The problem with medical conditions is that we tend to regard them passively, as recipients of service at a restaurant, or as victims of an automobile hit-and-run. There is some limited truth to such a perspective; for, as medical conditions come upon us without notice or invitation, we are merely recipients of a condition of that which we never asked for nor desired. But once it becomes an existential fact, and one which becomes chronic and somewhat irreversible, then the subsequent methodology of what we do with the medical condition becomes the responsibility of the bearer of such bad news.
For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition(s) prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, whether under FERS or CSRS, consideration must be given to filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Passivity in life will only engender magnification of inactivity; and as one must affirmatively prove by a preponderance of the evidence one’s Federal Disability Retirement case, sitting idly by as one’s agency takes steps to increase the penalties of unsatisfactory performance via leave restrictions, a PIP, suspensions, or other adverse actions, including removal from Federal Service, is simply an ineffective way of formulating and developing one’s Federal Disability Retirement case.
Case development requires a proactive stance; inactivity will only feed upon the devastating medical condition already suffered. Being a victim of a disease or injury once is bad enough; let not the occurrence be magnified by compounding the problem through inactivity and passivity.
Sincerely, Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement, Et Cetera… 