*Update 19.12.2024 many thanks to the colleague who wrote to clarify that the flu vaccine is no longer reimbursed at 100%.*
Original article: In response to your feedback we try to send this list out a bit earlier in order to give you time to take action. We encourage you to do what you can now in order to be able to use the end-of-year period to rest and to recharge your batteries. This is not an opportunity to get work done! Please, as far as you can, switch off your devices, mute notifications and disconnect: take the time for you.
Why not already schedule your out-of-the-office message in Outlook today?[1] It’s one thing you can score off your end-of-year ‘to do’ list. We present a list of suggestions here in no particular order. Please feel free to get in touch to add to this list if you’d like to share what works for you!
Write down passwords in a safe place
A measure of how well you disconnected from work is how many passwords you’ve forgotten 🙂
Appraisal self evaluation
The first of the self-assessment exercises opens the first full week back at work in January: the first general day of work is Friday 3 January but many buildings may again be closed until Sunday 5 January inclusive. in 2024 the appraisal exercise started on the 8 January. You don’t need to write the whole thing now, but making some basic notes of your highlights and successes might be a great help to you for when you have to hit the ground running on your return in order to make the best of this opportunity to shine.
Generation 2004 has a conference on Tuesday 9 January to help you with this. Check out the advice for reporting officers on how they are to write the counterpart to your own text and last year’s article for where to start with drafting.
Teleworking from anywhere (TWA) days
Any unused 2024 TWA days you have on 31 December will be lost. Please try to use up your full 10 days. HR states that the majority of staff do not use their full quota of 10 days, therefore there is no need for our suggested 60 days of TWA, the 10 days are more than sufficient for current needs. So, even if you can only use up 2 of those days in what remains of the year, please do so!
Remember you no longer need to join these days to any other type of leave and that you will have a new quota of 10 TWA days in 2025 (Decision on Working Time and Hybrid Working (WTHW), Article 11(1)).
Travelling with or without your corporate laptop?
We can find no obligation for you to travel with your corporate laptop when you are not on a work trip (‘mission’) or TWA (if you find anything, please contact us). We believe that it blurs the line between work and rest and opens up ‘requests’ which cross that line. Standby (whether official or not) is not rest!
What if you are going sailing on your well-earned rest: will the Commission furnish you with a waterproof case for your laptop and a maritime-roaming dongle for network connectivity, just in case your input is needed?
‘Checking in’/checking email/responding in work chats while on leave
You cannot declare this work time (and it is work time) while on leave: sysper will not allow it. If you are being pressured to do check in then feel free to ask for the written rules detailing how such work is to be declared and compensated (or contact us and we can do it on your behalf, without mentioning you).
Mute notifications in any work signal groups. Uninstall Teams and Outlook from your mobile device: distance yourself from work, take the time for you!
You can already request annual leave and TWA for 2025
Why not make those requests, even if it’s only in draft form? We all need something to look forward to! This can also help if you find yourself with a surplus of days, as below: it allows your line manager to see that you’re dealing with it.
More than 12 days of annual leave remaining?
Up to a maximum of 12 are transferred automatically to the following year. For those of you with more than 12 days of annual leave left check out the viable reasons for requesting that these days be added to your 2025 quota. Remember that these can be the same days you transferred previously.
were you were sick?
If you have been sick for 20 work days or more (public holidays don’t count) you have the right to transfer all of your annual leave to 2025, so don’t miss out! It’s not a complicated process. Ms Ingestad agreed to work with DIGIT to evaluate our request to automate the transfer where it is a right 2022/23, to date it is not automated and that was changed to putting the responsibility onto the line manager. Please check for yourself that this happens and do the request yourself if you can: a ‘transfer’ button is normally visible in sysper in January [2].
was it due to service needs?
If you have more than 12 days remaining for any other reason you can still request the transfer (but it is not guaranteed): please discuss with your line manager rather than just assume the days are lost. Even if you do not fall into one of the categories listed, a plan of when you will spend the days and a reason for having been unable to use them (e.g. workload) gives hierarchy the opportunity to be flexible and understanding if they so wish. Here are the public holidays for 2025 to facilitate your planning.
Leave of any kind: please use it!
15 Percent of UK Employees Work on Holiday Through Fear of Falling Behind; Substantial Number of Bosses Think It’s Okay To Contact Employees on Holiday (Glassdoor, 2018)
This is a pre-pandemic source and here’s a recent one saying the same thing: this slide towards being always available is damaging and constant pressure is unsustainable long term). Note that the last available figures show that some 7 664 days of annual leave days were lost at the Commission and not carried-over from 2020 to 2021: this is far from ideal.
If you are sick during annual leave (but maybe not end-of-year days) remember that if you act fast you can recover the days.
Time-credit-leave days expire based on when they were requested, they do not expire at the end of the calendar year. Under certain conditions, they can even be returned unused and the money returned.
Travelling and health certificates
Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS) certificates for use while travelling are available via JSIS>certificate. Note that the JSIS openly advises colleagues to get complementary insurance to cover the part that is not reimbursed.
Health checks
If you are planning to have any health checks done over this period please check whether they are eligible for 100% reimbursement and go with the paperwork ready: there are no more bons roses: most of those items are now done via screening. Check out the process here.
Building closures and TWA
We’ve repeatedly asked about this, but so far HR are insisting that, while you can telework 100% if your building is closed, it must be from your place of employment, no unofficial TWA. Note that some buildings might be closed until Sunday 5 January inclusive (BEST), but there is no official announcement as yet. The first day of general work is Friday 3 January 2025.
