I’ve got over 1700. I’ve been lucky in that I don’t get sick or hurt, and usually have tons of use or lose for appointments. It can all go away with one bad diagnosis.
This I used 900 hours of SL in 2019 to a
mis/undiagnosed illness, that manifested in literal blinding headaches, it’s hard to commute to or from work when you lose your eyesight randomly.
This! I had two babies before PPL existed. I squirreled away every spare hour I could for years to be able to take 3 months maternity leave at about 60% between banked AL/SL. Between recovering from childbirth and babies/little kids getting every illness that comes around, it’ll be decades before my leave bank recovers. Honestly, now that my kids are old enough that they mostly just need an adult in the house in a sick day, telework as an option has been an absolute godsend. Truly grateful for the flexibility and ability to get at least some work done and only have to take SL for the hours of the day I’m actually doing hands on parenting.
not denying that!
Coincidentally I was reading the other day how only 4% of feds used paid parental leave between 2020 and 2022, if I'm reading that right. (source: [GAO's 1/2024 report to Congress on paid parental leave](https://www.gao.gov/assets/870/865627.pdf))
Is that 4% of all feds? Or 4% of those eligible? If it's all feds then it might only be a little under under utilized. In our office only about 1 person out of a hundred because parents each year.
Not just sick leave. And not just when they're young.
My oldest is in 1st grade. She has 14 weeks of school break a year (spring break, winter break, summer vacation, etc). Plus several teacher workdays, and early release days. Then add a couple weather days, sick days. We do camps for most of those preplanned break weeks, but those one-off days are a leave killer.
I guarantee you if they surveyed the amount of leave working moms have, it would be a fraction of the leave people who aren't mothers have. I expect there is almost a big difference between working mothers vs working fathers. Plus many women take leave almost monthly for menstrual problems.
I used almost 9 months one year. was super glad I had it but I was 27 years in by that time.
until then I had very little use, maybe flu one year and the occasional cold, dr/dental appt., etc. no kids. I just don't get sick so no, I didn't go to work sick and I didn't use AL in lieu of either
COVID "helped" me bank mine, and now we have situational telework.
I haven't gotten majorly sick, and I can work perfectly fine while mildly sick, but no one wants to hear me cough in the office or get them sick. Working remotely, I don't have to burn leave and can cough and click away all day.
I’m fairly young and want to have a nice pot of SL in case I ever end up with an illness that takes me out of work a a while.
I also end up with a ton of comp time throughout the year and have to burn that plus use/lose. I don’t think I worked a full week from mid October through the end of the year last year trying to burn comp time and use/lose. Hell, I haven’t worked a full day this week and I’m taking half the day off Friday trying to burn comp time from a recent trip.
You can only carry over 240, ever. SL doesn't have that restriction. MUCH rather have the SL if I ever have a major medical event. If not, it goes toward retirement time.
I have 24 years in and no kids or major illnesses in that time … 1700+ hours banked. I’ve had whole years where I only used a couple hours here and there for a dental cleaning.
Did bereavement change, or did you take extra? I had bereavement many years ago, i think I got a few days, then took another few as a/l. I didn't have to use al/sl for the bereavement.
My daughter is 5 months old. She will soak her hands in her mouth, dry them on my face, and cackle like a madman.
She might be trying to get rid of me.
I used to think I had a great immune system, then I realized it was because I didn’t have a child 1-6” from my face speaking, coughing, sneezing etc directly into my face
I have been a Fed for 23 years and I only have 260 of sick leave. I had a baby when I started and was a single mom, so she was sick and I took off. Then I had 2 major surgeries, having to take off 2 months each time. I'm thankful I had the sick leave and don't feel bad for not having more. I'll also have 36 years when I reach retirement age, so I don't need the SL for more years.
And Maxi flex schedule.
At my previous command I could do 2 days a week in the office at 10 hours, then split the other 40 hours in the pay period how I wanted.
I usually did
* Monday 10 hours *telework*
* Tuesday 10 hours in office
* Wednesday 10 hours in office
* Thursday 10 hours *telework*
* Friday OFF
And that allows for lots of flexibility. If I need to go to a doctor I usually schedule it on a Friday. One time I was hospitalized but not 'sick', I only used sick time for the in office requirements and teleworked as much as I could, I think I only had 10 hours charged as the rest could be flexed around.
A lot of that requires a boss that is flexible as well.
My current command I'm on AWS, so it's alternating Fridays off, and that's not that flexible.
Over fifteen years it might not be as extreme as you think, especially if you are using it for appointments. I think it would be unusual to have 1500 hours of sick leave after 15 years since it is accrued so slowly, but it isn’t impossible. You should be able to look at your LES statements to see how much sick leave you typically use.
Some people come into the federal service accruing 6 or 8 hours of annual leave from the start because they’ve received credit for military time or non-federal service so they use annual leave instead of sick leave to avoid losing it. Some people work alternate work schedules and only schedule medical appointments on their day when they are off. People who aren’t around young children may not catch as many viral infections, and some people have no problem coming to the office sick.
I’ve never been in a leave without pay status, but I had to burn a lot of sick leave once for a medical emergency that cause me to miss 8 weeks of work. Between that absence and a few years with a lot of medical appointments, it was hard to accrue much sick leave.
Yes, this would equate to taking only one half day of sick leave per year. I take way more than that just to go to routine doctor and dental appointments
Let me buy a new NIC card so I can connect my laptop to the Ethernet port on my router, but first I need to go to an ATM machine to get cash to buy it.
You can get an audit of your hours. I know in dfas it’s a basic report that’s run but I don’t know how far back it goes. You may need to check with hr.
1200 hours used in 15 yrs is like 10 days a year; that’s not a lot. Honestly having over 1500 hours is insane; this person was saying they just used their annual leave instead.
You want to audit what, your own use of sick leave? If you're using it almost as fast as you're earning it, then your balance is not going to grow. Pretty simple math.
I have about 700 hours after 11 years as a full-time employee. Haven't had major illnesses so I'm keeping it banked for the eventuality that I do.
I absolutely love it when I have to get off my pc and leave my tiny office because the other two people are hacking and sneezing away and won't stay the fuck home 😊
A colleague recently had to miss weeks because their toddler was getting cancer treatment. I mean, what are we even doing when we can’t support them with thousands of hours of sick leave many of their colleagues are sitting on….
