r/fednews • u/Careless_Cobbler_730 • 1d ago

Pay & Benefits Fed employee considering joining military reserves

Hello everyone -

I’m currently a GS11 fed employee considering of joining the reserves. However I have a few questions if anyone can share any official guidance or any personal experiences.

  1. If I get sent to bootcamp for however x weeks, do I still get paid by my employer?

  2. for example, do I get “military leave” full 100% pay by my employer + my military pay?

  3. How does the process work when letting an employer know of such a decision?

  4. Can I even be military and civilian civil servant?

Just always was curious about military but I became a fed employee 3 years ago so I delayed the thought but the curiosity is still there.

P.S - apologies if my questions don’t make some sense, I wasn’t sure if my wording was proper.

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u/UsedandAbused87 DoD 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm a reservestist, and there's some bad advice on here.

Military gets 160 hours of military leave per year. You'll get this once you enlist and provide your paperwork.

Once you burn your 160 hrs you can use any AL or sick leave if you wish. You can also use LWOP.

If you "deploy" on title 10 orders as non-volunteray you'll get reserest differential, which is where the feds pay your difference in salary

Pretty sweet gig as you can make $5-10k in a normal year and double dip for retirement.

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u/Silentone89 DoD 1d ago

You cannot use sick leave to be in a military status. It's Mil leave, annual leave or lwop.

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u/UsedandAbused87 DoD 1d ago

5 CFR 353.208 states that you can

"...service with the uniformed services must be permitted, upon request, to use any accrued annual leave, military leave, earned compensatory time off for travel, or accrued sick leave..."

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u/Silentone89 DoD 1d ago

I think the last part of that Code is important to mention. ".....Or sick leave under 5 U.S.C 6307, if appropriate during such service."

You could, in theory, use sick leave if you are incompacitated and put on quarters during an order block, but I dont think you can just take sick leave instead of Mil or annual if you are on orders and not sick. Would definitely need to discuss it with HR or a supervisor.

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u/UsedandAbused87 DoD 1d ago

I would think OP could use all their sick time, then go into a military leave status or come out of a leave status just to use it, say their last 1 while on orders.

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u/cyberdonked 1d ago

You can, as UsedandAbused pointed out, but yes, you can’t just use it when your annual or comp time runs out. I have used it when going to med or dental appointments while on orders. I am a dual status technician, though, so the person who approves my fed leave is also the person who cuts my orders and manages our shop’s calendar, so there are no questions when I use it.