THANKS, DIRECTOR SHRIVER

While he would have much preferred a career as a star quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles,  all us feds are far better with him scoring big changes in the human resources arena.  Rob Shriver has been acting director of OPM for only a few months now.  But, last week he finalized a regulatory change that will now permit federal employees temporarily detailed to perform higher graded work for as long as they are in the job.  All they need do is meet the minimum qualifications of the job. (More on this later) 

For decades OPM has insisted that no matter how long you do higher graded work you could only be paid for 120 days.  After that, even if you were forced to do the higher graded work in violation of law or regulation, you were the one that paid the penalty.  If you refused to do the higher graded work without the extra pay, you could be fired. Absolutely nothing would happen to the manager who continued to exploit you. We wrote about this unethical abuse on  July 29, 2022 in a post entitled, “Money For Higher Graded Work.”  and seven days later the first union to act on our idea made an official request for OPM for a reg change.

Now the 120-day cap on your pay is gone and those of you who are doing the work of higher-graded co-workers who have been on long-term leave, promoted without their job being back-filled, or retired, there is one fewer injustice in life.  Thanks, Director.  Here’s hoping you get the Director job permanently.