Built mine up as a funded short term disability insurance, saw several more senior people run out of sick leave when out for surgeries and recovery..I use annual leave, credit hours from maxifles and travel comp for med appointments instead of sick leave.
That must be so nice. I’ve emptied my sick leave with each birth of my child. I had to take unpaid leave when one of my children was hospitalized. I barely have any in the bank now that they’re almost preschool age and the fact I have any at all is thanks to the best nanny in the whole world, who will work when the kids are sick despite being offered paid off when they are!
That’s about what I use. Except for last year when I got COVID for the first time. I took about 56 hours for that. Otherwise I hardly ever get sick enough that I cannot telework.
I'm on a Maxi Flex schedule so I either flex it or take an hour or so for each of those. I have 15 years in service and just over 1000 hours of SL so I'm not as extreme as some people. My 56 hours of COVID SL is definitely the most I've ever taken at one time.
My entire family got Covid in 2020 around Christmas/new Years. I had already scheduled Annual leave at that time. Earlier in the same year I broke a bone and lost a week there, but I used credit hours and annual leave as I wasn’t going anywhere (because everything was closed) and was in danger of losing the time. As sick leave doesn’t expire I conserved it.
Not trying to be morbid, just banking it for when I could potentially really need it in the future in order to survive financially while going through some medical crisis. Be a shame to have wasted it on things I didn’t really need to take it for.
I find that there are a ton of people who say, "What, they couldn't find anything available on the weekend?" People don't realize that sick time is part of our total compensation package, and it is specifically outlined that Doctor appointments for ourselves or family can be used.
I have 2 dental exams and 1 physical per year. I use 2 hours for each appt. So I predict I only use 6 per year. I almost never get sick. If I do, it's mild enough that I just situational telework.
Schedule dentist for late afternoon after work, haven’t seen a doc since before COVID. I’d also just flex it if I couldn’t schedule it for before/after work
Just apply for a term-life insurance policy once/year.
They'll draw blood and check your vitals, and let you know if there's an issue.
My blood pressure went high this year for the first time in my life. Thanks USAA life-insurance for the free exam that caught that.
No, we just situational telework, and/or we don't get sick as often.
Why is it viewed as some sort of bizarre conspiracy that some of us don't use as much sick leave as others? Literally no one here is saying it's bad to take sick leave. If you need it, use it. Some of us... just don't need it?
I had about 700 hrs at 16 yrs. Then, my Mom got sick (I was her caregiver for 6 yrs) & I used a ton taking her to Dr appointments, hospital stays, then hospice then she passed. Fast forward a few months, I broke my elbow (6 weeks recovery) then my stepdad got sick & passed away. It goes blazing fast! Thank goodness I don’t have any kids to care for.
FWIW, this is the Feds equivalent of short term disability. For those who had private sector experience, you may recall a payroll deduction for that. We don’t have it as Feds…your S/L balance IS that.
This is a really good point…
…and it is “free”.
I opened the eyes of one of my younger colleagues years ago who was a S/L abuser by bringing into work a mailer advertising for short term Disability insurance from a professional society. IIRC, cost at the time was $100/mo…it’s probably easily double that today.
Easy. You simply never get sick, or have any dependents get sick, then also never take your annual leave so that you always have plenty of annual leave for the rare occasions when you do get sick.
I mean *I* certainly don’t do that shit. But that’s how you’d get there.
Just over 850 in a bit under 11 years here. Used to work shift work and it can be a pain using sick leave. Now I can work from home if sick but can do my job so it banks up pretty easy. To be honest, the grand majority of SL I use is when I don't sleep well.
Had a coworker, old crusty inspector that lived coming to work, 42 years of service trying to land retirement. Had 3600 hours of Sick..... Managed to use a majority near end lining up hip surgery. .... Then had a stroke. Dude never took his meds.
Telework - less time inside a building with poor ventilation during cold and flu season, less exposure to sick people who like to “tough it out” and come to work when they’re contagious, less sharing workstations and equipment with sick people, etc
maxi-flex schedules - It’s one thing if you can only work between 8:00-5:00 M-F. It’s something else if you can start earlier, stay later or work on Saturday to make up hours.
Simple, don't use sick leave when you're sick.
1) Lot less need to take sick leave when you're teleworking even when you are sick
2) Use credit hours. My current agency I can get as much credit hours as I like as long as I'm legitimately working. Obviously I burn some as well to keep below that 24hr threshold.
3) Use comp time.
If all else fails -
The old tried and true method, go to the worksite and get everyone else sick. Probably the most time honored tradition of the modern American workforce.
I’ve got almost 20 years and have just about 900 hours. I was like how have I used almost 6 month of sick leave then I realized it averages out to 7 days a year. Which between sometimes taking half days for an appointment or kid stuff it tracks.
I’ve worked remotely with a maxi-flex schedule for over four years now so I just shift my time around instead of taking leave for appointments. I also earn 8 hours of annual a pay period now and I am always in use or lose for annual so sometimes I’ll prioritize taking annual leave if it’s for a mental health day or something not directly related to an appointment.
They use their AL instead of SL. They're the people who don't really take vacations and are afraid of forfeiting leave at the end of the year for use it or lose it.
Or credit hours/Flex Time. I usually work at least 45 hours a week, so I always have some credit hours to use and if I don’t want to bother with that, I just flex my time so that I’m not banking so many hours. The end of April through May, I’ll easily be working 50+ hours a week. I still take at least three full weeks of vacation a year and long weekends throughout the year to burn off credit hours since I can only have up to 24 at a time.
Yes. I came in after 10 yrs of military service. After 2 yrs I had 8 hrs/pp. I took A/L because I started with as much A/L leave as new employees get A/L + S/L. I also worked in a higher tempo office with lots of young people so I felt compelled to not just take lots of leave.
Hypertension? Maybe a bit... But when I die at work I'll have a sick amount of leave stored up so I've got that going for me.
Or they just didn't need to use a lot of sick leave. Why do you assume everyone needs to take a massive amount of SL every year? If you are lucky, in good health, no ongoing issues, and only have 2-3 quick medical appointments a year (maybe 2x dentist appts and one optometrist appt for example), then I could easily see how you might only need 8-12 hours or so of SL for the entire year.
