Details are intended for meeting temporary needs of the agency's work, program or mission requirements when necessary services cannot be provided by other means. Details can be used in situations such as temporary shortage of military or civilian personnel or emergency work situations.
An employee who continues to carry out the duties of the position to which permanently assigned and also performs some of the duties of another position for a limited time generally is not considered to be on detail. Details to higher level positions should be made competitively when the duration of the detail and the nature of the assignment are such that the employee can be expected to perform the majority of the grade-controlling duties.
Details should not be used to qualify or prepare employees for promotion or to reassign them to positions with promotion potential.
As the Office of Personnel Management no longer requires documentation of details, it has been decided that documentation is not necessary for a detail that is identical to or of the same grade and series requiring the same basic duties as the employee's current position. All other details will be documented by a Request for Personnel Action (RPA), including those that involve changes to premium pay and movements between Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exempt and non-exempt positions. For FLSA and premium pay changes, DCPDS will flow the changes to payroll through a Developers' Descriptive Flexfield incorporated in the RPA.
Details may be processed for up to 120 days. If an extension beyond 120 days is necessary, contact the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center. Extensions of details to higher graded positions with known promotion potential must be processed under competitive procedures. For employees covered by the bargaining unit, the union contract should be reviewed prior to effecting a detail. If required by a current union agreement, the Civilian Personnel Operations Center can generate a pseudo SF-50.
The 120-day limitation mentioned above for details and renewals of details does not apply under specific circumstances in connection with a military installation closure or realignment.