Note that if you’re not where you are expected to be that some additional explanations might be requested e.g. in case of sickness: will bills and certificates be from another country?
Building closures and working from another office
Under normal circumstances keyboards and mice are considered to be personal. Please check with your line manager where/how you are to store these devices in the event that your building is closed. For those of you with specific equipment e.g. a height-adjustable desk or specialist disability equipment, we invite you to include the diversity and inclusion (D&I) Office in your queries regarding reasonable accommodation. D&I is following up with the OIB/OIL on our question below:
With the temporary closure of buildings under Buildings Energy Saving Together (BEST) Action or ‘Save gas for a safe winter’ plan it is not clear what provision is made for those who have specialist equipment or disabilities: are they obliged to work from home 100% in order to have their needs met? HR states that height-adjustable desks are listed on the booking system is this sufficiently inclusive? (MyIntracomm: Events for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, comments)
Vaccines
Check the medical service website for information on the latest Covid booster and the flu vaccine. The annual campaigns have finished but it may be possible still to have it done by appointment.
Medical reimbursement
Check whether you’ve submitted all your requests for reimbursement: it’ll take a while to receive the money in your account and the sooner you submit the files, the better. You have 18 months from the date of the medical treatment to make your reimbursement claim.
PMO Mobile (it’s more of a website than an application /’app’ but yes, it works on your phone) is excellent for submitting claims for reimbursement, sickness certificates and accident declarations, all of which have time limitations.
100% medical reimbursement for annual medical[*]
Remember that if you receive the seasonal-flu vaccination via your own GP you have the right for 100% reimbursement of both the vaccine itself and the visit to the GP. There is a special option in the Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS)/RCAM [Régime Commun d’Assurance Maladie] online reimbursement site [3].
Similarly, if you did the annual medical laboratory tests outside the Commission you are also entitled to the full costs: check out our example case.
And if you have already submitted a reimbursement request and did not use the 100% options outlined, let the JSIS know via Staff Matters portal (by clicking the ‘Contact PMO’ little envelope in the top right-hand corner) and let our PMO colleagues fix it for you.
Special medical reimbursement
If the last 12 months have been expensive in terms of medical bills or you expect significant health costs in the near future, read about special reimbursement: it doesn’t hurt to ask!
Family: Special JSIS cover
If your adult child is under 26 and neither studying nor working then they risk losing JSIS cover. It is possible to request a 12-month JSIS extension for them: don’t miss out!
Family allowances: part-time and schools
Last but not least. Just to remind you that if you are a couple with a child/children and both of you work for the institutions and one of you is working part-time, check with your payment office who gets the family allowances during that part-time period. It might be that due to a part-time working arrangement (if the one working part-time is the one receiving the family allowances) that the family allowances decrease in line with the reduction in salary. It might be seen better, even if only temporary, to arrange for the allowances to go to the partner who woks full-time. Please ask the Office for the Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements (PMO) first to check whether your particular circumstances make this possible before making any changes. Use PMO Contact for doing this.
If you like lists then you can check out our Summer edition for some more ideas on disconnecting.
As always, if you have questions or comments, feel free to contact us.
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[1] Here are the dates for 2024/2025.
[2] The button to click in Sysper2 (1-31 January):
Time management>leave rights>rights>Annual leave>Summary and click on the button ‘Leave carry-over request’: insert your comment to justify your request.
Note that the deadline for these requests is 31 January.
If you are not able to do this yourself, in 2024 it should be done on your behalf: please check and get in touch if this has not happened in your case.
[*] Update 19.12.2024 we originally included the flu vaccine here but are disappointed to find that it is no longer free when done outside the Commission’s own annual vaccination programme: that 100% reimbursement was during the pandemic and temporary.
“In response to your enquiry please be advised that during the Covid-19 pandemic the cost of seasonal flu vaccines was temporarily reimbursed at 100%.
With the return to normality, we confirm that this exceptional measure is no longer applicable and the usual rules apply (since 1/5/2023): where vaccination is not free of charge, the JSIS reimbursement (product/medication costs and injection costs) is made at the rate of 85% (as before the Covid period).”
[3] Create a request > Reimbursements > Request of type > Standard reimbursement > Next > Expense/treatment detail: Seasonal flu vaccination costs as mentioned on the JSIS site.
Older updates
*Update 20.12.2023: 2 weeks after the equivalent announcement for Brussels-based staff, HR Luxembourg have announced (email) that staff outside Brussels can also telework 100% until the general return to the office 08.01.2024: ‘Staff in Brussels, Grange, and JRC sites are authorised to telework during this time. To ensure uniformity on working conditions across our locations’*
*Update 05.12.2023: here are building closures and alternatives in Brussels, but we don’t (yet) see equivalent information for other places of work e.g. Grange or Luxembourg. Remember you have the right to work from the office 100% if you so wish (and you are prepared for the temperatures there).*
We have asked about teleworking 3-5 January for sites outside Brussels but have not yet received a response. We know of no reason for extending this possibility exclusively to staff working in Brussels.
‘All staff in Brussels (whether their building is closed or not) can work from one of the designated hubs or telework from their place of employment for 100% of their weekly working time from 3 to 5 January ….’ Building Energy Savings Together – Winter 2023
‘Staff members assigned to any building in Brussels, whose tasks are compatible with teleworking are authorised to teleworkfrom their place of employment for 100% of their weekly working time from 3 January 2023 to 6 January 2023 included.’ Available buildings and telework between 23.12.2022 and 6.1.2023 in Brussels