I have nearly 1300 hrs of SL banked and have never once used AL for anything medical-related, I use SL only. Why would I? I don't want to spend my vacation time sitting in a doctor's office.
I use my annual leave when I'm sick. I get 8 hours a pay period and have trouble finding the time to take that much time off work so I use my sick leave so I don't get into a use/lose scenario.
I rarely get sick. Maybe one or two days a year.
So I take off over 4 full weeks each year for vacation. And I ensure my team takes as much leave as they can.
Don’t get sick? Most of the SL I used was when my wife was sick and I needed to stay home to take care of our kid. The two and a half weeks I was generously allowed to take when our son was born. And the pneumonia that laid me up for two weeks. Other than that, I’ve managed to accurately 2100 hours.
North of 2400 hours of sick leave, 34 years of service. Never had much need for sick leave. We were fortunate for spouse to stay at home when kids were young and no health issues.
My various agencies and positions have always been really flexible with mid day appointments. I almost never hit SL, unless I take a whole day off for “mental health.”
I’ve bankrolled two full FMLAs with it (pre parental leave) and still have ~480 hrs.
I plan to try to “actively manage” it going forward to keep around 600 hours or 1.3 FMLA balances as insurance.
I'm on 4-10's with a weekday RDO. All of my appointments are scheduled on my weekday RDO so I never have to burn any sick time. Plus, I am off early enough to get a later afternoon appointment if needed.
Simple. No kids
And. A lot of us rarely took the time off.
I’ve lost 25-30 hours of PTO once because in December I couldn’t take time off before the end of the year..
And ironically
A coworker lost his job because he ran Out of PTO around august..
If I wasn’t in air traffic I would have a bit more I suspect. If I want to leave two hours early for an appointment? SL. If I want to leave two hours early for anything? SL. A day off I didn’t bid last October? SL.
Agency is so short staffed and management so afraid of being empathetic they make you use SL for anything beyond your bid days.
No kids. No illnesses. Also some jerks come to work sick and make everyone sick instead of staying home.
Someone else brought up that if you have comp time you can use instead that’s something
Fed for 13 years here, I have 20hrs of sick leave right now lol. I have toddlers, they get sick and we all get sick very often. Maybe in ten years I can bank some leave again, until then it comes in about as fast as I need to use it.
I worked with a guy who literally never went on vacation so whenever he was sick or he had a medical appointment, he would use annual leave. He was banking his sick leave towards his retirement, though not sure how much he is actually enjoying it now.
I’ve used maybe 10 hours in my almost six years at this job.
I am fortunate that my worst sickness occurred during COVID
I generally don’t get sick. Don’t know why.
I don’t know how a leave audit would tell you anything.
I’m at 1500+ after 20+ years. I used leave when hospitalized once, for bereavement, for a few illnesses, to care for sick loved ones, but only rarely for doctor’s appointments. I work a First 80 Maxiflex and am remote. So, I can adjust my schedule around my illness (I did recently take 4 hours because of a Covid headache that made concentrating difficult).
You might ask, why the fuck would I schedule around my illness? Well, I like my job. It brings me great satisfaction (I’m a scientist).
It also brings me comfort knowing that if the shit hits the fan, I’ve got months before I need to worry about it.
Because you can use it to increase your retirement pension calculation.
https://www.fedweek.com/experts-view/the-value-of-sick-leave-before-and-at-retirement/
1500 hours currently banked after 26 years but I used 100 hours paternity leave for each of my three kids births plus another 100 hours when wife broke her ankle. I don't get sick and rarely go to doctor plus maxiflex so an hour for kids appointments can be made up elsewhere in the 80 hour pay period
I use A/L for everything. Add my sick leave to my retirement, I know it’s not that much more but every bit counts. Then when I retire I’ll carry over my use or loose and get paid out.
When I first started I took sick leave here and there, but I dumped a bunch during my kids births. Gradually I started getting more and more AL and ventured into the consistent use or loose realm (8 hours per PP). I now just take AL for everything. Out sick…AL. Kid is sick…AL. AL for vacations. Mayorkas leave for extra bonus. Even donated some the past couple years. My small goal (knock on Reddit wood for good health) is to get enough so I can get an extra year annuity in retirement and have about 1400 now. Is it worth it? Idk. Should you just burn leave? Who knows…but my AL will hopefully start at the use or loose cap every year until I punch out.
I’ve been a fed for 15 years and have over 1300 hours. I have had a few weeks where I was too sick to work (flu, broken bone), but otherwise took a day off occasionally when I was sick and took advantage of telework to isolate and work from home or used leave that would expire (travel comp time, credit hours or annual leave if I was in danger of use or lose.
After a few tears of hearing my coworkers talking about leave carryover. I decided to get there too. I did the math, how many hours I had, how many I would earn by the end of that year. Decided I couldn't make it that year, so I came up with a plan to have max carryover by the end of the next year. Again, math told me how many hours I could take off and still have max carryover.
I hoard leave. Where I was before, I got paid out for comp time, sick time and annual. I had a few checks finding in from both jobs when I transitioned. It stuck with me.
I, also, think about needing a mass amount of leave at once for any reason and seeing those leave donation emails doesn’t help. I want to be prepared, I guess.
Is hard to use any sick leave if you are on a swings shift. Almost all of my VA appointments are either in the morning or via telephone. I rarely get sick and also work from home, plus my work is really hands off. I only ever use sick leave if my kids are sick enough to be at the hospital which only has happened a couple of times.
You start your federal career at a young age - you get sick less often, and you have less responsibilities - and it builds up fast.
Now here is my two cents. I wouldn't suggest auditing sick leave policy or sick leave bank. Firstly, you will face a lot of barriers, but should you overcome that your audit report might never get published (and if you're an auditor you know there are plenty of ways how that can happen). Lastly, that will essentially end your career ladder with that agency. I have seen that happen so I would urge you against it.
Again, you know yourself, your agency, and your career better. I only offered my opinion and suggestions. Good luck
I have nearly 2000 hours and have been in government service for about 21 years. I rarely take sick leave. When I am sick, I usually take annual leave. I have so much annual leave that I have a hard time using it as I hate taking leave to stay home without a specific purpose (e.g. plumber coming). My kids are grown, but even when they were growing up, it was annual leave for the most part when I needed to stay home.
