Federal Disability Retirement: The Medical Condition and Fear

Fear is an emotion which is often overwhelming, uncontrollable, and yet an innate, inherent necessity for survival.  It possesses a purposeful essence — it warns the human condition, alerts the person, and heightens the senses to become aware of one’s surroundings and potential foreboding of events.  But fear can also have a negative, deleterious effect:  one which paralyzes and overtakes the rational side of a person.

In this day and age, fear in the context of a medical condition which impacts one’s ability to survive in an economy which is becoming less and less empathetic, is itself something which feeds upon itself.  When a medical condition begins to impact the Federal or Postal employee, and the effects of the medical condition upon one’s ability to perform all of the essential elements of one’s job begins to manifest itself, a growing sense of fear begins to arise, precisely because the medical condition is not only attacking one’s physical well-being, but also one’s ability to provide for one’s family.

In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, the length of time it takes to undergo the administrative process, from beginning to end, must be taken into account, then multiplied by a “reality factor”.  The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is oblivious to the fear factor, and proceeds in its bureaucratic fashion without regard to the human condition.

Starting early, planning early, and filing as soon as possible is the pragmatic solution, if at all possible.  But, above all, it is important to do it well, properly, and effectively.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire