Post #4369470
2026-08-04 03:48 UTC
Replies (1)
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@Robotistry@fediscience.org 2026-08-04 10:49
@paul@oldfriends.live Retired federal employee here. The policy at my (non-Congress) organization was that you can accumulate sick leave for as long as you work (104 hours per year), you can borrow up to 240 hours of sick leave on the condition that you earn it back once you're better, you can take Leave Without Pay (LWOP) to cover time that isn't covered by leave as long as you honestly intend to return, and there's a lot of flexibility around reduced work hours on an as needed basis. The same patchwork of policies covers parental leave, leave for illness or injury, and short-term disability. Long-term disability is handled via retirement. I have personally taken weeks off for illness and earned all my borrowed sick leave back upon my return. I took advantage of many of these policies over as my long covid worsened and I was eventually forced into disability retirement. "Congress member" comes with a great deal of personal autonomy and a different set of rules, and elected offices generally require special policies. But they are arguably more important to the country's function than their staffers, and I would hope their leave and termination rules would be at least as stringent as those of their staffers. This employee handbook [1] for Democratic staffers outlines the policy - including a rule that anyone who doesn't show up for work for more than 3 days without contacting their supervisor is considered to have "abandoned" their job. [1] https://democrats-cha.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-cha.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Model%20Employee%20Handbook_118th%20Congres.pdf