OPM Chief Calls for Transitional Emploiyment for Older Federal Workers

According to a report by Karen Rutzick in Government Executive, Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer has said that federal employees should be able to work fewer hours in their later career, staving off full retirement. She wants part-time arrangements for longtime federal employees to become common and easier to arrange, as a piece of a plan to cope with an aging workforce in what she termed a "transformation of the mindset."

As part of her agency's commitment to expanding part-time work arrangements, Springer cited a legislative proposal offered in the fiscal 2007 budget, which would remove a penalty to employees in the Civil Service Retirement System for working part-time. The director said OPM is looking to find more ways to promote part-time work.

Springer suggested that many employees want to continue their work in some capacity even after becoming elible for retirement, but "don't want to have to work 40 hours a week." However, she said that instead of boomerangers"--baby-boom generation employees who leave the federal workforce for retirement and then return--she wants employees who "don't leave in the first place," instead opting to cut their hours.

Source: "OPM director pushes part-time work in lieu of retirement" Government Executive (March 14, 2006)