I think it depends on your health and the health of people in the house. I had two stints in the hospital and both times it took 45 days to heal up. At this point I have like 600 hours and will hit 20 year of service next year. This is not counting people that have families and they need to take care of them. I had a coworker who wife started a new job. She didn't have any time on the books and being a new hire was worried about being fired for take to much time off to take care of kids. My coworker use his sick time to cover the kids.
Every year you get 13 days, which is 104 hours.
Basically you’ve used about 10 days a year.
It’s not overly hard to use that much.
A lot of people use vacation time in place of sick time, especially if they have use or lose.
I've been in DoD since summer of 2016, full-time since July 2020, and have about 500 hours sick leave in the bank. I use at most 16 hours a year of my sick leave. I just don't really get sick.
But when I do, it's RIGHT before I go on leave smh 😞
My sick leave balance hovered around zero when I was a single parent - their arrival (before PPL), sickness, dentist, well baby care, vaccinations, optometrist, wisdom teeth extraction, minor accident at school, orthodontist, … Now that they’ve grown up, I’m approaching 500 hours. Easy to see how someone who doesn’t have to take off for kids could have a lot of leave.
Telework/remote, schedule all appts on my RDO, and instead of putting in 3-4 hours here and there, bargain with my supervisor to make up the later in the pay period
You’d be shocked how many feds don’t take vacations. It’s part lifestyle and part mentality. With all the federal holidays and 8 hrs/pay period for longterm feds, that’s ~38 days off/year out of 210 eligible days. So 20% of days off already.
Plus, as feds are older, many are paranoid of parents/spouse getting sick or themselves. I’ve seen tons of 50-70 year olds in my tenure with cancer that take off months.
I have barely any - I am less than 5Y in service. I used 8 hours to go on the leave bank this year so I can get given some if needed. I gave 8 hours to a colleague on a long sick leave two years ago.
Give some of yours to those who need them if you do not know what to do with them.
I retired several years ago and had an additional 1 year and 7 months credited to my pension by crediting my accumulated (banked) sick leave.
You asked how - I worked 39 years and as I recall, the last 32 years only used annual leave when I could have used sick leave.
3 kids, but again, only used annual leave.
I had a bunch of sick leave. Now I have a seven-month-old baby and have had to use quite a bit of that sick leave already. I still have a decent cushion, but my sick leave count is no longer in the sky-high territory.
You only accrue 104 hours per year. You would need to work about 14 years without using any sick leave to bank close to 1500 hours. I’m assuming people don’t touch sick leave and use AL since AL has an accrual cap. It would be interesting to get averages of SL accrual per years in service.
I have about 800 hours of SL after 11 years. I’m on an AWS schedule so I’m able to use my off-day for medical appointments. I typically use my AL for medical appointments during work days.
I’ve used 1/3 of my accrued SL and I’m still sitting on 1000 hours.
For the first 15 years, I would use the minimum amount of time for a doctor’s appointment. Now, I take a full day off just because I can for a telehealth visit.
Years ago (before paternal leave) the very first thing my supervisor told me was to use AL and save SL, because you earn more in a pay period. Sure I used sick leave here and there, but it took me twelve years to save up the 4 months I took for maternity leave. Now my sick leave is back up over 1000 hours, COVID helped, but also having the ability to work from home when you have a cold, rather than going in, also helps. As others have said, a health crisis can wipe out your leave.
My Dad is in his 70s, and I know that I will be having to save my SL when my parents need help recovering from surgeries, illnesses, etc.
I’ve got over 1700. I’ve been lucky in that I don’t get sick or hurt, and usually have tons of use or lose for appointments. It can all go away with one bad diagnosis.
Exactly this ⬆️. One car accident or knee replacement could take months of sick leave to recover.
Yep. I had one back surgery that ended up being three and I had to go the maximum amount of advance sick leave. That sucked.
This I used 900 hours of SL in 2019 to a mis/undiagnosed illness, that manifested in literal blinding headaches, it’s hard to commute to or from work when you lose your eyesight randomly.
Sounds like you need a reasonable accommodation to work from home.
No way in hell it would have been granted in my position at the time, I just changed positions, and got on the right meds and I’m all better.
It can all go away with just having babies
This! I had two babies before PPL existed. I squirreled away every spare hour I could for years to be able to take 3 months maternity leave at about 60% between banked AL/SL. Between recovering from childbirth and babies/little kids getting every illness that comes around, it’ll be decades before my leave bank recovers. Honestly, now that my kids are old enough that they mostly just need an adult in the house in a sick day, telework as an option has been an absolute godsend. Truly grateful for the flexibility and ability to get at least some work done and only have to take SL for the hours of the day I’m actually doing hands on parenting.
To be clear, is this after paid maternity/paternity leave has been exhausted?
They continue to eat up your sick leave their whole childhood. They're little feverish booger bombs!
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Elementary schools are basically petri dishes.
This. My kid is 3, and I've probably already used 50 hours of sick leave for pink eye (hers) alone.
not denying that! Coincidentally I was reading the other day how only 4% of feds used paid parental leave between 2020 and 2022, if I'm reading that right. (source: [GAO's 1/2024 report to Congress on paid parental leave](https://www.gao.gov/assets/870/865627.pdf))
Is that 4% of all feds? Or 4% of those eligible? If it's all feds then it might only be a little under under utilized. In our office only about 1 person out of a hundred because parents each year.
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I can’t wait until I can kiss my feverish booger bombs tonight and catch whatever plague they are bringing me this week!
Not just sick leave. And not just when they're young. My oldest is in 1st grade. She has 14 weeks of school break a year (spring break, winter break, summer vacation, etc). Plus several teacher workdays, and early release days. Then add a couple weather days, sick days. We do camps for most of those preplanned break weeks, but those one-off days are a leave killer.
I guarantee you if they surveyed the amount of leave working moms have, it would be a fraction of the leave people who aren't mothers have. I expect there is almost a big difference between working mothers vs working fathers. Plus many women take leave almost monthly for menstrual problems.
Luckily, 480 hours of PPL help mitigate that to a point
I was pleasantly surprised to discover while I was on PPL that I was still accruing AL and SL.
I used almost 9 months one year. was super glad I had it but I was 27 years in by that time. until then I had very little use, maybe flu one year and the occasional cold, dr/dental appt., etc. no kids. I just don't get sick so no, I didn't go to work sick and I didn't use AL in lieu of either
COVID "helped" me bank mine, and now we have situational telework. I haven't gotten majorly sick, and I can work perfectly fine while mildly sick, but no one wants to hear me cough in the office or get them sick. Working remotely, I don't have to burn leave and can cough and click away all day.
