What to do when you return from a government shutdown
More than 40 days have passed since I last walked by this bus stop on the NOAA campus. After about six weeks, Congress finally appears poised to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. If you are a furloughed federal employee, here are ten tips on what to do when we return to the office:
Check your Electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) to see if any unexpected SF-50s, RIF notices, or other HR documents were added to your file while you were out.
Review your Leave and Earnings Statement when it becomes available to make sure your annual leave and sick leave accrued correctly after October 1st. You continue to accrue leave while in a furlough status. If you expect to have Use-or-Lose annual leave, make sure you submit your leave requests by your agency’s deadline.
Calculate how much total backpay you expect to receive so you can verify that amount against what gets deposited in your bank account. Remember that for most feds, the last paycheck covered only part of the pay period, so you’ll need to do some math here. If applicable, figure out how to pay back any unemployment benefits you received.
Reactivate your public transit subsidy if you paused it during the shutdown. For some agencies, the annual recertification deadline was in October. That means you may need to submit a new transit subsidy application to restart your transit benefits.
Federal Benefits Open Season began today. Re-enroll in FSAFEDS and update your health insurance selections before December 8th.
To ensure you don’t miss an upcoming appointment, add personal and medical appointments that you booked after October 1st to your work calendar, if that’s what you do to avoid double-booking yourself.
Reset your voicemail greeting if you changed it to a “lapse in appropriations” message. Deactivate your email auto-reply.
Remember to validate your timecard for the current pay period. Consult with your agency’s HR staff for instructions on how to code days when you were in furlough status.
Charge your work phone and laptop if they have been sitting in a drawer for weeks.
Gather the stuff you took home to bring it all back to the office. Remember to bring your PIV/CAC. Check the health of your plants before you reintroduce them to the office. Some of mine started growing fuzzy white mold on top of the soil, likely because my kitchen is more humid than my office.
The financial and emotional impacts of this shutdown were all too real for many people across the country. To all the feds who stuck it out: thank you for remaining dedicated to your agency’s mission. Let’s get back to work.