I Two different things
Both live in 5 CFR part 340, and the definitions are short enough to quote.
| Seasonal | Intermittent | |
|---|---|---|
| Is | Annually recurring work of under 12 months | Work with no regularly scheduled tour |
| Status | Permanent, career appointment | Depends on the appointment |
| Between work | Nonduty, nonpay — recalled | Nothing scheduled |
The regulation is explicit. Seasonal employment exists so an agency can build an experienced cadre under career appointment for work that recurs predictably, and — consistent with the career nature of those appointments — seasonal employees receive the full benefits authorised to attract and retain a stable workforce.
It is appropriate when work is expected to last at least six months in a calendar year. Shorter recurring work is normally temporary employment instead.
So a Park Service seasonal or an IRS filing-season role, done right, is a permanent job that pauses. Intermittent is a different animal entirely.
II What intermittent costs you
This is the part announcements rarely spell out.
| Entitlement | Part-time | Intermittent |
|---|---|---|
| Annual and sick leave | Yes | No |
| Holiday pay | Yes | No |
| Night and Sunday premium | Yes | No |
| Overtime | Yes | Yes |
Excused absence and donated or restored annual leave do not apply either. Overtime is the one thing that survives, which matters for the surge roles — disaster response, filing season, emergency deployments — where intermittent is most used.
If you see WAE on an SF-50 or an announcement, that is the older term — When Actually Employed — and it means intermittent, with everything above attached.
III When it is being misused
5 CFR 340.403 sets a real test: an intermittent schedule is appropriate only when the work is sporadic and unpredictable, such that a tour of duty cannot be regularly scheduled in advance.
The obligation people do not know about
So if you have been working a predictable pattern on an intermittent schedule for a year, that is not merely unfair. It is a schedule the regulation says should have been converted.
Service credit is the reason it matters beyond the leave. Intermittent time is credited differently, and that reaches your service computation date and eventually your retirement computation.
A mixed tour is the legitimate version of moving between schedules — recurring periods of full-time, part-time or intermittent duty. But an employee in tenure group one or two who works more than six pay periods as part-time in a calendar year stops being mixed tour and the permanent part-time rules take over.
IV Health coverage
Contrary to what most people assume, these schedules can carry FEHB.
An employee on a temporary appointment, a seasonal schedule of under six months a year, or an intermittent schedule is eligible to enrol where the employing office expects total hours in pay status plus qualifying leave without pay to be at least 130 hours per calendar month, and expects the employee to work at least 90 days.
Eligibility comes with the full government contribution. Your employing office makes the determination and must notify you — so ask, rather than assuming you are excluded.
Someone expected to work fewer than 90 days, who then does work fewer than 90 days, will generally not be eligible, because they will not be employed at the end of the waiting period.
V Why people take them anyway
There is a real strategic case, and it is not the pay.
The appointment, not the schedule
That is noncompetitive movement — the thing applicants from outside spend years trying to obtain. The schedule is what you tolerate; the appointment is what you are buying.
Which makes one question decisive at offer stage, and it is not about hours: what appointment is this? A career or career-conditional seasonal appointment is a foothold. A temporary intermittent appointment with no career tenure is a job, and only a job.
The same logic runs through reinstatement eligibility and moving between agencies later. Read the SF-50, not the schedule line.
What each schedule actually earns
Overtime is the only premium intermittent keeps.
Before you accept
- Ask which it is — seasonal, intermittent, or a mixed tour.
- Ask what appointment type: career, career-conditional, term or temporary.
- If intermittent, budget for zero leave and no holiday pay.
- Ask whether the 130-hour FEHB threshold is expected to be met.
- Ask how many hours were actually worked last year, not the ceiling.
- If the work is predictable, ask why the schedule is intermittent.
- Check what service credit the time will earn.
- Confirm whether the role gives noncompetitive movement afterwards.
Questions
They are close to opposites, despite being used interchangeably. Seasonal employment means annually recurring periods of work of less than twelve months each year, and seasonal employees are permanent employees placed in nonduty and nonpay status between seasons and recalled under preestablished conditions. Intermittent employment means employment without a regularly scheduled tour of duty. One is a permanent job that pauses. The other is work with no schedule at all.
No. An intermittent work schedule carries no annual leave accrual and no sick leave accrual, and also no holiday pay, no night differential and no Sunday premium pay. Overtime is payable. Excused absence and donated or restored annual leave do not apply either. This is the single largest practical difference between intermittent work and part-time work, and it is frequently not spelled out in the announcement.
Only when the nature of the work is sporadic and unpredictable, so that a tour of duty cannot be regularly scheduled in advance. That is the regulatory test in 5 CFR 340.403. Where an agency is able to schedule work in advance on a regular basis, it has an obligation to document the change in work schedule from intermittent to part-time or full-time to ensure proper service credit. An intermittent schedule used for predictable recurring work is being used wrongly.
Yes, in the sense that matters. Seasonal employment allows an agency to develop an experienced cadre of employees under career appointment for work that recurs predictably year to year, and consistent with the career nature of those appointments seasonal employees receive the full benefits authorised to attract and retain a stable workforce. Seasonal employment is appropriate when the work is expected to last at least six months in a calendar year; recurring work shorter than that is normally best done by temporary employees.
Often yes, which surprises people. An employee on a temporary appointment, on a seasonal schedule of less than six months a year, or on an intermittent schedule is eligible to enrol in FEHB where the employing office expects total hours in pay status plus qualifying leave without pay to be at least 130 hours per calendar month and expects the employee to work at least 90 days. Eligibility comes with the full government contribution. Your employing office determines whether you meet it and must notify you.
Yes. Seasonal and intermittent employees serving under career appointment may move to other positions in the same way as other regular career employees, which means noncompetitive movement rather than competing from outside. This is the strongest strategic argument for taking one of these roles: the appointment itself, not the schedule, is what carries that portability.
A schedule of annually recurring periods of full-time, part-time or intermittent duty, letting an agency move an employee between schedules as workload requires. There is a limit: an employee in tenure group one or two who works more than six pay periods as part-time within a calendar year is no longer treated as mixed tour and the permanent part-time rules apply instead. Mixed tour employees are usually asked to certify in writing that they understand the schedule can alternate.
When Actually Employed. It is the older term used on personnel documents to identify intermittent service, and it still appears in agency systems and in conversation. If you see WAE on an SF-50 or in a vacancy announcement, read it as intermittent, with everything that implies about leave accrual and premium pay.