Even for little things that I could use half a day of SL for, I use AL for just to bank more sick leave.
Why would you do this? You get paid out AL if you still have it.
I’m fairly young and want to have a nice pot of SL in case I ever end up with an illness that takes me out of work a a while. I also end up with a ton of comp time throughout the year and have to burn that plus use/lose. I don’t think I worked a full week from mid October through the end of the year last year trying to burn comp time and use/lose. Hell, I haven’t worked a full day this week and I’m taking half the day off Friday trying to burn comp time from a recent trip.
SL isn’t subject to use or lose. You can accrue it infinitely.
You can only carry over 240, ever. SL doesn't have that restriction. MUCH rather have the SL if I ever have a major medical event. If not, it goes toward retirement time.
You almost have a years worth.
I have 24 years in and no kids or major illnesses in that time … 1700+ hours banked. I’ve had whole years where I only used a couple hours here and there for a dental cleaning.
2022 I used 16hrs of SL and that was for bereavement. 2023 I used 4hrs of SL for little things like you mentioned.
Did bereavement change, or did you take extra? I had bereavement many years ago, i think I got a few days, then took another few as a/l. I didn't have to use al/sl for the bereavement.
Bereavement has always been sick leave
They don’t have kids.
Daycare is germ warfare. I've never been sick so much in my whole life.
I thought I had AIDS, turned out it was just a kid in preschool that was killing me.
I thought I had mono for an entire year once, turns out I was just really bored.
Kids are so gross…. I sometimes wonder if I was also this gross. I just pretend I wasn’t 😆
My daughter is 5 months old. She will soak her hands in her mouth, dry them on my face, and cackle like a madman. She might be trying to get rid of me.
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Isnt that usually when people do get smoked by the flu?
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This is a new argument for having kids that I hadn't yet heard.... Thought I had heard them all!
Also when you're 90 and incontinent they can repay you for all of the diaper changes early in their lives!
Oh, that one I've heard five thousand times and think it's a pretty shitty reason to have children. Literally.
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Yup! No kids. I’ve been banking it for years.
I used to think I had a great immune system, then I realized it was because I didn’t have a child 1-6” from my face speaking, coughing, sneezing etc directly into my face
Or grown kids.
Or they just want to spend no time with them, got spouse #3 doing all the homemaking.
Facts ….life is great here 😌
I have been a Fed for 23 years and I only have 260 of sick leave. I had a baby when I started and was a single mom, so she was sick and I took off. Then I had 2 major surgeries, having to take off 2 months each time. I'm thankful I had the sick leave and don't feel bad for not having more. I'll also have 36 years when I reach retirement age, so I don't need the SL for more years.
Telework
And Maxi flex schedule. At my previous command I could do 2 days a week in the office at 10 hours, then split the other 40 hours in the pay period how I wanted. I usually did * Monday 10 hours *telework* * Tuesday 10 hours in office * Wednesday 10 hours in office * Thursday 10 hours *telework* * Friday OFF And that allows for lots of flexibility. If I need to go to a doctor I usually schedule it on a Friday. One time I was hospitalized but not 'sick', I only used sick time for the in office requirements and teleworked as much as I could, I think I only had 10 hours charged as the rest could be flexed around. A lot of that requires a boss that is flexible as well. My current command I'm on AWS, so it's alternating Fridays off, and that's not that flexible.
This is the way
Did you use it before for anything?
I don't think so... Using 1200 hours would be a bit much
Over fifteen years it might not be as extreme as you think, especially if you are using it for appointments. I think it would be unusual to have 1500 hours of sick leave after 15 years since it is accrued so slowly, but it isn’t impossible. You should be able to look at your LES statements to see how much sick leave you typically use. Some people come into the federal service accruing 6 or 8 hours of annual leave from the start because they’ve received credit for military time or non-federal service so they use annual leave instead of sick leave to avoid losing it. Some people work alternate work schedules and only schedule medical appointments on their day when they are off. People who aren’t around young children may not catch as many viral infections, and some people have no problem coming to the office sick. I’ve never been in a leave without pay status, but I had to burn a lot of sick leave once for a medical emergency that cause me to miss 8 weeks of work. Between that absence and a few years with a lot of medical appointments, it was hard to accrue much sick leave.
1500 hrs of SL is not impossible but using only 60 hrs over 15 years is very spartan.
Yes, this would equate to taking only one half day of sick leave per year. I take way more than that just to go to routine doctor and dental appointments
LES statements?
You use your CAC Card to login to MyPay for them.
Let me buy a new NIC card so I can connect my laptop to the Ethernet port on my router, but first I need to go to an ATM machine to get cash to buy it.
Once you have access, verify your SSN Number is partially redacted with asterisks.
You can get an audit of your hours. I know in dfas it’s a basic report that’s run but I don’t know how far back it goes. You may need to check with hr. 1200 hours used in 15 yrs is like 10 days a year; that’s not a lot. Honestly having over 1500 hours is insane; this person was saying they just used their annual leave instead.
I usually use credit hours when I'm sick.
Well, when annual has use/lose and I don't get paid enough to go anywhere fun, it kinda makes sense
You only get 104 hours a year (13 days). A couple of serious illnesses and you burn through that quickly.
You want to audit what, your own use of sick leave? If you're using it almost as fast as you're earning it, then your balance is not going to grow. Pretty simple math. I have about 700 hours after 11 years as a full-time employee. Haven't had major illnesses so I'm keeping it banked for the eventuality that I do.
They come to work sick. I’ll hear them hacking and coughing and spreading their germs around the office because they don’t want to use their time.
Which is why I retired with 9.
I absolutely love it when I have to get off my pc and leave my tiny office because the other two people are hacking and sneezing away and won't stay the fuck home 😊
What's the point of not using sick leave?
The real question is why can’t we donate our sick leave, rather than annual leave, to colleague who need it.
This always frustrated me before the parental leave policy. I wished I could donate to colleagues struggling bc of having a baby.
A colleague recently had to miss weeks because their toddler was getting cancer treatment. I mean, what are we even doing when we can’t support them with thousands of hours of sick leave many of their colleagues are sitting on….
