Excepted employees can take leave during a government shutdown, as OPM reiterated. If excepted employees want to take leave, they should use the same procedures to request time off and earn approval from their supervisors as they would if their agencies weren’t experiencing a lapse in appropriations. If employees choose this option to take time off, their agencies will charge their personal leave banks as they normally would during any other circumstances.
But excepted employees also have another option, OPM said. They can work with their supervisors to be placed in “default furlough status” for any approved absence during the government shutdown. If excepted employees take this route, their agencies will not charge their personal leave banks, according to OPM.