Civil service - time off for job interview

[Isleepinahedgefund]

Interested in experiences/opinions of other Civil Servants....

Are we allowed paid time off for job interviews? I've got one next week in a different govt department that's just round the corner from my current office.

I'm happy to take a/l but just wondered what people expect. Last job interview I did (again moving departments) I was allowed the time off but I think that was my manager not really caring what I did!

I haven't told my team about it as the reaction wasn't too good when I said I was applying for promotions (as in going on the offensive saying we can't afford to lose you and telling me they'd block a lateral transfer) but it will be awkward to explain (or not explain) why I need a random couple of hours' leave in the middle of the day.

No, usually unless you are 'at risk' of redundancy/surplus you are not allowed paid time off for interviews, most departments, officially at least, expect you to book annual leave or use flexi time. Unofficially a lot of managers will allow time off particularly for internal jobs, or will allow you to make the time up at a later date but it's not something you can count on. As they've already been hostile to you I think I'd play it by the book, unfortunately this probably means booking a half days leave at a time which is annoying when you really only need a couple of hours, and of course it's usually quite obvious what's going on when you start randomly booking lots of short periods of leave at short notice, but it can't be helped. When I had to do this last time I just said it was for a 'personal appointment' or 'personal commitment' and didn't explain further, sure it fooled no-one but hey ho...

Thanks - I thought that was the case. I'll just have to go for the "private appointment"!