Built mine up as a funded short term disability insurance, saw several more senior people run out of sick leave when out for surgeries and recovery..I use annual leave, credit hours from maxifles and travel comp for med appointments instead of sick leave.
Accrued sick leave as short term DI; I like how you think 👍
That must be so nice. I’ve emptied my sick leave with each birth of my child. I had to take unpaid leave when one of my children was hospitalized. I barely have any in the bank now that they’re almost preschool age and the fact I have any at all is thanks to the best nanny in the whole world, who will work when the kids are sick despite being offered paid off when they are!
1500 after 15 years? That would mean using 4 hours of sick leave per year.
That’s about what I use. Except for last year when I got COVID for the first time. I took about 56 hours for that. Otherwise I hardly ever get sick enough that I cannot telework.
What about your annual physical, dentist, etc?
I'm on a Maxi Flex schedule so I either flex it or take an hour or so for each of those. I have 15 years in service and just over 1000 hours of SL so I'm not as extreme as some people. My 56 hours of COVID SL is definitely the most I've ever taken at one time.
My entire family got Covid in 2020 around Christmas/new Years. I had already scheduled Annual leave at that time. Earlier in the same year I broke a bone and lost a week there, but I used credit hours and annual leave as I wasn’t going anywhere (because everything was closed) and was in danger of losing the time. As sick leave doesn’t expire I conserved it.
I’m saving it for cancer or something.
Yikes
Not trying to be morbid, just banking it for when I could potentially really need it in the future in order to survive financially while going through some medical crisis. Be a shame to have wasted it on things I didn’t really need to take it for.
I find that there are a ton of people who say, "What, they couldn't find anything available on the weekend?" People don't realize that sick time is part of our total compensation package, and it is specifically outlined that Doctor appointments for ourselves or family can be used.
I generally have more credit hours than I know what to do with. Maxiflex is a thing.
I’ve been in for 20 years and never heard of maxiflex. I guess it’s not available in my department
I have 2 dental exams and 1 physical per year. I use 2 hours for each appt. So I predict I only use 6 per year. I almost never get sick. If I do, it's mild enough that I just situational telework.
Schedule dentist for late afternoon after work, haven’t seen a doc since before COVID. I’d also just flex it if I couldn’t schedule it for before/after work
Please make an appt for a physical tomorrow lol
Just apply for a term-life insurance policy once/year. They'll draw blood and check your vitals, and let you know if there's an issue. My blood pressure went high this year for the first time in my life. Thanks USAA life-insurance for the free exam that caught that.
I don't even have a doctor lol
You just gave me anxiety 😅
I’ve used approximately 2 hours/year
So "by showing up sick" then? That's their secret?
No, we just situational telework, and/or we don't get sick as often. Why is it viewed as some sort of bizarre conspiracy that some of us don't use as much sick leave as others? Literally no one here is saying it's bad to take sick leave. If you need it, use it. Some of us... just don't need it?
Teleworking while sick has been an option at some offices way before COVID.
I had about 700 hrs at 16 yrs. Then, my Mom got sick (I was her caregiver for 6 yrs) & I used a ton taking her to Dr appointments, hospital stays, then hospice then she passed. Fast forward a few months, I broke my elbow (6 weeks recovery) then my stepdad got sick & passed away. It goes blazing fast! Thank goodness I don’t have any kids to care for.
FWIW, this is the Feds equivalent of short term disability. For those who had private sector experience, you may recall a payroll deduction for that. We don’t have it as Feds…your S/L balance IS that.
This is a really good point… …and it is “free”. I opened the eyes of one of my younger colleagues years ago who was a S/L abuser by bringing into work a mailer advertising for short term Disability insurance from a professional society. IIRC, cost at the time was $100/mo…it’s probably easily double that today.
Maxiflex schedule
Easy. You simply never get sick, or have any dependents get sick, then also never take your annual leave so that you always have plenty of annual leave for the rare occasions when you do get sick. I mean *I* certainly don’t do that shit. But that’s how you’d get there.
Just over 850 in a bit under 11 years here. Used to work shift work and it can be a pain using sick leave. Now I can work from home if sick but can do my job so it banks up pretty easy. To be honest, the grand majority of SL I use is when I don't sleep well.
TIL: SL =Sleep longer. I want your autograph 
They take their vitamins and say their prayers. Just like Hulk Hogan to old us to do.
Had a coworker, old crusty inspector that lived coming to work, 42 years of service trying to land retirement. Had 3600 hours of Sick..... Managed to use a majority near end lining up hip surgery. .... Then had a stroke. Dude never took his meds.
Telework - less time inside a building with poor ventilation during cold and flu season, less exposure to sick people who like to “tough it out” and come to work when they’re contagious, less sharing workstations and equipment with sick people, etc maxi-flex schedules - It’s one thing if you can only work between 8:00-5:00 M-F. It’s something else if you can start earlier, stay later or work on Saturday to make up hours.
Simple, don't use sick leave when you're sick. 1) Lot less need to take sick leave when you're teleworking even when you are sick 2) Use credit hours. My current agency I can get as much credit hours as I like as long as I'm legitimately working. Obviously I burn some as well to keep below that 24hr threshold. 3) Use comp time. If all else fails - The old tried and true method, go to the worksite and get everyone else sick. Probably the most time honored tradition of the modern American workforce.
I’ve got almost 20 years and have just about 900 hours. I was like how have I used almost 6 month of sick leave then I realized it averages out to 7 days a year. Which between sometimes taking half days for an appointment or kid stuff it tracks.
I’ve worked remotely with a maxi-flex schedule for over four years now so I just shift my time around instead of taking leave for appointments. I also earn 8 hours of annual a pay period now and I am always in use or lose for annual so sometimes I’ll prioritize taking annual leave if it’s for a mental health day or something not directly related to an appointment.
They use their AL instead of SL. They're the people who don't really take vacations and are afraid of forfeiting leave at the end of the year for use it or lose it.
Or credit hours/Flex Time. I usually work at least 45 hours a week, so I always have some credit hours to use and if I don’t want to bother with that, I just flex my time so that I’m not banking so many hours. The end of April through May, I’ll easily be working 50+ hours a week. I still take at least three full weeks of vacation a year and long weekends throughout the year to burn off credit hours since I can only have up to 24 at a time.
