Expert's View

Ah, sick leave, a never ending subject of fascination, especially among those of you who are approaching retirement. If you are covered by CSRS, you want to save as much as possible because you can apply it toward your annuity. If you are covered by FERS, you want to burn it off because you can’t. And the rest of you are busy poking around to discover how many things you can use sick leave for.

If you are a full-time employee, you earn 4 hours of sick leave for every biweekly pay period you work. If you are a part-timer, you earn 1 hour for every 20 hours you are in a pay status. Unlike annual leave, there is no limit on the amount of sick leave you can accumulate.

Once upon a time, you could only use sick leave for personal medical needs. In other words, when – using officialese – you were: incapacitated for the performance of duties by physical or mental illness, injury, pregnancy, or childbirth; receiving medical, dental, or optical examination or treatment; or would, as determined by the health authorities having jurisdiction or by a health care provider, jeopardize the health of others by his or her presence on the job because of exposure to a communicable disease.

My, how times have changed. These days you can also use it for purposes related to the adoption of a child. Those purposes include appointments with adoption agencies, social workers and attorneys, related court proceedings, and necessary travel. It may also be used if you are required to take off from work to care for the adopted child as a part of the adoption process. On the other hand, you can’t use sick leave if you voluntarily choose to take off work to care for an adopted child.

In addition, most full-time employees can use up to 104 hours (13 workdays) of sick leave each leave year to take care of a family member whose medical needs are the same as those listed above. (Part-timers can use proportionately less.) Further, you can use it to make needed arrangements because of the death of a family member or to attend a family member’s funeral.

At your agency’s discretion, you may be advanced up to 30 days of sick leave for a medical emergency or adoption-related purposes, and 104 hours of sick leave each leave year (or a proportional amount if you are a part-time worker) for family care or bereavement purposes.