The FedGov Insider: Reduction in Force (RIF) Rules

NOTE: The rules apply only if less than an entire agency is being affected. And, again, these are how the rules ARE, not necessarily how you believe they SHOULD BE.

As a general rule, agencies HATE to do RIFs (our term for mass terminations). They will usually find other locations, if possible, to place affected employees. This was the case in my last office, which was closed due to the sale of a company to another, where the financial records were being moved out of state. I was given another position (a GS-13 technical specialist, which is the position I hold now) while the other two supervisors and the 10-12 employees were transferred to other offices.

But when there is a decision to institute a RIF, certain specific rules apply.

FIRST, the agency must decide the "competitive area" affected by a RIF; these are usually defined by metro areas. As an example, let's say our agency has two offices in a metro area (Airport and Downtown), each of which has one GS-14 manager, four GS-13 supervisors, and 20 auditors (one summer intern GS-5, four probationary GS-7s, six who are GS-9 or GS-11 in career-conditional status, and nine career GS-12s). The workload has diminished to where two separate offices can no longer be justified, and the decision is made to close the Downtown office. After offering buyouts and early retirement, no one has left, so a RIF must be instituted. The Downtown Office employees will be affected, but some of them will have "bump and retreat" rights (defined below) which will affect the Airport Office.

SECOND: the agency must define groups and subgroups. At my agency, the two managers, four supervisors, and 40 auditors are separate groups for RIF purposes. The agency must then develop two subgroupings: the first divides career (GS-12) from career-conditional/probationary (GS-7 through GS-11) and term (GS-5), while the second divides veterans with 30%+ disability preference from all other veterans and non-veterans. You end up with nine different combinations among the auditors:

Term/Non-Veteran
Term/Veteran
Term/Veteran w/30%+ preference
Probationary and Career-Conditional/Non-Veteran
Probationary and Career-Conditional/Veteran
Probationary and Career-Conditional/Veteran w/30%+ preference
Career/Non-Veteran
Career/Veteran
Career/Veteran w/30%+ preference

THIRD: the agency must develop a tenure list. This is based on one's Service Computation Date (which is not necessarily the date a person first came on board with FedGov; it is adjusted for any breaks in service).

The tenure list is then adjusted (for RIF purposes only) for the average of the last three years' ratings of each employee. An employee with an average "Outstanding" rating gets 20 years added, one with an average "Exceeds Fully Successful" rating gets 16 years added, and one with an average "Fully Successful" rating gets 12 years added. Employees with average "Minimally Successful" or "Unsuccessful" ratings get no additional years added.

Once that is done, employees are released in order, first by the grouping shown above (in that order), and then within that group based on the adjusted tenure.

Term employees have no rights of "bump and retreat" while the other employees do. (Bump means to displace someone of the same grade, retreat means to displace someone at a lower grade level but no lower than three grade levels below current.) Also, any person with an Unsuccessful rating has no bump/retreat rights, while those at Minimally Successful only have retreat rights to other positions held by employees with that or Unsuccessful ratings.

As such, the GS-14 at Downtown could possibly bump the GS-14 at Airport (or not if the Airport GS-14 is in a higher preference level) or could retreat to a GS-13 or even a GS-12 level. The same goes for the GS-13s; they can bump the other GS-13s or retreat to GS-12.

The Downtown auditors are in a different mix. The GS-7s on probation are out; they can't bump their counterparts at Airport. The remaining auditors, on the other hand, can do so provided they meet the other criteria above.