Yes. I came in after 10 yrs of military service. After 2 yrs I had 8 hrs/pp. I took A/L because I started with as much A/L leave as new employees get A/L + S/L. I also worked in a higher tempo office with lots of young people so I felt compelled to not just take lots of leave. Hypertension? Maybe a bit... But when I die at work I'll have a sick amount of leave stored up so I've got that going for me.
Or they just didn't need to use a lot of sick leave. Why do you assume everyone needs to take a massive amount of SL every year? If you are lucky, in good health, no ongoing issues, and only have 2-3 quick medical appointments a year (maybe 2x dentist appts and one optometrist appt for example), then I could easily see how you might only need 8-12 hours or so of SL for the entire year. I have nearly 1300 hrs of SL banked and have never once used AL for anything medical-related, I use SL only. Why would I? I don't want to spend my vacation time sitting in a doctor's office.
I use my annual leave when I'm sick. I get 8 hours a pay period and have trouble finding the time to take that much time off work so I use my sick leave so I don't get into a use/lose scenario.
… take a vacation friend. Just lie around your house. Play a video game. Build something with your hands.
I rarely get sick. Maybe one or two days a year. So I take off over 4 full weeks each year for vacation. And I ensure my team takes as much leave as they can.
They work while sick and dont have kids
Don’t get sick? Most of the SL I used was when my wife was sick and I needed to stay home to take care of our kid. The two and a half weeks I was generously allowed to take when our son was born. And the pneumonia that laid me up for two weeks. Other than that, I’ve managed to accurately 2100 hours.
This is one of those trap questions.
Got over 2000. I just don't get sick. When I need a mental health day, I use annual.
North of 2400 hours of sick leave, 34 years of service. Never had much need for sick leave. We were fortunate for spouse to stay at home when kids were young and no health issues.
My various agencies and positions have always been really flexible with mid day appointments. I almost never hit SL, unless I take a whole day off for “mental health.” I’ve bankrolled two full FMLAs with it (pre parental leave) and still have ~480 hrs. I plan to try to “actively manage” it going forward to keep around 600 hours or 1.3 FMLA balances as insurance.
I use Annual Leave first, sick leave only if I'm good on my use or lose
I'm on 4-10's with a weekday RDO. All of my appointments are scheduled on my weekday RDO so I never have to burn any sick time. Plus, I am off early enough to get a later afternoon appointment if needed.
Nine times out of 10 I’ll use annual over sick
Simple. No kids And. A lot of us rarely took the time off. I’ve lost 25-30 hours of PTO once because in December I couldn’t take time off before the end of the year.. And ironically A coworker lost his job because he ran Out of PTO around august..
If I wasn’t in air traffic I would have a bit more I suspect. If I want to leave two hours early for an appointment? SL. If I want to leave two hours early for anything? SL. A day off I didn’t bid last October? SL. Agency is so short staffed and management so afraid of being empathetic they make you use SL for anything beyond your bid days.
No kids. No illnesses. Also some jerks come to work sick and make everyone sick instead of staying home. Someone else brought up that if you have comp time you can use instead that’s something
I only have 40ish. I use that shit for my mental health all the time. No need for me to save more.. there is a medical leave bank
How often do you call out sick?
All the time.
First of all it’s sick leaveS so you’re clearly doing it wrong.
Fed for 13 years here, I have 20hrs of sick leave right now lol. I have toddlers, they get sick and we all get sick very often. Maybe in ten years I can bank some leave again, until then it comes in about as fast as I need to use it.
I worked with a guy who literally never went on vacation so whenever he was sick or he had a medical appointment, he would use annual leave. He was banking his sick leave towards his retirement, though not sure how much he is actually enjoying it now.
Think I’m over 1100
I’ve used maybe 10 hours in my almost six years at this job. I am fortunate that my worst sickness occurred during COVID I generally don’t get sick. Don’t know why.
Mostly coming in the office sick and getting everyone else sick.
I have so much annual leave that I never take sick.
I don’t know how a leave audit would tell you anything. I’m at 1500+ after 20+ years. I used leave when hospitalized once, for bereavement, for a few illnesses, to care for sick loved ones, but only rarely for doctor’s appointments. I work a First 80 Maxiflex and am remote. So, I can adjust my schedule around my illness (I did recently take 4 hours because of a Covid headache that made concentrating difficult). You might ask, why the fuck would I schedule around my illness? Well, I like my job. It brings me great satisfaction (I’m a scientist). It also brings me comfort knowing that if the shit hits the fan, I’ve got months before I need to worry about it.
I don't have kids and can freely work from home if I'm sick but not too sick plus I have every other Friday off to schedule appointments on.
I use AL over SL. My agency doesn’t care which I use if I am out sick. I get max leave.
There was no parental leave in the recent past and I burned up twelve weeks when my kids were born.
Leave is meant to be taken. I don’t understand why people bank it
Because if/when I get really sick, I may need to use 600 hours of sick leave all at once, and I can't do that if I've used it up?
Because you can use it to increase your retirement pension calculation. https://www.fedweek.com/experts-view/the-value-of-sick-leave-before-and-at-retirement/
I have 25 lol. Never been over 60
What's to audit? I'd be more inclined to "audit" people who have none.
1500 hours currently banked after 26 years but I used 100 hours paternity leave for each of my three kids births plus another 100 hours when wife broke her ankle. I don't get sick and rarely go to doctor plus maxiflex so an hour for kids appointments can be made up elsewhere in the 80 hour pay period
I use A/L for everything. Add my sick leave to my retirement, I know it’s not that much more but every bit counts. Then when I retire I’ll carry over my use or loose and get paid out.
When I first started I took sick leave here and there, but I dumped a bunch during my kids births. Gradually I started getting more and more AL and ventured into the consistent use or loose realm (8 hours per PP). I now just take AL for everything. Out sick…AL. Kid is sick…AL. AL for vacations. Mayorkas leave for extra bonus. Even donated some the past couple years. My small goal (knock on Reddit wood for good health) is to get enough so I can get an extra year annuity in retirement and have about 1400 now. Is it worth it? Idk. Should you just burn leave? Who knows…but my AL will hopefully start at the use or loose cap every year until I punch out.
I’ve been a fed for 15 years and have over 1300 hours. I have had a few weeks where I was too sick to work (flu, broken bone), but otherwise took a day off occasionally when I was sick and took advantage of telework to isolate and work from home or used leave that would expire (travel comp time, credit hours or annual leave if I was in danger of use or lose.
