FERS Disability Application Assistance: Intermediate causes

Reading Aristotle, we realize that most of us search for the “final” cause of things, quickly overlooking and ignoring those intermediate causes that make for the engines that transport, the accomplishments that matter, and sustain the requisite constancy of life.

It is like the individual on the team who takes credit for the completion of a project; yes, he gives some acknowledgment to various contributors by giving lip-service with the traditional, “And I would like to thank Mitch, Susan and Bill for being instrumental in our endeavor”, but in the end, it is the “finalist” in every causal conclusion that everyone recognizes and applauds.

Yet, it is the intermediate, sometime imperceptible causes which make for the foundation of a life’s work.  We always want to know what the final outcome is, and when we have predetermined the conclusion, we quickly lose interest and move on.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it is important to realize that this “stage of life” is merely an intermediate cause, and not the final conclusion.

There is “life after Federal or Postal employment,” and preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application and surviving the complex administrative process is not the final chapter in this enduring story for those Federal employees who suffer from a medical condition and have no choice but to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, whether you are under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

The “final chapter” is yet to be written, just as the “final cause” is still to be encountered; this is, after all, merely one of those Aristotelian intermediate causes.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire