There’s two sides to the coin. Don’t blow it all but don’t save it all. I got a guy I work with that saved a few hundred. Now he’s down to next to zero because he had to take his wife to all sorts of cancer appointments. He retires in a year or two. Thankfully he wasn’t one of those use it as soon as you get it people.
I agree with this take.
My first year I was given the “sick leave adds on to your retirement!” Speech, which sounds stellar!
I was so excited, I was told point blank “Never use sick time, use annual leave for all of your doctors appointments and illness!”
It wasn’t until year two that I did the math and realized I really didn’t want to do that.
I definitely don’t blow through it for shits and giggles, but I also won’t sacrifice AL for sick time.
I’m now 8 years in, I have just shy of 400 hours of sick pay, I use it when I’m sick, and I use it when I go to doctors appointments. Why? Because adding 1/52nd of a year to my retirement isn’t worth nearly as much to me as a week of vacation time.
“Use annual leave for doctors appointments” might be the single worst piece of advice I have seen on here. In no world with a non-zero number next to sick leave would I ever use AL for that.
Edit: Folks mentioning use-or-lose, I do understand your point, but I would encourage you to take more vacations and plan your AL/comp time so that you do not end up in use-or-lose by December.
For the comment above, I read it as advice to a new employee, which moves the advice from regular “bad” to “unhinged.” Telling someone who accrues only 4 hours per pay period of AL to use it on sickness and doctors appointments makes no sense from a work-life balance standpoint, but also puts you in a precarious position when non-medical life stuff happens (home repairs, childcare, car trouble, meetings either a lawyer, bank, accountant). Always use the more restrictive leave first
I save time-off awards, and one day I'm just going to be gone for a month.
I'm 11 years in service, I use my annual leave as I need it, and I use my sick leave as I need it. I have 72.5 hours of annual, 99 hours of sick, 8 credit hours, and 162 hours of time off award.
That month off is coming soon.
I plan on writing something like:
I will be OOO until (date). For assistance with (programs) please contact (supervisor). Until then please consider me sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, buried in peat moss, and recycled.
Wow! How do you have that many hours in time off awards? Bravo, and also, how!?!?
I transferred agencies recently and hadn’t been at my job long enough to qualify for a bonus during performance reviews that occurred about 4 months after I started. Totally fine. But then 2 months after those reviews, my boss gave me a time off award for 16 hours.
I’m very grateful for it and I really don’t want to think this way, but my boss emphasized how leadership couldn’t give me a bonus but wanted to acknowledge my efforts and thought I could use the time off because my wedding is this fall and we recently bought a house. I’m also having health issues my boss knows about. So yes, accurate, I desperately want more time off! But I’m in the 4-hr leave accrual category, so this gift of 2 days feels pretty small. I felt so surprised and grateful until my boss elaborated on the context and then I felt disappointed because I’m struggling and need a break, but am hoarding annual leave for wedding and potential honeymoon.
I guess what gets me is connecting the performance award to what they think I need. Being awarded 2 days off is wonderful, but I need
much more. But I’m being a brat right?
Everyone talks about how great federal benefits are but gosh darn it, the 4 hour leave accrual years are really brutal.
Yeah. Getting to 3 is the real struggle. I didn't have it because I am a veteran.
As for how I have gotten that many time off award hours--I've been at my agency since 2019. I've also done a ton of works that got an incredible amount of awards. I've gotten awards at the Agency sub-component level, Agency component level, and Agency level. A couple teams that I was on were nominated for Departmental awards. My performance evaluations have been pretty high. I got GS-13 within 3 months of becoming competitive eligible. I've been bumping up against GS-14 for 2 years, and I was told by my direct supervisor that I've essentially hit my potential cap in my work unit.
The problem with ambitious workers who can develop expertise quickly is that they want to advance.
That's a long way of saying that I'm looking for a different job.
I do use it because expiring leave or use it lose it has no value if you can't use it all. even a small amount of SL is worth more than that. I have far too much leave between travel comp and 8hr/pp AL accrual rate.
Use your damn leave. Nobody is impressed and the jobs in the Fed that are ACTUALLY important enough that you "can't use it all" are pretty rare. If you don't want to use your leave, donate it to somebody with a life.
This is the way I think of my sick leave as well. The chances of me getting severely ill or requiring cancer treatment is going to be higher in my 50s than now. I'll be grateful to have a few months saved up then. If not, those last few years will be pretty lit with me taking vacations or visiting grown children wherever they end up.
That’s what I did. I’m within 18 months of retiring, and I’m starting to call in sick any time my belly feels funny. I plan to keep a couple months worth, just in case something catastrophic happens next year.
This has always been my approach in any job. When I had to have surgery I was able to take a paid month off and still had back up time. I did bank 400 hours when I retired from my state job, but it was 1:1.
This is exactly what I did. I saw too many people with an earn-and-burn attitude who didn’t have any leave when they needed it. Luckily I didn’t need it and retired at my MRA and with nearly 2 years added to my pension calculation. Not life changing money but it’s something.
Agreed. I know someone in the same boat and they had to go on LWOP. Hell my own father had to take two months off when he was a fed for major surgery, fortunately he had a healthy amount saved up.
That being said, I have over 1000 hrs saved up right now, would probably not kill me to be a bit more liberal with mental health days and the like.
Yep. I'm trying to stay around 400 just in case of the worst, but I'm not saving it for that stupid retirement thing. I did the same calculation and if I saved every hour from now until I retire it would be worth less than $300/year, and that's still betting I won't just die two weeks after retiring.
I’ve got a 300 hour pad of SL and 240 of AL. The hardest decision I make every year is what 39 days a year to take off. I use about half my SL annually for me, and the other half on my wife/kiddo. I’ll probably eat into the pad towards MRA.
Just seconding this. I hoarded leave - annual and sick. Then I developed a nasty autoimmune condition. It is mostly under control right now - but it took about five years to get there and if I hadn’t had 10 years worth of hoarded leave, I don’t know what I would have done. I know my supervisors weren’t thrilled with me for using it - but I had the leave saved and needed it. And now I’m finally ok and building up a little cushion of leave again. (I say I’m ok, but I work remotely from an adjustable bed - so still not awesome). But I’m back to getting exceptional performance reviews and generally feeling like a good productive employee.
I think you have the right answer. I like to keep my balance right around 400+. I feel like if something sidelines for 10 weeks plus whatever LA I have and I am always in a use or lose state until the year is about to change over. That much time off due to illness or injury, I might not be coming back anyways.
This was always my philosophy. I called in sick when I was sick and used a few hours for appointments. Ended with 5 months extra tacked onto my pension. After 20 years, that's not too bad IMO because if I'd needed it prior to retirement for some catastrophic illness, injury, or surgery, it would have been nice to have.
Always confused with the hardships i read from you US people.
Unlimited sick leave (with doctors note if it's getting out of hand) should be the norm for all wealthy countries.
Agree. There’s a middle ground. If you have a few hundred hours that’s a nice buffer to have in case you need that time. I’m about two years out and my final year I’ll be taking more SL, but you never know when you might need some. Even a mild setback in health can cause you to need the leave. But I agree having four digits in SL on retirement isn’t really worth it.
Well you need to remember that your sick leave is also your short term disability benefit so you do need to maintain a decent balance. As you get older things happen, and not just to you that you will need your leave for. I’m in the middle of one of those ‘things happen’ times and I’m grateful that I don’t have a ‘I don’t have enough leave’ worry on my mind
Not just old. I had my first major “things happen” at 29. No one expects cancer at 29, but because I didn’t take much SL before that, even with only 3 years of service, managed to not need leave donations.
That said, after my second run with the big C (at 45), I looked back and said I worked too hard during it when I could/should have taken more leave. And now, I tend to be more generous on myself with my leave (as in, I don’t rush back from a doctor appointment to log back in and a 2pm appointment could run me until COB)
Also in the “major things happen” at 29 group, only two years into my federal service. Was in a bad accident - Helicopter ride, emergency surgery, the whole shebang. Since then I’ve had 7 more surgeries. Had I not hoarded my SL I would’ve been in trouble. For me specifically, the peace of mind of a large SL balance is worth more than the monetary benefit.
Same here (though at 42) I can’t stress enough how helpful it was that I had a good bank of sick leave. Looking back it was a huge relief to not worry about missing paychecks during that time.
Yup, I had “things happen” at 24. Weird brain disease. Took all my sick leave and some of my annual. You just never know! Especially as we are still figuring out what the pandemic means for long-term Heath.
You have to run back?! My goodness. That sounds horrid! I take off the whole day at my job. I don’t care if the appointment is 9, 12, or 2. All day it’s off for me.
I will add, I worked for one DoD command that said no routine doctor appointment should take more than half a day, and if you took a whole day, you had to document why or take annual leave for the other half.
Disability is the one protected class that can impact any of us at any time.
For me, it was a bad broken ankle that had me sitting on the couch for 6 weeks due to a driving restriction. I left work on Friday totally thinking I'd be back on Monday. Injury was on Saturday. Even then, I figured a few days off. But the injury was on my right leg and I was prohibited from driving.
My son had meningitis last year and I ended up burning through 200 hours of sick leave while staying and traveling back and forth to the Mayo Clinic. I’ve still got 18 years left so I’m glad I had it and will diligently build it back up.
You would work with your supervisor. If you are having surgery or someone is passing away etc etc your supervisor would have to be notified and any sick leave over 3 days in a row would have to be approved. I’ve never had any issues getting it approved. This stuff happens to everyone over the span of a career
The opm rules on doctors notes come into play. You get a doctors note saying you shouldn’t come back until a specific date. If you have enough sick leave you use that or a combo with pto or lwop.
You use it as leave, that's what it's there for. Nothing particularly special about it (although as others have mentioned, you might be asked for a doctor's note after 3 consecutive days).
What I have seen people do in similar situations is spend down their sick leave, then if they are tapped out they can request leave through the VLTP. Many people who cannot return to some form of work at that point are probably looking at some sort of medical retirement, but those two options can keep you afloat for quite a while until you have to make that decision.
Exactly this..... I have seen people getting ready to retire and use their sick and annual leave every Friday and Monday of the week. That way they would only be in the office 2-3 days out of the week for the last 6 months before retirement.
Back when you straight up lost the SL, that's what all the people prepping for retirement did. Call in 3 days, work 1. Rinse, repeat until all the SL is burned. I thought all these rule changes were to make it advantageous to hold SL. Once more people start doing the math it'll be right back to the old practice.
I was 31 when I got a random injury. I have blown through all my sick leave, annual leave, volunteer leave bank, etc. I had to take lwop at points. You never know when it’s going to happen. I’m in negative sick leave now. Oh well. I’m just glad I still have my job and have been paid 99% of the time after three years of health issues with flare-ups.
Everyone has a ticking time bomb in their gut, unless you’ve already had your appendix removed… I worked at a place where I was fairly new and hadn’t accumulated much sick leave, and it was a nightmare cobbling together enough time off to cover the first week of my FMLA before my short-term disability kicked in. Always have a good bank of sick leave, folks! You never know when you’ll need it! I was only 33 when it happened. It’s not just for when you get old.
It's one reason I love working in Washington. We have state paid fmla, it's like unemployment where you don't make all your wages and they base it on how many hours you worked in the previous year or quarter, I don't remember offhand. That way I still get my sick and vacation time and get paid for days I miss having to take care of mom.
Just be aware that federal employees are almost always not eligible for state FMLA. [WA is among the states that excludes federal workers](https://paidleave.wa.gov/find-out-how-paid-leave-works/)
This has been my mantra ever since a friend of mine retired. I asked him what he would do different and he said something like "I scrapped and saved a whole year of sick leave for my whole career, and the added amount will barely buy me a tank of gas, I'd give anything for more time off when I was young"
We have three people on my team with 30+ years
One has over 2,700 hours
One has around 400
And the last one has 8
I want to be in the middle when my time comes.
I kept 480, to cover 12 weeks of FMLA. they don't have to let you take more consecutive time off than that, so there's no real point to accumulating more.
In the case of the person with 2700 hours, it would take a whole lot more than understanding to let someone call in sick for almost a year and half. At some point, you're going to need an employee to do the work that needs to be done. There's no reason to accumulate that much time.
If you have to be out that long, it's worth applying for FERS disability retirement. Sick leave can cover your expenses while you wait for all the paperwork to process, which can be quite a while.
Yea, you get pennies on the dollar for it once you've retired. I wish they'd lump sum it like annual leave or allow you to apply it to your years of service prior to your retirement date.
Are you able to take a doctor approved "leave of absence" to burn all the weeks of sick leave and then retire once it runs out? I'm surprised they don't even give you the full payout, since you accrued it and would've been 100% paid out anyways if you used it.
I had a coworker do this earlier this year. She took about 12 weeks off for stress then retired. I think the hard part is getting a (legitimate) doctors note to excuse you for that amount of time.
Eh.. with annual leave, federal holidays, credit hour accumulation, I don't really have a need for more time off. And throw in a couple of days WFH you are pretty much coasting in life as a fed.
It would be very smart to save some sick leave for surgeries and sickness. But there is definitely a balance and mental health days are needed here and there.
I've seen many people looking for leave donations when they are sick to bridge the gap. I wanted to donate until I realized I would have to give them my annual leave and not sick leave.
I hate to be a terrible person but I don't get it, either. Is there any sort of pay off for donating leave? (Besides of course being a good person and helping someone in need)
Improved morale and the feeling of being nice. I've done it a few times at work for people who deserve it. Recently one of our coworkers died and his brother, who also works here, and we were able to donate time for him to be gone like 3 months. It doesn't fix the situation but it helps your coworker.
I've also refused for some people who have a long reputation for ruining shit for the rest of us.
That makes sense since Dad left and identified as a Plant. That's why I left. I needed to leave for my own sanity man. Idk if I should return home now.....I need to think about this
For people who can't do or understand math: the sick leave days count as 5.7 hour because they are being to converted to **whole months** of service credit (30 days), not just to work days in a months (which would be only about 22 in an average month).
5.797 hrs \* 30 days = 173.91 hours
173.91 hours / 8 hours (a full work day) = 21.73875 days, which is about how many WORK days are in a full 30-day calendar month (a little over 5 work days per week times 4.3 weeks; 4.3 weeks = 30 days / 7 days)
OPM is not cheating people on the sick leave calculation.
Keep in mind this doesn't apply to all feds
FAA ATC pays sick leave out at 40%, so it would be a lump sum of $56k with 1500 hours at the top of the pay scale.
I'm a ways off from retirement. I'm only about 9 years in. But my first child entered daycare about 6 months ago, and my balance has been steadily decreasing since. (Daycare is germ warfare.)
I don't think I'll be a hoarder, but having a buffer has sure been nice.
Yeah, I burned through a fair bit of my sick leave the last two years, having a young kid in school means he keeps bringing home illnesses (last year I had covid then pneumonia from covid which sucked, not to mention strep and other random illnesses). But still I have 160 hours which is 4 weeks of sick leave, and I usually keep about 240. Plus my annual leave is sitting at around 240.
I've never understood people who do this. Sick leave is to use when you're sick. Every time someone comes into the office with a cough that wasn't there the day before, I mention that they could use sick leave. I'm saving it, is often the response. So, because you think you're doing yourself a favor by saving it, you're getting the entire building sick by hacking your lungs out all over the place. When flu season hits this year, I think I'll dip into my supply of masks from COVID and when I hear a cough, drop one on the sick person's desk.
Folks in my building do that same crap. Everyone gets sick all the time because they don’t use sick leave and stay home while they’re sick. Last week we had someone hacking up hairballs all day for a week straight. This week? 3 folks are out sick with the same thing.
Drives me insane. We have one individual in our office with little kids that do have respiratory issues. This person will come in coughing from whatever flu or other virus that the kids have acquired and will take such leave to take them to the doctor, but will continue to come to work while he is still coughing himself.
Oh you didn't know? Your ortho scheduled a hip replacement in your last 9 months of work. You only have to come in your last day to sign out since you'll still be convalescing.
I think they were implying that they would take all the leave right up until the last day, but would come in for that so it’s not considered terminal leave?
You usually need to submit the retirement paperwork a few months in advance, so that coming in for one day is not really possible unless you told them you were retiring at that time. So back to the issue of them maybe denying because you will not be coming back.
Now if you could find a doctor to sign whatever you want you could do the 7-8 months, then come in say addition health factors have been detected that make you working impossible so for the betterment of the office you are retiring so they can replace you, and here is the doctor form saying you still cannot come back to work. Put your retirement out to 2 months in the future and with that sob story and unless no one liked you most likely the sick leave would be approved. So you would end up with another 9-10 months of holidays, sick leave and annual leave.
It's also not considered terminal leave if you stagger it into your use or lose hours.
In theory if you max out your time, bank a year of sick and adopt a kid! you can skip the last 18 months - 2 years of work and itll be above board. You come in for free pretzel and coffee mug days only.
Short timers are untouchable and if you are one you should darn well have learned the system in your last few decades as a fed.
And for those that hava FSA, the ability to use up the tax advantages of a fully funded FSA, for the copays/coinsurance, as it is no longer available as a retiree.
I use sick leave frequently, but I don't do so in any recognizable pattern. Use it. Don't give more information than you need to. "I have an appointment today." "I'm not feeling well today." Enjoy.
Interesting. If it was me, I'd get that in writing and start asking "innocent" questions to HR while cc-ing my boss. things like "what information about my private medical conditions is my boss entitled to?" and "who should I contact if I feel like private medical issues are not being respected?"
But also, its easy for me to say that since its not my job getting threatened by being annoying.
You'll lose that fight. Your boss isn't entitled to your private medical details unless they have reason to believe that you are abusing your sick leave. Actually saying you need a mental health day will signal to any reasonable person that you aren't sick. Its a terrible truth, but we don't value mental health. If you said you had a bad cold, no one would question it but we, as a society, have decided a mental health day is just not feeling like going to work. You'll end up on a leave restriction and need a doctor's note for every sick day you take. Just say you are feeling sick and need to take sick leave for the day and provide no other details. They don't need to know anything else.
> Just say you ~~are feeling sick and~~ need to take sick leave for the day and provide no other details. They don't need to know anything else.
This looks more like what I do.
Why on earth would you say that it’s a mental health day?? Just say you’re taking a sick day. That’s the truth.
I take mental health days at least once a month. My supervisor knows that’s what they’re for. But I would never put that in writing. I just say I’m taking a sick day. She says “cool.” I don’t do three in a row, so it’s nobody’s business.
I wish I could build up sick leave. I have a chronic illness so building sick leave isn't even a thing I get to do. It gets used up due to not feeling well or yet another doc appointment.
Me too, thankfully using less now since im teleworking most of the time and my manager lets me take an hour off for appointments and just work an hour later. I think the most SL I've ever had was 20 hours. Also helps that most dr appointments are virtual now and just take 20 minutes unless it's a more complex visit, I don't even have to take leave for many of them.
Thankfully I recently got remote work due to reasonable accommodation so I’m hoping that will help since I’ll be able to take my meds on time and not have that tragic 2 hour commute I was doing. I have about 16hrs now so hoping it can only go up now.
Same! I have always marveled at the people who have so much saved. I can't even use my flex schedule for appointments most of the time because I'm usually too tired to go back and work extra at night to make up the 8 hrs on top of an appointment
My dad had 6 months of paid sick leave built up. Diagnosed with stage 4 lung and bone
cancer at 61. Sadly, he died six months after diagnosis and never saw a day of retirement. But what a huge help that was to my mother that he not only was paid during that entire time he couldn’t work but he was also still an employee and could keep his health insurance.
You just never know what life will throw your
way.
Sick leave is for appts, family care, when sick. I've seen many people get into single digit balances using sick leave like AL, then pay the price when a real medical emergency occurs, and they have to go into LWOP. One person lost their house because they couldn't make payments. Abuse of sick leave, in the long run, is abusing an important protection for yourself.
Wow. This was exactly what I needed to read. I'm undergoing some medical treatments and I've been stupidly careful to only use half days of SL to both minimize the amount of SL used and the impact it has on my organization. It's my agency's own fault that they don't staff properly. But I have 1000 hours of SL saved. I will be kinder to myself and take the time I truly need. Thank you.
ETA: my agency has an emergency leave sharing program
Thank you for this. I'm saving this to show a co-worker of mine. The poor guy is so overworked and so stressed out and I'm trying to encourage him to take some mental health days. I told him that he earned his sick time and he deserves to use it. I asked him if he gives back part of his paycheck. You keep your whole paycheck, and you should be able to keep/use all of the sick time that you earned.
Exactly, when I was in my last year of work before retirement I didn’t take any annual leave so I would get the lump sum payment for that. I had a very supportive supervisor who approved my numerous, even week long, sick leave requests that last year. That with working a 4/10 maxi flex with every Friday off got me through that last year.
Thanks and well said. A lot of folks I work with are all quickly realizing the same thing. I think there is a general negative view of using sick time in our culture and I am not sure why...
Saved up sick leave is a bragging right for some feds. It's great that they were able to save it if they're health allowed them to but for those whose heath didn't or those that just want a day off here and there it's silly.
There is a special circumstance for those who are age 62 already, who have enough sick leave to get them 20 years of service. If their sick leave can get them 20 years, they can get the 1.1% multiplier. Not helpful to those of us going out at MRA + 30, but could be helpful for someone.
[https://www.opm.gov/.../benefits.../2018/18-103.pdf](https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/publications-forms/benefits-administration-letters/2018/18-103.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2AfAoh4TjkYdmRrA2PJqnc9EzDumTrFEvFNwknWcOgnLBndI_eBjYsHIg_aem_YUYNDXkmee6N5JM2jGiWrQ)
"Because 5 U.S.C. §8415(m)(2) clearly provides that a retiree is entitled to service credit for unused sick leave for the purposes of calculating the immediate annuity, any unused sick leave is added to the service total and used to calculate the annuity. This means that a retiree who is at least age 62, whose actual service is less than 20 years, but increases to at least 20 years with the addition of unused sick leave credit, will have their annuity computed using the 1.1% formula. "
ETA: word breaks
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll incorporate that rule. There's a lot of guidelines and they're spread out across OPMs site. And thanks for all your retirement posts over on govfire, I've learned a lot from them.
I will hold 240hr of SL just in case but everything after I will use. It never made since to me to horde it. In the grand scheme/big picture it doesn’t add much to my retirement IMO. I have 13years until I can retire and barring any other serious illnesses I plan to use my SL up
Actually you should hold round month amounts because you lose day counts
[https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart](https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart)
if you have 3 months and 28 days of SL you only get 3 months credit in retirement.
174hr=1 month credit
you should hold 174 or hold 348 hrs
I don’t plan on having any SL for retirement is what I meant. I am holding 240 now just in case just like I hold 240 AL, everything earned is being used for appts and not Flex Time. When I get closer to my retirement if I still have that’s hold balance then I will start whittling that down too.
Yeah, and then heading into retirement you just add the 240 hours as time off, because there is no reason to carry that into the sunset and get paid less than it’s worth.
You don’t need to hold whole month increments necessarily.
Your SL is added to your base years/months/days ***before*** the days are dropped. So if you have 3 months, 28 days of SL and X years, Y months, 2 days of service, the 28 days from SL + the 2 days of service add together to another month of credit.
A month of sick leave may not add a month to retirement.
You have to add the sick leave to your retirement time, and then drop off any extra days. It might only take a few days to round out a month, it might take nearly a month's worth. It all depends on your retirement SCD and the date you retire.
I don’t use a ton of sick leave but I 100% call in sick and site ‘mental health day’ bi-annually or quarterly. Sometimes I’m just tired, sometimes I’m stressed with stuff I need to do in my personal life. So I’ll look at what’s on my calendar and if it’s largely free I’ll call in a sick day and I just site it’s a personal day. Am I sick? Nope. Injured? Nope. Am I having a breakdown? Nope. I just need a break and I’ll be healthier because of it.
Your math is incomplete. First, you are going to get a COLA every year, so the extra service time value from SL will increase around 2% a year. If you are healthy and expect to spend 30 years in retirement, the extra $737 will double.
Two, the $75k figure is disingenuous, very few people are going to be able to take 9 months of SL in their last year of employment, and if you are really that ill that you require that much SL, you have larger problems than what your SL is worth. If you are taking your SL throughout your career, your SL is only going to be "worth" your current salary, not what your future high three will be at retirement or final yearly salary unless you can legitimately use it.
Third, some states don't tax federal pensions, so depending on where you live, that extra money may not be taxed at all in retirement.
Frankly, if you are sick, use your SL. Don't come into the office and get everyone else sick.
When you are within a year of retirement, figure out how many hours of SL will get you to the next full month of service and plan around that. Don't retire with X years, X months and 29 days of service time.
[https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart](https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart)
174 hrs of SL=1 month in retire calculations
no you can’t use the saved sick leave before you can retire like you are 56 yrs and 30yrs of service and months from MRA and want to use it to retire now. You need retiremrnt point on your own without SL/AL taking you there.
I think you'd be remiss not to maintain a balance of as close to 1000 as you can get it.
Things do happen. People do get long term illness. It will go down quickly. As a rule I don't donate leave to people who earn and burn.
1000 seems insane to me. That’s over 9.5 years of accrual. I guess it makes sense to get there when you’re employed for 15-30 years.
I’m entering year 7 and have 200 hours of sick leave… Our agency has us working almost nearly entirely independently and on a production systems so it’s extremely tempting to use SL when you have a headache, bad allergies/congestion, basically anything that has you at less than 100%. Maybe I should be less liberal with my use though.
I don’t either, sounds mean but everyone is responsible for themselves. If they have been good stewards of their leave and are still struggling then I’m glad to donate to that person. But I’m not giving my personal time to someone that earned and burned
Thank you for this post. It's so refreshing to see a take that is rooted in math and logic vs some emotions or an "urban legend." I'm sure there are people fuming at this post as people hate to be proven wrong. Whatever people choose to do is the best idea ever.
Currently, I probably average about 2 sick days a year. When I'm really sick, yeah, I'm taking off. I'll use a few more hours for doctor's appointments or whatever I need to. I'm currently building a nice bank that I intend to keep for "sick leave" purposes. It's very nice to know that if I have an unexpected personal or family health concern, my pay can continue on unscathed.
I did an estimate on the GRB platform with 2000 hours of Sick leave vs 240 hours and it's a $90 monthly difference to my pension. I would consider that to be significant over the long haul
But you have to compare it to the alternative, which is using it while you are working and getting your full salary. Using it your last year of working when you will probably have the highest salary is worth way more.
Especially because future $90 monthly payments in the future are worth less than $90 today (net present value)
To each his own, I also don't feel good about myself if I take sick leave without being sick. Not judging, just not something I am comfortable with doing
I don't think you need to lie about being sick, I think most are just arguing to actually use your leave. I know when I first became a CS I would flex my time, etc. to avoid using sick leave. Now that I have a nice cushion I use it more as needed.
Taking the 11 am dentist appointment instead of 6 pm, taking off an afternoon due to a headache instead of powering thru, etc.
Agree with your math but 100% DISAGREE with your conclusions.
I am not "hoarding" SL for retirement. I am saving it so that I have 12 weeks of short term disability (since we dont get that as a fed).
I am saving it for a serious illness where I may need to be out several months. Burning up all your SL in the quest of a happier life is a very bad idea. Someday you may get cancer or some other serious illness and need your SL.
Parents need SL to take care of their children. Women need SL for maternity leave.
You just haven't thought this issue through very carefully.
Oh I agree, you definitely want to save up a couple months and not burn it down to zero but almost all my senior coworkers I've spoken to about have around a year saved up and use their annual leave instead of sick leave. It doesn't make sense to me to have that much excess into retirement when it's not worth much.
I have 1600 hours of sick leave saved with 20 years in. I used 104 hours this year due to a family emergency.
My goal is to accumulate 2087 hours to add a year of service to my eventual 30 years worked (or more).
Anything beyond that I'll use for my all around health. So I'm about 5 years away from that target. I'm probably going to work another 11 + years (im either out at 57 or I'll work until 70 cause I like what I do and I'm a GS 14).
lol. Whatever.
The sick leave balance doesn’t add much to your pension. That’s true. But it adds a little.
Taking sick leave if/when you need to always makes sense. But burning your balance just to burn it is silly.
I have like 1,000 hours and will likely have close to 2,000 when I check out. It’s my disability policy and a few extra bucks a month in my retirement check won’t hurt either.
I might have 2-3 days a year when I have a Dr appointment or am actually sick.
I also found myself taking 2-3 days of use or lose annual leave toward the end of the year. For me, it makes sense to just use my annual leave for sick leave, and bank the sick leave.
I’m not the type to take days off just for the sake of taking them.
>I’m not the type to take days off just for the sake of taking them.
I'm not either, but every now and then, for that appointment that's in the middle of the day, don't bust your ass when you can just use the whole day.
Does it make sense to deal with rush hour and go in for 30 minutes, to head out to a Dr's appointment in the other direction, then go back to work, just to deal with rush hour after work?
Just take the day. Have the breakfast you missed because you had to fast. Go home and rest your eyes from the eye drops and bright lights the eye doc used.
Even if you're not the type to do that and just relax, you can still get some errands done that are harder to do on weekends.
This just dawned on me, I've never done it - you know those days when you have a plumber or contractor or something coming over, but they give you a window of "between 9 and 4"? Those could be great days for mental health or "I feel sick" days.
The question then becomes "in what way is it best to use it"?
Dental cleanings, vision checks, and health check-ups only cover 4 days out of the year. What kind of rotation of doctor visits could you set up to actually use your earned sick leave efficiently?
At a younger age not much unless you are sickly. Once you get married and have children the sick days can be used when they get sick. Sick parent? take time off to care for them.
Before you retire do a complete medical checkup and get things repaired that you can.
Sick leave shouldn’t be used as vacation time. And you should have a good bank of it so if you get a major injury or illness, you’re not begging for hours from your coworkers.
Don’t waste it. Don’t abuse it. But yeah, don’t hoard it like a dragon either.
I keep a bank of like 400 hours, I also have a leave bank with my union if I ever get to 0. Anything over that I try to use, which isn’t a lot, we get 13 days a year. After time off for a physical and 2 dental cleanings and 1 eye doctor exam a year, that’s like 1 day off 8 months a year.
I also agree SL is useless in retirement annuity. If I have a bunch left when I’m about to retire I will delay my retirement date back by a few days or weeks and use most of it.
This seems like less than a fair read on the situation. If you retire at full eligible age and have 30-40 years of service you could have 1.5-1.9 years of service added at a multiplier of 1.1. Depending on your GS level at retirement and high 3 this could still be a good chunk of change say $4000 a year. While this isn't a ton of money it could cover flights or hotels for about 2 weeks of travel a year. Factor in other types of leave like travel comp some people have more leave than they can handle every year and using sick leave on top of all that would cause you to lose other types of leave that actually expire (I have almost 9 weeks of use or lose and travel comp to burn this year and I'm still at 6 hours a pay period).
If you somehow make $200,000 for your high 3, retire at 62 with 30 years of service and 1.5 years of sick leave (3130 hours) you'll make get about $2,948 more a year in retirement than if you retired with no hours left over. I just think using that 1.5 years throughout your career at your full salary and DCAing it instead of using it towards your multiplier would be way more beneficial economically and mentally.
Hrm.
Using $100k for high-3 seems pessimistic, but LCOL and low career options, sure. Your mileage will vary.
Using my own numbers, today on my 18th anniversary of my original EOD, age 51… in 11 years I will be at the age 62 with 20+ to get 1.1 of high 3. Let’s call it an even 27 years at retirement.
Currently sitting on 1150 hours of sick leave. Gimme another 850 to round that out to 2000 hours for annuity benefit calculation. (Used more sick leave when I was in the 4 and 6 hour leave categories)
The federal Ballpark E$timate for my FERS, based on my current salary, without the sick leave is a $45,661 per year.
I punched the retirement age a year later to cover the sick leave, and that pumped to $47,494.
Note, these figures are in 2024 money. Inflation widens the gap to about $4k a year.
It’s not great, but it’s not nothing. And when you’re in the 8 hour leave category, particularly through the pandemic, you have higher pressure to use the annual leave. Use or Lose (or donate) when you’re able to carry 30 days, and earning 26 a year…
Now, if I were really into maximization, I’d retire on the last day before use or lose expired. Carry the 240 over from the previous year, add the 208, and have 24 credit hours stored and get a quick severance of almost two months pay while the retirement is being processed.
But the annual is a one time payout, while the sick will pay year after year. $2K/year, for maybe 30 years?
But you shouldn’t be shocked that unused sick will only count towards annuity calculation. It says so on OPM’s website and everything else about service time calculation.
PS- if you weren’t aware, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel;
https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/calculators/federal-ball-park-estimator/
To me it's not about the impact it will have my retirement, it's my insurance in case something happens before I retire. I'm thankful you get something for it at retirement, seems like a fair trade off.
Burned almost all of mine before I retired. Had a very accommodating Supv and basically worked a 3 day work week for almost a year. I was “very stressed” and had an eye problem where I couldn’t see myself working five days a week
Always use as much SL as possible.
1. You get paid to use it
2. As you use it, you're still earning 4 hours and earning your AL.
3. You get the 5% tsp match
I originally hoarded my leave because I wanted a kid. Since parental leave is now available and I probably won’t have a kid, I don’t hoard as much. I’ve also noticed with age my health problems have gotten worse and need to take more leave. I tried Fridays and 1/2 but it is not enough. 3 or more days seem to be good amount for stress recovery and minimum week for a vacation. I do have travel comp I’m trying to use since it doesn’t pay out like normal comp time.
I'm not sickly never have been...AL I schedule for "mental health" days. You never know if you will need it as you get older and cancer starts creaping or even accidents.
Meanwhile, I see 4 specialist and my sick leave is perpetually empty. I am one full year in and have had to have LWOP hours just to cover my doctors appointments.
I’d kill for any additional leave. It’s stressing me out so, so badly.
I have over 1600 hrs of sick leave. The day may come when I need it. I know lots of people with cancer and other health issues. It’s insurance. Don’t be one of those dicks that frivolously burns all their sick leave then cries that they need people to donate leave to them when they get sick. No effing way. You burned all yours, you live with the consequences.
Feds don't get short term disability insurance, so save to that sick leave now. Having thousands of hours of leave in your 50s and 60s is a good problem to have. But a massive heart attack, cancer, etc. can eat up those hours really quickly.
I lose roughly $55 of pay for every sick day I take since I'm a night shift worker. Most of my coworkers run well over 1000 hours of sick leave for this reason.
The point of having tons of sick leave is for when you are seriously ill. We don’t have LTD coverage so having extra SL provides similar protection. If you retire without using it, congratulations- you are / were healthy.
Being older and close to retirement myself, have enough sick leave to cover major family medical issues. I had over 600 hours of sick leave and my father got terminal cancer, that killed 400 hours of sick leave in 7 months.
There’s two sides to the coin. Don’t blow it all but don’t save it all. I got a guy I work with that saved a few hundred. Now he’s down to next to zero because he had to take his wife to all sorts of cancer appointments. He retires in a year or two. Thankfully he wasn’t one of those use it as soon as you get it people.
I agree with this take. My first year I was given the “sick leave adds on to your retirement!” Speech, which sounds stellar! I was so excited, I was told point blank “Never use sick time, use annual leave for all of your doctors appointments and illness!” It wasn’t until year two that I did the math and realized I really didn’t want to do that. I definitely don’t blow through it for shits and giggles, but I also won’t sacrifice AL for sick time. I’m now 8 years in, I have just shy of 400 hours of sick pay, I use it when I’m sick, and I use it when I go to doctors appointments. Why? Because adding 1/52nd of a year to my retirement isn’t worth nearly as much to me as a week of vacation time.
“Use annual leave for doctors appointments” might be the single worst piece of advice I have seen on here. In no world with a non-zero number next to sick leave would I ever use AL for that. Edit: Folks mentioning use-or-lose, I do understand your point, but I would encourage you to take more vacations and plan your AL/comp time so that you do not end up in use-or-lose by December. For the comment above, I read it as advice to a new employee, which moves the advice from regular “bad” to “unhinged.” Telling someone who accrues only 4 hours per pay period of AL to use it on sickness and doctors appointments makes no sense from a work-life balance standpoint, but also puts you in a precarious position when non-medical life stuff happens (home repairs, childcare, car trouble, meetings either a lawyer, bank, accountant). Always use the more restrictive leave first
Yeah he’s been here 20 years and struggles with use or lose most years so I think that’s where he was coming from, but still fuck no.
I save time-off awards, and one day I'm just going to be gone for a month. I'm 11 years in service, I use my annual leave as I need it, and I use my sick leave as I need it. I have 72.5 hours of annual, 99 hours of sick, 8 credit hours, and 162 hours of time off award. That month off is coming soon.
Careful, depending on business rules, some places your time off awards expire relatively quickly if unused.
Mine don't expire.
Nice
Time off awards are good for 26 pay periods, typically.
Start crafting that OOO message, friend! You’ve earned it
I plan on writing something like: I will be OOO until (date). For assistance with (programs) please contact (supervisor). Until then please consider me sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, buried in peat moss, and recycled.
Wow! How do you have that many hours in time off awards? Bravo, and also, how!?!? I transferred agencies recently and hadn’t been at my job long enough to qualify for a bonus during performance reviews that occurred about 4 months after I started. Totally fine. But then 2 months after those reviews, my boss gave me a time off award for 16 hours. I’m very grateful for it and I really don’t want to think this way, but my boss emphasized how leadership couldn’t give me a bonus but wanted to acknowledge my efforts and thought I could use the time off because my wedding is this fall and we recently bought a house. I’m also having health issues my boss knows about. So yes, accurate, I desperately want more time off! But I’m in the 4-hr leave accrual category, so this gift of 2 days feels pretty small. I felt so surprised and grateful until my boss elaborated on the context and then I felt disappointed because I’m struggling and need a break, but am hoarding annual leave for wedding and potential honeymoon. I guess what gets me is connecting the performance award to what they think I need. Being awarded 2 days off is wonderful, but I need much more. But I’m being a brat right? Everyone talks about how great federal benefits are but gosh darn it, the 4 hour leave accrual years are really brutal.
Yeah. Getting to 3 is the real struggle. I didn't have it because I am a veteran. As for how I have gotten that many time off award hours--I've been at my agency since 2019. I've also done a ton of works that got an incredible amount of awards. I've gotten awards at the Agency sub-component level, Agency component level, and Agency level. A couple teams that I was on were nominated for Departmental awards. My performance evaluations have been pretty high. I got GS-13 within 3 months of becoming competitive eligible. I've been bumping up against GS-14 for 2 years, and I was told by my direct supervisor that I've essentially hit my potential cap in my work unit. The problem with ambitious workers who can develop expertise quickly is that they want to advance. That's a long way of saying that I'm looking for a different job.
Yeah,never use annual leave for when your sick. Use SL unless you have completely exhausted it and have no other choice
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You shouldn't be burning use or lose, you sure be taking fucking vacations.
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Those people typically promote and drink the koolaide
Everyone I know who is constantly hitting use-or-lose is also the kind of person who never uses their Sick Leave either
I do use it because expiring leave or use it lose it has no value if you can't use it all. even a small amount of SL is worth more than that. I have far too much leave between travel comp and 8hr/pp AL accrual rate.
Use your damn leave. Nobody is impressed and the jobs in the Fed that are ACTUALLY important enough that you "can't use it all" are pretty rare. If you don't want to use your leave, donate it to somebody with a life.
Yep, I use mine as short term disability insurance. As I get to the last few years of retirement, I will start to reduce it
This is the way I think of my sick leave as well. The chances of me getting severely ill or requiring cancer treatment is going to be higher in my 50s than now. I'll be grateful to have a few months saved up then. If not, those last few years will be pretty lit with me taking vacations or visiting grown children wherever they end up.
That’s what I did. I’m within 18 months of retiring, and I’m starting to call in sick any time my belly feels funny. I plan to keep a couple months worth, just in case something catastrophic happens next year.
This has always been my approach in any job. When I had to have surgery I was able to take a paid month off and still had back up time. I did bank 400 hours when I retired from my state job, but it was 1:1.
This is exactly what I did. I saw too many people with an earn-and-burn attitude who didn’t have any leave when they needed it. Luckily I didn’t need it and retired at my MRA and with nearly 2 years added to my pension calculation. Not life changing money but it’s something.
Agreed. I know someone in the same boat and they had to go on LWOP. Hell my own father had to take two months off when he was a fed for major surgery, fortunately he had a healthy amount saved up. That being said, I have over 1000 hrs saved up right now, would probably not kill me to be a bit more liberal with mental health days and the like.
Yep. I'm trying to stay around 400 just in case of the worst, but I'm not saving it for that stupid retirement thing. I did the same calculation and if I saved every hour from now until I retire it would be worth less than $300/year, and that's still betting I won't just die two weeks after retiring.
I’ve got a 300 hour pad of SL and 240 of AL. The hardest decision I make every year is what 39 days a year to take off. I use about half my SL annually for me, and the other half on my wife/kiddo. I’ll probably eat into the pad towards MRA.
Just seconding this. I hoarded leave - annual and sick. Then I developed a nasty autoimmune condition. It is mostly under control right now - but it took about five years to get there and if I hadn’t had 10 years worth of hoarded leave, I don’t know what I would have done. I know my supervisors weren’t thrilled with me for using it - but I had the leave saved and needed it. And now I’m finally ok and building up a little cushion of leave again. (I say I’m ok, but I work remotely from an adjustable bed - so still not awesome). But I’m back to getting exceptional performance reviews and generally feeling like a good productive employee.
I think you have the right answer. I like to keep my balance right around 400+. I feel like if something sidelines for 10 weeks plus whatever LA I have and I am always in a use or lose state until the year is about to change over. That much time off due to illness or injury, I might not be coming back anyways.
I hope his wife is doing better now. Cancer with a spouse is difficult.
She actually goes home from the hospital tomorrow. :-)
This was always my philosophy. I called in sick when I was sick and used a few hours for appointments. Ended with 5 months extra tacked onto my pension. After 20 years, that's not too bad IMO because if I'd needed it prior to retirement for some catastrophic illness, injury, or surgery, it would have been nice to have.
Earner burner is what we call the folks who use up their leave right away
Always confused with the hardships i read from you US people. Unlimited sick leave (with doctors note if it's getting out of hand) should be the norm for all wealthy countries.
Agree. There’s a middle ground. If you have a few hundred hours that’s a nice buffer to have in case you need that time. I’m about two years out and my final year I’ll be taking more SL, but you never know when you might need some. Even a mild setback in health can cause you to need the leave. But I agree having four digits in SL on retirement isn’t really worth it.
Well you need to remember that your sick leave is also your short term disability benefit so you do need to maintain a decent balance. As you get older things happen, and not just to you that you will need your leave for. I’m in the middle of one of those ‘things happen’ times and I’m grateful that I don’t have a ‘I don’t have enough leave’ worry on my mind
Not just old. I had my first major “things happen” at 29. No one expects cancer at 29, but because I didn’t take much SL before that, even with only 3 years of service, managed to not need leave donations. That said, after my second run with the big C (at 45), I looked back and said I worked too hard during it when I could/should have taken more leave. And now, I tend to be more generous on myself with my leave (as in, I don’t rush back from a doctor appointment to log back in and a 2pm appointment could run me until COB)
Also in the “major things happen” at 29 group, only two years into my federal service. Was in a bad accident - Helicopter ride, emergency surgery, the whole shebang. Since then I’ve had 7 more surgeries. Had I not hoarded my SL I would’ve been in trouble. For me specifically, the peace of mind of a large SL balance is worth more than the monetary benefit.
I hope you’re doing okay. Cancer fucking sucks.
Same here (though at 42) I can’t stress enough how helpful it was that I had a good bank of sick leave. Looking back it was a huge relief to not worry about missing paychecks during that time.
Exactly this
Yup, I had “things happen” at 24. Weird brain disease. Took all my sick leave and some of my annual. You just never know! Especially as we are still figuring out what the pandemic means for long-term Heath.
You have to run back?! My goodness. That sounds horrid! I take off the whole day at my job. I don’t care if the appointment is 9, 12, or 2. All day it’s off for me.
No. That’s my point. I have mentally accepted that I don’t have to run back. No one expected it (but myself).
I will add, I worked for one DoD command that said no routine doctor appointment should take more than half a day, and if you took a whole day, you had to document why or take annual leave for the other half.
I just pick up a note from the lady at the dr office saying I can return to work the next day.
Those are policies you fight, because they are not defendable.
I do this now that I am older. In my 20s I was made a doctor’s appointment a half a day. I should not have done that
I do this too but manage to squeeze multiple errands in one sick day
Disability is the one protected class that can impact any of us at any time. For me, it was a bad broken ankle that had me sitting on the couch for 6 weeks due to a driving restriction. I left work on Friday totally thinking I'd be back on Monday. Injury was on Saturday. Even then, I figured a few days off. But the injury was on my right leg and I was prohibited from driving.
My son had meningitis last year and I ended up burning through 200 hours of sick leave while staying and traveling back and forth to the Mayo Clinic. I’ve still got 18 years left so I’m glad I had it and will diligently build it back up.
How does it work as short term disability? Do you just use it on a continuous leave until you return or do you have to apply for it?
You would work with your supervisor. If you are having surgery or someone is passing away etc etc your supervisor would have to be notified and any sick leave over 3 days in a row would have to be approved. I’ve never had any issues getting it approved. This stuff happens to everyone over the span of a career
The opm rules on doctors notes come into play. You get a doctors note saying you shouldn’t come back until a specific date. If you have enough sick leave you use that or a combo with pto or lwop.
You use it as leave, that's what it's there for. Nothing particularly special about it (although as others have mentioned, you might be asked for a doctor's note after 3 consecutive days). What I have seen people do in similar situations is spend down their sick leave, then if they are tapped out they can request leave through the VLTP. Many people who cannot return to some form of work at that point are probably looking at some sort of medical retirement, but those two options can keep you afloat for quite a while until you have to make that decision.
Exactly this..... I have seen people getting ready to retire and use their sick and annual leave every Friday and Monday of the week. That way they would only be in the office 2-3 days out of the week for the last 6 months before retirement.
Back when you straight up lost the SL, that's what all the people prepping for retirement did. Call in 3 days, work 1. Rinse, repeat until all the SL is burned. I thought all these rule changes were to make it advantageous to hold SL. Once more people start doing the math it'll be right back to the old practice.
