• Furlough for more than 30 days
  
  
• Separation
  
  
• Demotion
  
  
• Reassignment requiring displacement of another employee

Releasing the employee must be caused by:

• Lack of work
  
  
• Shortage of funds
  
  
• Insufficient personnel ceiling
  
  
• Reorganization
  
  
• The exercise of reemployment or restoration, or return rights
  
  
• Reclassification of an employee's position due to erosion of duties when such action will take effect after the agency has formally announced a RIF and the RIF will take effect within 180 days.

RIF procedures are required when both the action to be taken and the cause of the action meet the criteria above. There are almost always some unexpected and undesirable outcomes from a RIF. Examples of these might include:

• Temporary loss of organizational efficiency due to many people moving into new jobs at the same time
  
  
• Low employee morale
  
  
• High one-time costs in unemployment compensation, lump- sum payments for accrued annual leave, and severance pay

There are several ways for management to either reduce the impact of a RIF or avoid the need to have a RIF. These ways include management action such as:

• Hiring freezes
  
  
• Terminating temporary employees
  
  
• Short furloughs (30 days or less)
  
  
• Reductions in work hours
  
  
• Retraining

Agencies may also encourage employees to voluntarily request leave-without-pay, request optional retirement, or change work schedule and reduce their work hours.

In most cases RIF is initiated only after alternatives fail. Once RIF becomes unavoidable, however, it is important to understand that everyone in the organization can do something to assure the process is carried out as fairly and smoothly as possible:

• Supervisors should keep employees informed. They must ensure position descriptions are accurate and annual performance ratings are accurate, current, and submitted on time. They must support all actions taken as a part of the RIF and ensure RIF is initiated only for reasons specified by law.
  
  
• Employees need to inform their supervisors if position descriptions are not accurate. They also need to provide up-to-date information on their veterans preference, experience, and education. If the RIF is going to result in separations, employees must consider mobility for
  placement at other defense and/or federal activities.

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Revised: 11/10/98
DOI University
National Business Center
U.S. Department of the Interior