OPM: the probation period “provides an opportunity for supervisors to address problems expeditiously, with minimum burden to the agency. Image: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has said it will soon send out guidance encouraging agencies to remind supervisors when subordinates are nearing the end of their probationary periods, although they will not be required to do so. That statement was in a November 10 Federal Register notice finalizing the repeal of rules OPM had issued in late 2020 under Trump administration orders.
The 2020 rules had included a requirement that supervisors get such notice three months and one month ahead of the end of an employee’s probationary period, which usually is one year. The OPM has now erased that requirement along with numerous other rules it had issued under the Trump orders, which President Biden revoked on taking office and which were then suspended pending new rule-making procedures to remove them.
In issuing those new final rules, OPM noted that management associations had argued for keeping the requirement by pointing to reports from MSPB finding that supervisors sometimes overlook the end of such periods, during which recently hired employees can be fired without the appeal rights that accrue on completing probation.
OPM said it agreed that the probation period “provides an opportunity for supervisors to address problems expeditiously, with minimum burden to the agency” in situations such as “demonstrated inability to perform the duties of the position, lack of cooperativeness, or other unacceptable conduct or poor performance.”
However, it said that while under the new rules agencies would not be required to send out such reminders, “As a matter of good administration, agencies should ensure that their practices make effective use of the probationary period . . . agencies would not be precluded from providing such notifications under their own authorities and are strongly encouraged to do so.”
OPM said it “plans to issue a Chief Human Capital Officers Memorandum to encourage agencies to adopt a notification process.”
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