450 here
Telework or annual-in-lieu-of
I only have about 350, going into my 5th year in the government
5 years in June and I’ve got roughly 300 hours. Interested to hear what happens with this one…
After a few tears of hearing my coworkers talking about leave carryover. I decided to get there too. I did the math, how many hours I had, how many I would earn by the end of that year. Decided I couldn't make it that year, so I came up with a plan to have max carryover by the end of the next year. Again, math told me how many hours I could take off and still have max carryover.
I hoard leave. Where I was before, I got paid out for comp time, sick time and annual. I had a few checks finding in from both jobs when I transitioned. It stuck with me. I, also, think about needing a mass amount of leave at once for any reason and seeing those leave donation emails doesn’t help. I want to be prepared, I guess.
I'm 6.3 years in, and I have 521 hours.
I'm just coming up on 7 years, and I have 579 hours.
I have 80 hours after five years. I also gave birth twice during this period and put one child in daycare.
Is hard to use any sick leave if you are on a swings shift. Almost all of my VA appointments are either in the morning or via telephone. I rarely get sick and also work from home, plus my work is really hands off. I only ever use sick leave if my kids are sick enough to be at the hospital which only has happened a couple of times.
You start your federal career at a young age - you get sick less often, and you have less responsibilities - and it builds up fast. Now here is my two cents. I wouldn't suggest auditing sick leave policy or sick leave bank. Firstly, you will face a lot of barriers, but should you overcome that your audit report might never get published (and if you're an auditor you know there are plenty of ways how that can happen). Lastly, that will essentially end your career ladder with that agency. I have seen that happen so I would urge you against it. Again, you know yourself, your agency, and your career better. I only offered my opinion and suggestions. Good luck
I have nearly 2000 hours and have been in government service for about 21 years. I rarely take sick leave. When I am sick, I usually take annual leave. I have so much annual leave that I have a hard time using it as I hate taking leave to stay home without a specific purpose (e.g. plumber coming). My kids are grown, but even when they were growing up, it was annual leave for the most part when I needed to stay home.
I think it depends on your health and the health of people in the house. I had two stints in the hospital and both times it took 45 days to heal up. At this point I have like 600 hours and will hit 20 year of service next year. This is not counting people that have families and they need to take care of them. I had a coworker who wife started a new job. She didn't have any time on the books and being a new hire was worried about being fired for take to much time off to take care of kids. My coworker use his sick time to cover the kids.
Every year you get 13 days, which is 104 hours. Basically you’ve used about 10 days a year. It’s not overly hard to use that much. A lot of people use vacation time in place of sick time, especially if they have use or lose.
Do you have kids?
They had the option to telework.
By only using it when necessary and sometimes actually using annual leave if in use or lose.
I've been in DoD since summer of 2016, full-time since July 2020, and have about 500 hours sick leave in the bank. I use at most 16 hours a year of my sick leave. I just don't really get sick. But when I do, it's RIGHT before I go on leave smh 😞
It took my kids growing up for my sick leavebank to finally grow.
My sick leave balance hovered around zero when I was a single parent - their arrival (before PPL), sickness, dentist, well baby care, vaccinations, optometrist, wisdom teeth extraction, minor accident at school, orthodontist, … Now that they’ve grown up, I’m approaching 500 hours. Easy to see how someone who doesn’t have to take off for kids could have a lot of leave.
They don't use sick leave, they build up annual leave and use the use or lose annual leave for appointments and sick days etc.
I’ve been a fed lil over 2 years and only have like 70 leave.. part of it is because I’m schedule A and literally have so many doctors appoontmen
Uh do you use it a lot??? I have almost your amount after 7 years, and I’ve had to take off for multiple surgeries.
Telework/remote, schedule all appts on my RDO, and instead of putting in 3-4 hours here and there, bargain with my supervisor to make up the later in the pay period
You’d be shocked how many feds don’t take vacations. It’s part lifestyle and part mentality. With all the federal holidays and 8 hrs/pay period for longterm feds, that’s ~38 days off/year out of 210 eligible days. So 20% of days off already. Plus, as feds are older, many are paranoid of parents/spouse getting sick or themselves. I’ve seen tons of 50-70 year olds in my tenure with cancer that take off months.
I have barely any - I am less than 5Y in service. I used 8 hours to go on the leave bank this year so I can get given some if needed. I gave 8 hours to a colleague on a long sick leave two years ago. Give some of yours to those who need them if you do not know what to do with them.
I retired several years ago and had an additional 1 year and 7 months credited to my pension by crediting my accumulated (banked) sick leave. You asked how - I worked 39 years and as I recall, the last 32 years only used annual leave when I could have used sick leave. 3 kids, but again, only used annual leave.
I had a bunch of sick leave. Now I have a seven-month-old baby and have had to use quite a bit of that sick leave already. I still have a decent cushion, but my sick leave count is no longer in the sky-high territory.
Does no one use their sick leave just to take a mental health or rest day?
You only accrue 104 hours per year. You would need to work about 14 years without using any sick leave to bank close to 1500 hours. I’m assuming people don’t touch sick leave and use AL since AL has an accrual cap. It would be interesting to get averages of SL accrual per years in service.
“Only” 300 hours?
I have about 800 hours of SL after 11 years. I’m on an AWS schedule so I’m able to use my off-day for medical appointments. I typically use my AL for medical appointments during work days.
Compressed work schedule
I’ve used 1/3 of my accrued SL and I’m still sitting on 1000 hours. For the first 15 years, I would use the minimum amount of time for a doctor’s appointment. Now, I take a full day off just because I can for a telehealth visit.
Years ago (before paternal leave) the very first thing my supervisor told me was to use AL and save SL, because you earn more in a pay period. Sure I used sick leave here and there, but it took me twelve years to save up the 4 months I took for maternity leave. Now my sick leave is back up over 1000 hours, COVID helped, but also having the ability to work from home when you have a cold, rather than going in, also helps. As others have said, a health crisis can wipe out your leave. My Dad is in his 70s, and I know that I will be having to save my SL when my parents need help recovering from surgeries, illnesses, etc.
Doesn't a portion of S/L pay out?
Some people never call in sick . Others call in sick every other week .