Skip to content

An Overview of Federal and GSA Benefits

FedRAMP is a part of the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency within the executive branch. GSA's Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) is subject to government-wide human resources policies set by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Understanding complex bureaucracy is a key skill for working at FedRAMP!

This page has a lot of information to help you get started understanding the benefits available to folks in the FedRAMP Cybersecurity Service, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

If you find your eyes glazing over as you read through this overview, you might not be a great fit for a team that focuses entirely on nuanced implementation of law, policy, and technical systems.

Excepted Service vs. Competitive Service

FedRAMP Cybersecurity Service employees will be full-time civil servants hired on term-limited appointments in the Excepted Service.

This differs from the traditional Competitive Service in several key ways:

  • Term-Limited Appointments: Positions are time-limited (e.g., 2 years) rather than permanent career appointments. Employment is automatically terminated at the end of the term.
    • Note: In rare circumstances it may be possible to renew for an additional term, however FedRAMP is not planning for this. Applicants should expect to serve no more than 2 years.
  • Job Protections: Competitive service employees typically gain significant protections against removal after a 1-year probationary period. In contrast, excepted service employees generally must serve 2 years before gaining the right to appeal adverse actions (like termination) to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
    • Note: This means that for a 2 year term, employees are effectively in a trial period for the duration of their service and may be released for performance or conduct issues with limited outside review.
  • Union Representation: Contrary to common misconceptions, excepted service employees may be eligible for union representation, depending on their specific role (e.g., non-supervisory).
  • Career Tenure: Time served in the Excepted Service does count towards overall time in service for federal benefits but does NOT count towards career tenure for the Competitive Service.

Federal Benefits

These benefits are standardized across the federal government, including employees in the Excepted Service:

GSA Benefits

GSA offers additional benefits, especially at GSA Headquarters, including:

  • A general Transit Subsidy Program covers $200+ of your qualifying monthly commute on public transit.
  • An employee fitness center is available for use at GSA Headquarters and is surprisingly good!
  • We're in a convenient location downtown that is only a ten minute walk from all metro lines with plenty of access to lunch and coffee within a short walk. The White House and the National Mall are only a couple blocks away.
  • Google Workspace is GSA's core enterprise collaboration platform and it makes working at GSA feel a bit more like a private company and a bit less like a big enterprise. We often have to email documents back and forth with other agencies but inside GSA we are always working in Google Docs.

FedRAMP Benefits

FedRAMP employees are not allowed to work more than 40 hours per week!

We do not provide overtime or comp-time, so we encourage the use of flexible schedules to offset unexpectedly long (or short) days. No one will ever expect you to work more than 40 hours a week at FedRAMP.

Employees of FedRAMP have some additional benefits that we have standardized for our team, including:

  • Maximum Flexibility Work Schedules allow the FedRAMP team considerable flexibility in when we work instead of the standard 5x8 hour work days. Many teammates work 9 hours on most days so they can take an extra day off every 2 weeks.
  • Situational Telework is approved by default for the FedRAMP team. On any given day there is a good chance one of your teammates will be taking advantage of our situational telework policy to work remotely due to a doctor's appointment, school closure, problems with the weather, or any other non-routine situation where it just doesn't make sense to come into the office for only part of the day.
  • High-performing devices are critical for the FedRAMP team, and all engineering staff are issued a lightly managed MacBook Pro (though it might be an older M1). Typical government-furnished equipment (GFE) is slow and bloated without any options for customizations but our engineering machines are generally fast and reliable. This might not seem like a benefit but it's awesome not to wait 20min for your laptop to boot up or have it run out of battery in 30min. ;)
  • Chill vibes and casual dress are an important part of our team culture. No one will expect you to wear a suit, though you're welcome to wear what you like within reasonable boundaries (we aren't quite flip-flops and shorts forward at GSA but your boss won't call you out on it).