Once a decision has been made to begin preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS & CSRS, then the mechanical aspects of gathering and compiling the evidence to make one’s paper presentation to the Office of Personnel Management must begin.
It can be a daunting process. However, it is overcoming the initial timidity which is the first step. The compilation of the proper medical narrative reports with the effective wording and nexus between the medical condition and essential elements of one’s job; the creation of a narrative word picture of one’s Applicant’s Statement of Disability; any legal arguments to be presented and cited; the remainder of the Standard Forms to be completed by the Agency; the insurance forms — one can easily get lost in the morass of such paperwork.
Then, there is the “waiting period” — that long and anxiety-stricken time of waiting for the Office of Personnel Management to makes its decision at the Initial Stage, and if denied, at the Reconsideration Stage of the process; and, if denied a second time, an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
It is during the “waiting period” that one must begin to think about the period “beyond” — that time when one becomes a Federal Disability Retiree, where one finally has the proper time to attend to one’s medical conditions, then to rethink in terms of another job, another career, another phase of life. It is the time to think about “moving beyond” one’s self-perception and paradigm of self-conception of being a “Federal employee”, and instead to think of the re-created self in new and fresh terms.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: anxiety while waiting for an opm disability decision, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, endless waiting for the opm to process disability application, enjoying life outside the federal workplace even with disabilities, FERS disability retirement, life after federal employees disability retirement, looking ahead in life after federal disability retirement, making a final decision about your disability and your federal career, moving beyond the federal disability process, OPM disability retirement, opm disability retirement processing waiting time, postal employee career choices, postal service disability retirement, representing federal employees from any us government agency, the disabled federal employee and career changes, the injured federal employee and a second chance and career, the opm approval letter and time to move forward, there is life outside federal employment, time to change careers, USPS disability retirement, waiting for your federal disability application to be approved, when it is time to move on, your career with the federal government and your medical condition |
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