly what it sounds like. You can request unpaid leave of less than four weeks at any time.

The use of LWOP, including FMLA LWOP, can affect insurance premiums, within-grade increases, and other benefits. We strongly recommend that you review , external,OPM’s page on the Effect of Extended Leave Without Pay (LWOP). If you have questions, reach out to your , external,TTS-only, Benefits Specialist.

To take a leave of absence without pay, you’ll need justification and supervisory oversight. For longer periods, you'll also need 2nd level supervisory approval:

  • To request 80 hours or less of LWOP, you must get written approval from your immediate supervisor.

  • To request over 80 hours of LWOP, you must get written approval from your immediate supervisor and Business Unit Director.

Once approvals are received, please submit a copy of the email thread to , external,TTS-peopleops@gsa.gov.

OPM Fact Sheet:

Transferring leave from another federal agency

Annual leave and sick leave balances can take a significant amount of time to transfer to GSA, depending on the speed of your previous payroll provider. If you have your final Earnings and Leave Statement (pay stub) from your previous agency, you can send a copy to , external,kc-payroll.finance@gsa.gov to expedite the process.

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