There's a government document for that too! https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/employee-relations/training/presentationaddressingawol.pdf https://www.op

There's a government document for that too! https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/employee-relations/training/presentationaddressingawol.pdf https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/employee-relations... But the short answer seems to be (from a cursory skim) that they are considered AWOL and that this is a reprimand/PIP/firing kind of situation. Same thing as just not showing up for work. They're not allowed to use previously accrued sick days or leave during a special situation like this. Obviously if it happens at a large enough scale, they probably won't just fire everyone, but there's a certain amount of game theory going on here to be sure. If SOME people don't show up, maybe management will let it slide, if LOTS of people don't show up, who gets in trouble?