To reiterate: Situational disability can be an issue which can defeat a disability retirement application, precisely because OPM (and if it gets to the MSPB level, the Administrative Judge) can conclude that the Psychiatric disability in question originates and results in response to the hostile workplace environment.
These three concepts are important to understand — originate, result in, and result “in response to”. A psychiatric condition can originate from a hostile work environment, but as long as the medical condition then pervades beyond the work environment and impacts a person’s life through and through, then that alone does not constitute situational disability, because while it may have originated from A, it is not limited to A.
The second concept — results in — must be seen in the context of the condition of the psychiatric disability. Thus, does the (for example) Major Depression or anxiety result solely from the work environment, or does one experience the symptoms while at home, even while away from the work environment?
And thirdly, does the individual experience the symptoms of the psychiatric condition “in response to” his or her exposure to the work environment, or are the symptoms all-pervasive: i.e., throughout all aspects of the person’s life?
To differentiate these three concepts is important in avoiding the pitfalls of situational disability, and in helping to prepare a Psychiatrist in either preparing a medical narrative report, or in his or her testimony before an Administrative Judge at the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Agency’s and/or Supervisor’s Actions, Mental/Nervous Condition, OPM Disability and a Hostile Working Environment, OPM Disability Process, U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Disability Retirement | Tagged: an issue that can defeat a federal disability application, anxiety & panic attack in the Postal Service, arkansas opm disability retirement, cases where the opm claims situational disability, disability retirement for federal employees, emotional distress at the Post Office, federal workers disability, FERS disability retirement, harassment in the Postal Service, harassment is not a medical issue, hostile work environment for federal workers, hostile work environment in the Post Office, injured postal workers, job related stress and federal disability, Keeping Emotionalism to a Minimum, legal representation for injured federal workers, Major Depression cases in the USPS, mental condition in OPM disability, mental disorders among federal employees, MSPB Administrative Judge, MSPB disability attorney, MSPB disability lawyer, OPM disability, OPM disability retirement, OPM mental condition, postal service disability retirement, Postal Service employee advocate, psychiatric conditions, psychiatric disability in OPM Disability Retirement, psychiatric disorder caused by a hostile work environment, psychiatrist, psychologist, Situational Disability and the Federal Worker, situational federal disability, situational OPM disability, stress disability for federal employees, treatment of mental illnesses, us government employee's evaluation psychiatric conditions, USPS disability retirement, when causation is an issue in opm disability law, your psychiatrist as a an expert witness |
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