Federal government attorneys who are also military spouses? Forum

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nn2

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Federal government attorneys who are also military spouses?

Post by nn2 » Fri Sep 24, 2021 11:45 pm

Anyone out there? How accommodating is your agency when you have to relocate within the U.S. due to a military move? I'd imagine this would qualify as a hardship transfer, but wondering how this actually plays out. Are things more flexible now with remote work? Would love to hear from this perspective!

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Re: Federal government attorneys who are also military spouses?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 25, 2021 9:11 am

I’m not in this situation, but know someone who was. Their military spouse got transferred and they were able to get a hardship transfer to another office. My understanding was that the other office had to have an opening already (or get authorization for another salary, I guess - budgets don’t always allow just taking on one more person), and that the other office had to approve the transfer. In the case I know of, the spouse had actually worked before at the office they wanted to transfer to, and had been well-liked there, so it worked out. But I had the impression it wasn’t entirely guaranteed (perhaps especially if they had other candidates they preferred).

So the takeaway I got was that it wasn’t necessarily completely automatic/on demand, but that generally people would work with you to try to make it happen. (As with everything, it probably helps to have some goodwill built up.)

No idea if remote work has changed anything. My impression is that most offices still envision people “coming back” at some point rather than WFH forever, but I’m sure that depends a ton on your role and office. I don’t think remote would help if you’re a trial attorney, because I don’t think federal courts will ever go exclusively to video so you would have to appear in person (but again, depends on your role - I have to be in court most weeks but if you rarely do that might make a difference).

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