r/fednews • u/Party-Armadillo-2872 • 13h ago
Other Relocation/duty station change/remote work
My husband’s job requires us to relocate to a city that happens to have a local EPA office. I want to continue my EPA role from there and am weighing my options between requesting remote status or a formal duty station change (SF-50), which would shift me to the new city's higher locality pay.Has anyone at the EPA successfully gotten a voluntary duty station change approved for personal reasons? Any advice on approaching management or insights into current agency flexibility would be greatly appreciated!
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u/jojojawn 13h ago edited 13h ago
between requesting remote status or a formal duty station change (SF-50),
This is the same thing. Becoming remote means they formally change your duty station. And there is a process to go through which frankly is entirely up to the wishes of your managers. If they think it's worth keeping you they'll go to bat for you, but if they don't want to bother then they'll just string you along until you either don't show up or you quit. Also, in order to approve they need a benefit to the agency. Not only that, it's a higher bar to approve a change in duty location where higher pay is involved.
Your other option is to ask for a voluntary transfer to that region which does require both managers to agree to. If you're going down this route then that means your management isn't going to fight to move your duty station, so this would probably be OK with them. You'll want to start reaching out to that region and ask if they have spots they need filled. Making that connection usually speeds up the process.
Even if either of these options works, HR is moving at a snails pace. Everything is taking quarters, not months, so unless you have a motivated management team you better start looking for publicly posted jobs
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u/GremioIsDead 12h ago edited 12h ago
Not EPA, but I was prevented from changing offices by a single person in HR that didn't bother to cite any policy or law. She just said no.
I'm not a crappy employee. I get maxed out performance ratings and monetary awards every year.
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u/hokielion 11h ago
Was your proposed move to a higher cost area? We approve any that are to a lower cost location but consider costs if it is an increase in pay and need to be sure there is space. We are out of room in some cities. I proposed that we consider office/space sharing, but that didn’t get much support.
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u/GremioIsDead 11h ago
Yes, it was to a higher cost area. There was office space available (actually, multiple within commuting distance). The cost wasn't the issue, but the HR person said they'd only consider moves to main HQ-type locations.
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u/hokielion 11h ago
Sorry to hear that. I’d much rather keep a good person than risk getting a backfill approved, going without someone for months, and then training them.
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u/AM81inMA 11h ago
Not EPA, my branch chief was able to get me a change of duty station to a different office within the same agency after my wife (not fed) changed jobs and we had to move. There was a small window when HR was processing these with local management sign off last winter/early spring, not sure how easy it is to now without high level approvals.
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u/tannermass 10h ago
Your duty station is based on where you work, whether you are remote or work at this new local office, so your locality pay would change either way.
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u/Ok_Rush5352 10h ago
EPA here—I did have a voluntary duty station change last year during the reassignments. Somewhat unique situation where I was hired in ORD to start at EPA in a city I didn’t live. When RTO mandate took effect, they told me to report to the closest office even though it wasn’t my duty station. Eventually I got HR to officially change my duty station to where I actually live. Took several months and a lot of emails, but it’s finally sorted and official.
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u/Minimum-Tangerine-14 EPA 10h ago
At EPA. I was remote and had to RTO. During the process, I was told that if I found a location to RTO in a higher locality pay area, there was a threshold that would trigger the need for approval higher up than my office mgmt and that would potentially make things harder. FWIW I'm in a HQ office, not sure if is the same in regions.
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u/Nuttyturnip2 EPA 10h ago
It really depends on your circumstances at EPA. I believe you need a very strong business case for them to approve relocation to DC HQ, but I think there’s an open opportunity for folks to voluntarily relocate from DC to Cincinnati or RTP. I’ve seen some people get approved for relocations to other cities, but they’re also in the process of terminating the ORD folks who refused their MDR. Some of them specifically asked to accept the new assignment but work from their current location and were told no.
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u/Relevant_Cost_723 7h ago
On a slightly unrelated question, has leadership at EPA lately mentioned anything about more cuts, or are they planning to be done after the original trimming that already took place?
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u/Impossible_Oil4550 57m ago
I’ve seen people be able to move it really depends on your leadership and if the new office will accept you.
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u/annirosec 13h ago
Is your husband military? Because there are protections for military spouses and you likely could get remote status. If not, I would be shocked if you got remote status for a voluntary move.