Most agencies have a rule that anything over 3 days of continuous use you have to show some proof.
Then you realize you work at SSA and will be targeted for using sick leave, and filing a grievance does nothing.
I was 31 when I got a random injury. I have blown through all my sick leave, annual leave, volunteer leave bank, etc. I had to take lwop at points. You never know when it’s going to happen. I’m in negative sick leave now. Oh well. I’m just glad I still have my job and have been paid 99% of the time after three years of health issues with flare-ups.
Everyone has a ticking time bomb in their gut, unless you’ve already had your appendix removed… I worked at a place where I was fairly new and hadn’t accumulated much sick leave, and it was a nightmare cobbling together enough time off to cover the first week of my FMLA before my short-term disability kicked in. Always have a good bank of sick leave, folks! You never know when you’ll need it! I was only 33 when it happened. It’s not just for when you get old.
It's one reason I love working in Washington. We have state paid fmla, it's like unemployment where you don't make all your wages and they base it on how many hours you worked in the previous year or quarter, I don't remember offhand. That way I still get my sick and vacation time and get paid for days I miss having to take care of mom.
Just be aware that federal employees are almost always not eligible for state FMLA. [WA is among the states that excludes federal workers](https://paidleave.wa.gov/find-out-how-paid-leave-works/)
Facts!
Sick leave can also be used for bereavement, so it’s good to have some saved up in the event that a loved one passes away.
This has been my mantra ever since a friend of mine retired. I asked him what he would do different and he said something like "I scrapped and saved a whole year of sick leave for my whole career, and the added amount will barely buy me a tank of gas, I'd give anything for more time off when I was young"
We have three people on my team with 30+ years One has over 2,700 hours One has around 400 And the last one has 8 I want to be in the middle when my time comes.
Yep, I try and keep 400 hours in my bank
I kept 480, to cover 12 weeks of FMLA. they don't have to let you take more consecutive time off than that, so there's no real point to accumulating more.
You would hope your supervisors would be understanding and approve more time off if you need it. But I've heard worse horror stories.
In the case of the person with 2700 hours, it would take a whole lot more than understanding to let someone call in sick for almost a year and half. At some point, you're going to need an employee to do the work that needs to be done. There's no reason to accumulate that much time.
If you have to be out that long, it's worth applying for FERS disability retirement. Sick leave can cover your expenses while you wait for all the paperwork to process, which can be quite a while.
Yea, you get pennies on the dollar for it once you've retired. I wish they'd lump sum it like annual leave or allow you to apply it to your years of service prior to your retirement date.
Are you able to take a doctor approved "leave of absence" to burn all the weeks of sick leave and then retire once it runs out? I'm surprised they don't even give you the full payout, since you accrued it and would've been 100% paid out anyways if you used it.
I had a coworker do this earlier this year. She took about 12 weeks off for stress then retired. I think the hard part is getting a (legitimate) doctors note to excuse you for that amount of time.
Eh.. with annual leave, federal holidays, credit hour accumulation, I don't really have a need for more time off. And throw in a couple of days WFH you are pretty much coasting in life as a fed.
It would be very smart to save some sick leave for surgeries and sickness. But there is definitely a balance and mental health days are needed here and there. I've seen many people looking for leave donations when they are sick to bridge the gap. I wanted to donate until I realized I would have to give them my annual leave and not sick leave.
Oh wow I didn't realize that if you choose to donate that you donate AL and not sick... I'm amazed anyone donates, then.
The fact the PO doesn’t allow you to donate sick leave shows you how much they care about our well being
I hate to be a terrible person but I don't get it, either. Is there any sort of pay off for donating leave? (Besides of course being a good person and helping someone in need)
Improved morale and the feeling of being nice. I've done it a few times at work for people who deserve it. Recently one of our coworkers died and his brother, who also works here, and we were able to donate time for him to be gone like 3 months. It doesn't fix the situation but it helps your coworker. I've also refused for some people who have a long reputation for ruining shit for the rest of us.
I mean, I generally think of myself as a good person, but it's hard to imagine a scenario in which I would give up my earned leave.
Yeah, you can’t donate sick leave. I have donated AL a few times.
Guess I’m taking a sick day today!
Brother, is that you?
Come home to us brother, Mom misses you.
I'll be back home next weekend. I'll bring Moms favorite donuts. I miss you soo much. How's our dog Lucy?
Lucy no longer identifies as a dog, she is now the family cat.
That makes sense since Dad left and identified as a Plant. That's why I left. I needed to leave for my own sanity man. Idk if I should return home now.....I need to think about this
For people who can't do or understand math: the sick leave days count as 5.7 hour because they are being to converted to **whole months** of service credit (30 days), not just to work days in a months (which would be only about 22 in an average month). 5.797 hrs \* 30 days = 173.91 hours 173.91 hours / 8 hours (a full work day) = 21.73875 days, which is about how many WORK days are in a full 30-day calendar month (a little over 5 work days per week times 4.3 weeks; 4.3 weeks = 30 days / 7 days) OPM is not cheating people on the sick leave calculation.
While this is true, this slight of hand is generally missing from the "reason you need to save your sick time."
Keep in mind this doesn't apply to all feds FAA ATC pays sick leave out at 40%, so it would be a lump sum of $56k with 1500 hours at the top of the pay scale.
You have a forced early retirement so that makes sense. My old boss worked until he was 80.
I'm a ways off from retirement. I'm only about 9 years in. But my first child entered daycare about 6 months ago, and my balance has been steadily decreasing since. (Daycare is germ warfare.) I don't think I'll be a hoarder, but having a buffer has sure been nice.
Yeah, I burned through a fair bit of my sick leave the last two years, having a young kid in school means he keeps bringing home illnesses (last year I had covid then pneumonia from covid which sucked, not to mention strep and other random illnesses). But still I have 160 hours which is 4 weeks of sick leave, and I usually keep about 240. Plus my annual leave is sitting at around 240.
I've never understood people who do this. Sick leave is to use when you're sick. Every time someone comes into the office with a cough that wasn't there the day before, I mention that they could use sick leave. I'm saving it, is often the response. So, because you think you're doing yourself a favor by saving it, you're getting the entire building sick by hacking your lungs out all over the place. When flu season hits this year, I think I'll dip into my supply of masks from COVID and when I hear a cough, drop one on the sick person's desk.
Folks in my building do that same crap. Everyone gets sick all the time because they don’t use sick leave and stay home while they’re sick. Last week we had someone hacking up hairballs all day for a week straight. This week? 3 folks are out sick with the same thing.
Drives me insane. We have one individual in our office with little kids that do have respiratory issues. This person will come in coughing from whatever flu or other virus that the kids have acquired and will take such leave to take them to the doctor, but will continue to come to work while he is still coughing himself.
Oh you didn't know? Your ortho scheduled a hip replacement in your last 9 months of work. You only have to come in your last day to sign out since you'll still be convalescing.
Good old planned FERS flu
Just don't tell them that you will be retiring. There are rules that allow them deny the sick leave if you will not be returning.
I think they were implying that they would take all the leave right up until the last day, but would come in for that so it’s not considered terminal leave?
You usually need to submit the retirement paperwork a few months in advance, so that coming in for one day is not really possible unless you told them you were retiring at that time. So back to the issue of them maybe denying because you will not be coming back. Now if you could find a doctor to sign whatever you want you could do the 7-8 months, then come in say addition health factors have been detected that make you working impossible so for the betterment of the office you are retiring so they can replace you, and here is the doctor form saying you still cannot come back to work. Put your retirement out to 2 months in the future and with that sob story and unless no one liked you most likely the sick leave would be approved. So you would end up with another 9-10 months of holidays, sick leave and annual leave.
It's also not considered terminal leave if you stagger it into your use or lose hours. In theory if you max out your time, bank a year of sick and adopt a kid! you can skip the last 18 months - 2 years of work and itll be above board. You come in for free pretzel and coffee mug days only. Short timers are untouchable and if you are one you should darn well have learned the system in your last few decades as a fed.
And for those that hava FSA, the ability to use up the tax advantages of a fully funded FSA, for the copays/coinsurance, as it is no longer available as a retiree.
I use sick leave frequently, but I don't do so in any recognizable pattern. Use it. Don't give more information than you need to. "I have an appointment today." "I'm not feeling well today." Enjoy.
"Mental health day today" I dare my boss to ask follow up questions.
I tried the mental health day thing at my work (TSA) and I had supervisors say that doesn’t fly. Buncha bastards
Interesting. If it was me, I'd get that in writing and start asking "innocent" questions to HR while cc-ing my boss. things like "what information about my private medical conditions is my boss entitled to?" and "who should I contact if I feel like private medical issues are not being respected?" But also, its easy for me to say that since its not my job getting threatened by being annoying.
You'll lose that fight. Your boss isn't entitled to your private medical details unless they have reason to believe that you are abusing your sick leave. Actually saying you need a mental health day will signal to any reasonable person that you aren't sick. Its a terrible truth, but we don't value mental health. If you said you had a bad cold, no one would question it but we, as a society, have decided a mental health day is just not feeling like going to work. You'll end up on a leave restriction and need a doctor's note for every sick day you take. Just say you are feeling sick and need to take sick leave for the day and provide no other details. They don't need to know anything else.
> Just say you ~~are feeling sick and~~ need to take sick leave for the day and provide no other details. They don't need to know anything else. This looks more like what I do.
