Thanksgiving is a special holiday, a time to say thanks. That's what Ellen Walton Ramsay asked to do today. Here's an excerpt from her e-mail:
"In June of this year, my husband, Bruce [a geographer at a climate studies center in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], was the victim of an unsolved hit-and-run or mugging on the way home from work in College Park.
"The results of this accident were some severely broken bones in his face and a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The bones have been repaired but some of the damage to the brain is permanent. Five months later, he is still in the hospital in a specialty program for brain injury rehabilitation and, while he is doing very well and may be discharged before Christmas, I have learned that recovery from TBI is a difficult and long process -- most likely lasting another year for my husband.
"There are many who might say that I don't have a lot to be thankful for this year, but I do -- Bruce has received nearly one thousand hours of leave through the federal leave donation program!
"Their policy is not to reveal the names of the donors to the recipients, but I want to express my thanks to each and every one of them.
"Many hours have come from NOAA, where my husband works now, but others came in from NASA, a group he works closely with, and employees of the IRS, where both he and I worked at least 15 years ago.
"It is incredible how generous people have been -- friends from other agencies, the departments of State, Labor, Interior and HHS . . . in one case, the sister of someone who worked with my husband and . . . the spouse of someone who went to the same high school [Bowie] from years back. It is amazing.
"Granted it says a lot about the kind of person my husband is, but it speaks volumes about the caring and phenomenally unselfish government workers who are out there.
"I am just overwhelmed by the generosity of all of these people. Some have given a day, some have given a week. It doesn't matter -- it is a gift which has truly helped my children and me survive these past five months.
"There are still tough days to come but the warmth and kindness of every one of these 'friends' will linger on to get us through whatever lies ahead. A sincere and heartfelt thank you from my family and me. Happy Thanksgiving."
Donating Leave Time
As Ellen Ramsay's e-mail powerfully points out, the government's leave transfer program is an important benefit that has helped many federal employees since Congress authorized the creation of permanent "leave banks" and "leave sharing" in 1993.
The law directed agencies to set up leave transfer programs so that an employee may donate annual leave -- typically used for vacation and personal reasons -- directly to another federal employee who has a personal or family medical emergency and has exhausted all other available paid leave, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
There are some limits. Employees may donate not more than half of the amount of annual leave that they would accrue during a year. For employees with "use or lose" leave, donations must be the lesser of half of their annual leave or the number of hours remaining for the year, according to OPM.
Speaking of Benefits
OPM conducted a federal benefits survey of about 2,400 randomly selected federal employees this month to gather feedback on the popularity and effectiveness of benefit programs.
The survey covered regular benefit programs -- such as insurance and retirement -- and work-life programs, such as telecommuting, child care subsidies and flexible spending accounts, OPM said.
Doris Hausser, senior policy adviser to the OPM director, said OPM wants to evaluate responses to questions about the quality of benefits and employee satisfaction with benefits. One goal is to determine how much benefits contribute toward making the government a competitive employer.
The survey was not designed with an eye to changing the structure of federal benefits or whether employees should be offered a "cafeteria plan" that allows them to create their own menu of benefits, she said.
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
