As an informal practice, some individual offices might allow employees to end work early on Friday the 22rd as a lead-in to the three-day weekend. Image: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal employees commonly ask around this time of year whether they will get extra time off without charge to leave around the holidays. While there is no answer yet—if time off is granted, it typically isn’t announced until mid-December—the precedent is against it.
There typically is no grant of time off in addition to the holiday day when the 25th falls on a Monday and the Christmas Day holiday is observed on that day, or when the 25th falls on a Sunday, when the holiday day is on Monday. The same has been true when the 25th falls on a Saturday and the holiday day is the previous day.
Additional full days off most commonly are granted to create four-day weekends when the 25th falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday. When the 25th falls on a Friday or a Wednesday and the holiday is observed on that day, policies have varied, with half-days off granted for the previous day in some years and full days off in other years.
In any case, a grant of time off is at a President’s discretion and past practice is not binding. Also, even in years when extra time off was granted around Christmas, there was no such time off a week later for the New Year’s holiday.
As an informal practice, some individual offices might allow employees to end work early on Friday the 22rd as a lead-in to the three-day weekend.
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