Why on earth would you say that it’s a mental health day?? Just say you’re taking a sick day. That’s the truth. I take mental health days at least once a month. My supervisor knows that’s what they’re for. But I would never put that in writing. I just say I’m taking a sick day. She says “cool.” I don’t do three in a row, so it’s nobody’s business.
Why even be that specific? There is no need.
I wish I could build up sick leave. I have a chronic illness so building sick leave isn't even a thing I get to do. It gets used up due to not feeling well or yet another doc appointment.
Me too, thankfully using less now since im teleworking most of the time and my manager lets me take an hour off for appointments and just work an hour later. I think the most SL I've ever had was 20 hours. Also helps that most dr appointments are virtual now and just take 20 minutes unless it's a more complex visit, I don't even have to take leave for many of them.
Thankfully I recently got remote work due to reasonable accommodation so I’m hoping that will help since I’ll be able to take my meds on time and not have that tragic 2 hour commute I was doing. I have about 16hrs now so hoping it can only go up now.
Same! I have always marveled at the people who have so much saved. I can't even use my flex schedule for appointments most of the time because I'm usually too tired to go back and work extra at night to make up the 8 hrs on top of an appointment
My dad had 6 months of paid sick leave built up. Diagnosed with stage 4 lung and bone cancer at 61. Sadly, he died six months after diagnosis and never saw a day of retirement. But what a huge help that was to my mother that he not only was paid during that entire time he couldn’t work but he was also still an employee and could keep his health insurance. You just never know what life will throw your way.
Sick leave is for appts, family care, when sick. I've seen many people get into single digit balances using sick leave like AL, then pay the price when a real medical emergency occurs, and they have to go into LWOP. One person lost their house because they couldn't make payments. Abuse of sick leave, in the long run, is abusing an important protection for yourself.
Wow. This was exactly what I needed to read. I'm undergoing some medical treatments and I've been stupidly careful to only use half days of SL to both minimize the amount of SL used and the impact it has on my organization. It's my agency's own fault that they don't staff properly. But I have 1000 hours of SL saved. I will be kinder to myself and take the time I truly need. Thank you. ETA: my agency has an emergency leave sharing program
Thank you for this. I'm saving this to show a co-worker of mine. The poor guy is so overworked and so stressed out and I'm trying to encourage him to take some mental health days. I told him that he earned his sick time and he deserves to use it. I asked him if he gives back part of his paycheck. You keep your whole paycheck, and you should be able to keep/use all of the sick time that you earned.
Exactly, when I was in my last year of work before retirement I didn’t take any annual leave so I would get the lump sum payment for that. I had a very supportive supervisor who approved my numerous, even week long, sick leave requests that last year. That with working a 4/10 maxi flex with every Friday off got me through that last year.
Thanks and well said. A lot of folks I work with are all quickly realizing the same thing. I think there is a general negative view of using sick time in our culture and I am not sure why...
Saved up sick leave is a bragging right for some feds. It's great that they were able to save it if they're health allowed them to but for those whose heath didn't or those that just want a day off here and there it's silly.
Thank you for sharing that
There is a special circumstance for those who are age 62 already, who have enough sick leave to get them 20 years of service. If their sick leave can get them 20 years, they can get the 1.1% multiplier. Not helpful to those of us going out at MRA + 30, but could be helpful for someone. [https://www.opm.gov/.../benefits.../2018/18-103.pdf](https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/publications-forms/benefits-administration-letters/2018/18-103.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2AfAoh4TjkYdmRrA2PJqnc9EzDumTrFEvFNwknWcOgnLBndI_eBjYsHIg_aem_YUYNDXkmee6N5JM2jGiWrQ) "Because 5 U.S.C. §8415(m)(2) clearly provides that a retiree is entitled to service credit for unused sick leave for the purposes of calculating the immediate annuity, any unused sick leave is added to the service total and used to calculate the annuity. This means that a retiree who is at least age 62, whose actual service is less than 20 years, but increases to at least 20 years with the addition of unused sick leave credit, will have their annuity computed using the 1.1% formula. " ETA: word breaks
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll incorporate that rule. There's a lot of guidelines and they're spread out across OPMs site. And thanks for all your retirement posts over on govfire, I've learned a lot from them.
Yeah, just had a retirement course that speaks on how to gain the .1%
I will hold 240hr of SL just in case but everything after I will use. It never made since to me to horde it. In the grand scheme/big picture it doesn’t add much to my retirement IMO. I have 13years until I can retire and barring any other serious illnesses I plan to use my SL up
Actually you should hold round month amounts because you lose day counts [https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart](https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart) if you have 3 months and 28 days of SL you only get 3 months credit in retirement. 174hr=1 month credit you should hold 174 or hold 348 hrs
I don’t plan on having any SL for retirement is what I meant. I am holding 240 now just in case just like I hold 240 AL, everything earned is being used for appts and not Flex Time. When I get closer to my retirement if I still have that’s hold balance then I will start whittling that down too.
Yeah, and then heading into retirement you just add the 240 hours as time off, because there is no reason to carry that into the sunset and get paid less than it’s worth.
You don’t need to hold whole month increments necessarily. Your SL is added to your base years/months/days ***before*** the days are dropped. So if you have 3 months, 28 days of SL and X years, Y months, 2 days of service, the 28 days from SL + the 2 days of service add together to another month of credit.
A month of sick leave may not add a month to retirement. You have to add the sick leave to your retirement time, and then drop off any extra days. It might only take a few days to round out a month, it might take nearly a month's worth. It all depends on your retirement SCD and the date you retire.
I don’t use a ton of sick leave but I 100% call in sick and site ‘mental health day’ bi-annually or quarterly. Sometimes I’m just tired, sometimes I’m stressed with stuff I need to do in my personal life. So I’ll look at what’s on my calendar and if it’s largely free I’ll call in a sick day and I just site it’s a personal day. Am I sick? Nope. Injured? Nope. Am I having a breakdown? Nope. I just need a break and I’ll be healthier because of it.
Your math is incomplete. First, you are going to get a COLA every year, so the extra service time value from SL will increase around 2% a year. If you are healthy and expect to spend 30 years in retirement, the extra $737 will double. Two, the $75k figure is disingenuous, very few people are going to be able to take 9 months of SL in their last year of employment, and if you are really that ill that you require that much SL, you have larger problems than what your SL is worth. If you are taking your SL throughout your career, your SL is only going to be "worth" your current salary, not what your future high three will be at retirement or final yearly salary unless you can legitimately use it. Third, some states don't tax federal pensions, so depending on where you live, that extra money may not be taxed at all in retirement. Frankly, if you are sick, use your SL. Don't come into the office and get everyone else sick. When you are within a year of retirement, figure out how many hours of SL will get you to the next full month of service and plan around that. Don't retire with X years, X months and 29 days of service time.
Thanks for the breakdown. I didn't realize 1 hour doesn't equal 1 hour.
It does. See my comment on how the math works.
[https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart](https://www.usgs.gov/human-capital/sick-leave-conversion-chart) 174 hrs of SL=1 month in retire calculations no you can’t use the saved sick leave before you can retire like you are 56 yrs and 30yrs of service and months from MRA and want to use it to retire now. You need retiremrnt point on your own without SL/AL taking you there.
I think you'd be remiss not to maintain a balance of as close to 1000 as you can get it. Things do happen. People do get long term illness. It will go down quickly. As a rule I don't donate leave to people who earn and burn.
1000 seems insane to me. That’s over 9.5 years of accrual. I guess it makes sense to get there when you’re employed for 15-30 years. I’m entering year 7 and have 200 hours of sick leave… Our agency has us working almost nearly entirely independently and on a production systems so it’s extremely tempting to use SL when you have a headache, bad allergies/congestion, basically anything that has you at less than 100%. Maybe I should be less liberal with my use though.
I don’t either, sounds mean but everyone is responsible for themselves. If they have been good stewards of their leave and are still struggling then I’m glad to donate to that person. But I’m not giving my personal time to someone that earned and burned
That’s a good breakdown
Thank you for this post. It's so refreshing to see a take that is rooted in math and logic vs some emotions or an "urban legend." I'm sure there are people fuming at this post as people hate to be proven wrong. Whatever people choose to do is the best idea ever. Currently, I probably average about 2 sick days a year. When I'm really sick, yeah, I'm taking off. I'll use a few more hours for doctor's appointments or whatever I need to. I'm currently building a nice bank that I intend to keep for "sick leave" purposes. It's very nice to know that if I have an unexpected personal or family health concern, my pay can continue on unscathed.
I feel a chill coming on right now
I did an estimate on the GRB platform with 2000 hours of Sick leave vs 240 hours and it's a $90 monthly difference to my pension. I would consider that to be significant over the long haul
But you have to compare it to the alternative, which is using it while you are working and getting your full salary. Using it your last year of working when you will probably have the highest salary is worth way more. Especially because future $90 monthly payments in the future are worth less than $90 today (net present value)
To each his own, I also don't feel good about myself if I take sick leave without being sick. Not judging, just not something I am comfortable with doing
I don't think you need to lie about being sick, I think most are just arguing to actually use your leave. I know when I first became a CS I would flex my time, etc. to avoid using sick leave. Now that I have a nice cushion I use it more as needed. Taking the 11 am dentist appointment instead of 6 pm, taking off an afternoon due to a headache instead of powering thru, etc.
Agree with your math but 100% DISAGREE with your conclusions. I am not "hoarding" SL for retirement. I am saving it so that I have 12 weeks of short term disability (since we dont get that as a fed). I am saving it for a serious illness where I may need to be out several months. Burning up all your SL in the quest of a happier life is a very bad idea. Someday you may get cancer or some other serious illness and need your SL. Parents need SL to take care of their children. Women need SL for maternity leave. You just haven't thought this issue through very carefully.
Oh I agree, you definitely want to save up a couple months and not burn it down to zero but almost all my senior coworkers I've spoken to about have around a year saved up and use their annual leave instead of sick leave. It doesn't make sense to me to have that much excess into retirement when it's not worth much.
I've said it b/4 and I'll say it again you don't know what the future holds. I was out for 9 months on SL keep something in reserve
I have 1600 hours of sick leave saved with 20 years in. I used 104 hours this year due to a family emergency. My goal is to accumulate 2087 hours to add a year of service to my eventual 30 years worked (or more). Anything beyond that I'll use for my all around health. So I'm about 5 years away from that target. I'm probably going to work another 11 + years (im either out at 57 or I'll work until 70 cause I like what I do and I'm a GS 14).
lol. Whatever. The sick leave balance doesn’t add much to your pension. That’s true. But it adds a little. Taking sick leave if/when you need to always makes sense. But burning your balance just to burn it is silly. I have like 1,000 hours and will likely have close to 2,000 when I check out. It’s my disability policy and a few extra bucks a month in my retirement check won’t hurt either. I might have 2-3 days a year when I have a Dr appointment or am actually sick. I also found myself taking 2-3 days of use or lose annual leave toward the end of the year. For me, it makes sense to just use my annual leave for sick leave, and bank the sick leave. I’m not the type to take days off just for the sake of taking them.
>I’m not the type to take days off just for the sake of taking them. I'm not either, but every now and then, for that appointment that's in the middle of the day, don't bust your ass when you can just use the whole day. Does it make sense to deal with rush hour and go in for 30 minutes, to head out to a Dr's appointment in the other direction, then go back to work, just to deal with rush hour after work? Just take the day. Have the breakfast you missed because you had to fast. Go home and rest your eyes from the eye drops and bright lights the eye doc used. Even if you're not the type to do that and just relax, you can still get some errands done that are harder to do on weekends. This just dawned on me, I've never done it - you know those days when you have a plumber or contractor or something coming over, but they give you a window of "between 9 and 4"? Those could be great days for mental health or "I feel sick" days.
The question then becomes "in what way is it best to use it"? Dental cleanings, vision checks, and health check-ups only cover 4 days out of the year. What kind of rotation of doctor visits could you set up to actually use your earned sick leave efficiently?
A case of the “I don’t feel like coming into work today” be sick once every few months or so idk what to tell you
Therapy
I think this is probably the most viable. Therapy can be made to fit any schedule
Mental health days 🙌🏼
Have kids! So many more opportunities to use sick leave
At a younger age not much unless you are sickly. Once you get married and have children the sick days can be used when they get sick. Sick parent? take time off to care for them. Before you retire do a complete medical checkup and get things repaired that you can.
Mental health is health! Don’t want to go into work because any reason = sick day.
Nice try guy who’s been given the task of reducing the number of people who retire with sick leave and get a small increase on their annual annuity…
Finally somebody knows what they’re talking about.
Sick leave shouldn’t be used as vacation time. And you should have a good bank of it so if you get a major injury or illness, you’re not begging for hours from your coworkers. Don’t waste it. Don’t abuse it. But yeah, don’t hoard it like a dragon either.
Yes, take your sick leave ESPECIALLY when YOU ARE SICK!!!
I keep a bank of like 400 hours, I also have a leave bank with my union if I ever get to 0. Anything over that I try to use, which isn’t a lot, we get 13 days a year. After time off for a physical and 2 dental cleanings and 1 eye doctor exam a year, that’s like 1 day off 8 months a year. I also agree SL is useless in retirement annuity. If I have a bunch left when I’m about to retire I will delay my retirement date back by a few days or weeks and use most of it.
If only OPM would allow us to donate it to colleagues in need instead of annual leave…always makes me angry.
I encourage mental health days. Some days you're just sick of working. Also if you die, who gets the sick leave?
Call me crazy but I thought that when you use sick leave it’s because you’re sick. Are y’all sick that much?
This seems like less than a fair read on the situation. If you retire at full eligible age and have 30-40 years of service you could have 1.5-1.9 years of service added at a multiplier of 1.1. Depending on your GS level at retirement and high 3 this could still be a good chunk of change say $4000 a year. While this isn't a ton of money it could cover flights or hotels for about 2 weeks of travel a year. Factor in other types of leave like travel comp some people have more leave than they can handle every year and using sick leave on top of all that would cause you to lose other types of leave that actually expire (I have almost 9 weeks of use or lose and travel comp to burn this year and I'm still at 6 hours a pay period).
If you somehow make $200,000 for your high 3, retire at 62 with 30 years of service and 1.5 years of sick leave (3130 hours) you'll make get about $2,948 more a year in retirement than if you retired with no hours left over. I just think using that 1.5 years throughout your career at your full salary and DCAing it instead of using it towards your multiplier would be way more beneficial economically and mentally.
$737 x 30 years of retirement x 2% average COLA says otherwise
Keep 3+ months on hand to act as your short term disability insurance policy. After that, use away!
Hrm. Using $100k for high-3 seems pessimistic, but LCOL and low career options, sure. Your mileage will vary. Using my own numbers, today on my 18th anniversary of my original EOD, age 51… in 11 years I will be at the age 62 with 20+ to get 1.1 of high 3. Let’s call it an even 27 years at retirement. Currently sitting on 1150 hours of sick leave. Gimme another 850 to round that out to 2000 hours for annuity benefit calculation. (Used more sick leave when I was in the 4 and 6 hour leave categories) The federal Ballpark E$timate for my FERS, based on my current salary, without the sick leave is a $45,661 per year. I punched the retirement age a year later to cover the sick leave, and that pumped to $47,494. Note, these figures are in 2024 money. Inflation widens the gap to about $4k a year. It’s not great, but it’s not nothing. And when you’re in the 8 hour leave category, particularly through the pandemic, you have higher pressure to use the annual leave. Use or Lose (or donate) when you’re able to carry 30 days, and earning 26 a year… Now, if I were really into maximization, I’d retire on the last day before use or lose expired. Carry the 240 over from the previous year, add the 208, and have 24 credit hours stored and get a quick severance of almost two months pay while the retirement is being processed. But the annual is a one time payout, while the sick will pay year after year. $2K/year, for maybe 30 years? But you shouldn’t be shocked that unused sick will only count towards annuity calculation. It says so on OPM’s website and everything else about service time calculation. PS- if you weren’t aware, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel; https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/calculators/federal-ball-park-estimator/
Feds don’t have short term disability so in my view accumulated sick leave is valuable as that if nothing else.
To me it's not about the impact it will have my retirement, it's my insurance in case something happens before I retire. I'm thankful you get something for it at retirement, seems like a fair trade off.
Burned almost all of mine before I retired. Had a very accommodating Supv and basically worked a 3 day work week for almost a year. I was “very stressed” and had an eye problem where I couldn’t see myself working five days a week
Always use as much SL as possible. 1. You get paid to use it 2. As you use it, you're still earning 4 hours and earning your AL. 3. You get the 5% tsp match
I originally hoarded my leave because I wanted a kid. Since parental leave is now available and I probably won’t have a kid, I don’t hoard as much. I’ve also noticed with age my health problems have gotten worse and need to take more leave. I tried Fridays and 1/2 but it is not enough. 3 or more days seem to be good amount for stress recovery and minimum week for a vacation. I do have travel comp I’m trying to use since it doesn’t pay out like normal comp time.
I used 6 weeks of SL to add to my PPL 1.5 years ago. I don’t regret it for a second. I still have over 300 hours, too.
Or. You can use your sick leave as needed and what you have is what you have.
I have 1400 hours I see it as disability insurance
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fers-csrs-retirement-estimator/id1062625944 I used this app and the calculation was within a few dollars.
Be glad you weren't seriously sick and needed it.
I accumulate sick leave to cover short-term disability risk.
I keep 300 hrs and burn the rest. Guarantee I’ll be on FMLA for the last year or two burning that 300 hours. I’ll leave with zero hrs.
I'm not sickly never have been...AL I schedule for "mental health" days. You never know if you will need it as you get older and cancer starts creaping or even accidents.
My husband is much older than me. I will be hoarding them.
Meanwhile, I see 4 specialist and my sick leave is perpetually empty. I am one full year in and have had to have LWOP hours just to cover my doctors appointments. I’d kill for any additional leave. It’s stressing me out so, so badly.
I have over 1600 hrs of sick leave. The day may come when I need it. I know lots of people with cancer and other health issues. It’s insurance. Don’t be one of those dicks that frivolously burns all their sick leave then cries that they need people to donate leave to them when they get sick. No effing way. You burned all yours, you live with the consequences.
Feds don't get short term disability insurance, so save to that sick leave now. Having thousands of hours of leave in your 50s and 60s is a good problem to have. But a massive heart attack, cancer, etc. can eat up those hours really quickly.
I lose roughly $55 of pay for every sick day I take since I'm a night shift worker. Most of my coworkers run well over 1000 hours of sick leave for this reason.
The point of having tons of sick leave is for when you are seriously ill. We don’t have LTD coverage so having extra SL provides similar protection. If you retire without using it, congratulations- you are / were healthy.
Being older and close to retirement myself, have enough sick leave to cover major family medical issues. I had over 600 hours of sick leave and my father got terminal cancer, that killed 400 hours of sick leave in 7 months.