GovernmentExecutive.com

Federal employees increasingly are not showing up for work, according to a new congressional report.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., released a report Thursday showing that the number of hours that agencies reported their employees were absent from work without taking leave increased from approximately 2.5 million hours per year in 2001 to 3.5 million hours in 2007.

"Everyone knows that rule number one for any job is showing up," Coburn said. "No private company would put up with its employees refusing to show up for work, let alone watch the problem grow year after year."

Since 2001, nearly 300,000 federal employees have been AWOL for some period of time, Coburn reported.

Coburn has taken an interest in employee absences without leave since late 2006. He asked 19 agencies to report on employee absences, and 18 responded. One, the State Department, said it did not track such absences. Several others provided incomplete data.

The Veterans Affairs and the Treasury departments accounted for more than 60 percent of all AWOL hours between 2001 and 2007.

Agency practices on whether and when to charge employees as being absent without leave vary fairly widely. At one agency, the report found, being late by as little as 15 minutes can result in an employee being characterized as AWOL.

Coburn's report did not track whether or not employees were denied pay for the hours they did not work.

COMMENTS

• According to the Washington Post, Coburn was AWOL for 1.2% of the roll-call votes last year. Unfortunately, we don't know how much time is represented here. He's at the low end of this statistic in the Senate, but I don't see him taking on his golf buddies. He's also been an incredible obstructionist - nicknamed Dr. No - holding up important work in the Senate. But his continued use of raw statistical data to capture headlines and attention at the expense of federal employees, reveals his opportunism and dishonesty. Coburn is a right-wing hack. Jimbo Posted August 28, 2008 8:50 AM
• There is a difference between AWOL and LWOP. LWOP is what should be used if you are out of leave...you are absent with permission, but are not being paid. AWOL is absent without permission, and should only happen once or twice before the employee is terminated. I am amazed at the number of employees in my shop with 20-25 years experience and single digit leave balances. No, we have not had any disasters in this area. As soon as they get a day of sick leave on the books, they "don't feel well"...then when they really get sick, they have their hand out wanting leave donations. scoutldr Posted August 28, 2008 7:40 AM
• I would feel much more comfortable if these statistics had some context. For example, wouldn't it be nice to know how much the federal workforce has grown since 2001? Wouldn't it be nice to know what percentage of the total number of hours worked those couple of million hours actually represent? How many of those Treasury employees are the lowly paid part timers who support them during tax time? Throwing out numbers like that with no insight or context is exactly how our country is being run--by knee-jerk reaction by people who would much rather focus on something like this than the fact that federal employee raises are based on the Cost of Living minus gas and food prices. Who came up with that formula? Obviously, one of the fine statisticians sitting on some Senator's staff. AS Posted August 28, 2008 7:03 AM