December 7, 2007
Bush Gives Federal Employees Dec. 24 Off
Christmas Eve falls on a Monday this year, so President Bush has ordered the federal government to close on Dec. 24., giving most federal employees an extra long weekend for the holiday.
Many feds may be left out of the sweet deal, though: Bush's executive order states that department heads may order some employees to report to work on Dec. 24 "for reasons of national security or defense or other public need." Plus pretty much every postal worker will have to work that Monday, making them even more bitter than usual.
Since many people have already made travel plans for Christmas, the effect of the declaration for a lot of federal employees likely only means they won't have to use up a vacation day for a day they were not planning on working anyway.
Photo by flipperman75
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But how will Metro cut service for that day is the real question?
They haven't said yet. My money is on a Sunday schedule.
Let's see how many complaints about a genuinely nice gesture we can put into one post!
;-P
my company follows the Fed schedules so I'm hoping to hear an anouncement soon that we too, will be getting the 24th off.
And as I just found out, Contractors have to still take a vacation day for the day. So it's really barely a nice gesture.
For some reason I'm surprised it takes an Executive Order to do this and not just a little common sense.
Fafou,
Most Federal contracts have a clause that addresses this situation. Usually, for Federal Holidays and government closures, contractors are to be paid for that day. Either the cost is built into the Contractor's overhead or direct charged to the contract. I would talk to the Contracting Officer of the contract to verify if that clause is in the contract. If it is, your company is screwing you.
The executive order is for all Executive Branch agencies and departments. The Legislative Branch is still open and we will be working on December 24th. Anyone want to hit Pelosi up for us?
RJ,
Lots of federal contracts don't work that way. Cost plus and fixed price tend to have the provisions you mentioned, as do most DOJ contract. Standard T&M (staff augmentation) contracts often don't have a government closure section, as they bill directly for the hours worked. Telecommuting can often be done for closed days though, and depending on how your oversight is handled, you may just be able to still show up and work.
TLB: Complaints? You mean like When do federal employees do any work on Mondays, anyway?.
sucks to be a contractor.
This was a nice gesture, and opening up military airspace to commercial planes during the holiday weekend was a nice move too.
Guess the President can handle these small things. Just don't give him anything big like a war to manage...
sucks to be a contractor.
I easily prefer my paycheck to a day off. Looks like I'll be workin in my jammies on the 24th.
First the advocating a freeze on adjustable rate mortgages and now this. Since when is Bush a populist?
Squiquit,
Close, but FFP and Cost contracts rarely have that clause, however TM is usually the place to find it. This also depends if the contractor is on site or not. It is usually a local clause not FAR so it will depend on the Agency or how much the CO wants to be a dick. Ok I have to stop, this is no place for a procurment roundtable.
What about DC gov't?
I work for a contractor and we operate on a different schedule than the government, so no Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, or MLK Day, but we do get off the day after Thanksgiving and the day before or after Christmas.
Now the only thing I have to lord over my government-employed friends is the day after Thanksgiving? This sucks.
This is great for military folks taking leave the day(s) before or the day(s) after Christmas. For me it save me two leave days! Thanks!
It'll vary from contractor to contractor. My company just decided to follow suit and also give us Monday off, since 20% of the company had already scheduled leave for that day. I'm subcontracted to another, much bigger, contractor, which has not yet made such an announcement.