FERS Disability Medical Retirement: Summer Respite?

Isn’t that what we long for?  Those “dog days of summer”, when a slight respite is tacitly agreed to by everyone, or most everyone.  Like weekends; like informal truces presumed between enemy forces; Christmas week; New Year’s Eve; the Thanksgiving Holidays; and once upon a time Easter Week was solemnly observed where most people took a time of reflection to redirect sacred oaths and faithful commitments.

The summer respite is quite different.  Not marking any particular occasion nor recognizing a specific remembrance, it is nevertheless a time somewhere in the searing and unrelenting heat of summer that everyone suddenly slows down.  Whether by osmosis of a transcendent metabolic engineering that is inherent in all human beings, or just a faint comprehension that we all need a break, the time for a summer respite is traditionally recognized by all.

These are peculiar times, however.  With half of the nation experiencing economic concerns and the other half still battling the pandemic, there isn’t time for the yearly cycle of a summer respite.  Medical conditions are like that, too.  It robs us of that summer respite, or of any respite at all.

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 having any respite from the daily turmoil of life’s challenges, contact an OPM Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Employee FERS Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

While it may not get you the summer respite you were looking for, it will offer you the lifetime respite from having to have to endure the unendurable turmoil of continuing in a job which you can no longer do.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal & Federal Worker Disability Retirement: Moving to the Next

Next what? This is a nation which is known for constantly moving to the next — whatever.  Other countries build upon a series of yesterdays, slowly, methodically, accumulating knowledge from past wisdom, building a culture, cultivating traditions, finding sacred solace in silent offerings to the past.

Our nation is one of abandonment, replacement — of moving to the next news cycle, the newest fad, the most recent money-making scheme and the next popular star, designer, show, Broadway hit, sports celebrity or what have you.  It is always going to the next, moving forward, never looking back at the human detritus left by the roadside of a speedway without limits.

Never mind that half of the population is depressed, medicated, left to fend for themselves and unable to cope with the fast-paced rate of a society without empathy.  Always, moving to the next.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, “moving to the next” is not an option insofar as the “next” constitutes the next mission-oriented duties of a Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service.  Instead, if the “next” is the need to file for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, contact a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and move to the next phase of your life as a Federal Disability Retiree.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: The Audience

We shall see.  Sports without an audience.  There have been enough psychological studies done to establish that people — including groups of people (i.e., teams) — act and react differently in comparative analysis between behaving before crowds as opposed to without them.  The greatest performers have been those who “know” their audience.  In other words, the “crowd pleasers”, the ones who can manipulate the emotional responses of the audience, etc.

Do some play for the 6 o’clock highlights?  Does a spectacular play become so when no one is watching?  Yes, yes, there is the television audience; but the fans once removed is like the tree that falls in the forest without anyone witnessing it; the tree does indeed fall, but the silence that surrounds is what dominates.  We shall see.

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, remember who our audience is: It is not your Agency; it is not your Supervisor or your coworkers; it is a separate agency altogether — the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

It is a paper presentation to OPM, and how it is characterized, what is presented, the extent and quality of the presentation — these all matter.  For, in the end, the “To Whom” is always crucial in every arena of play — whether in sports, in law, or even in the privacy of one’s home; it is the audience that makes the difference.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Employee Disability Retirement: Failures

When ascribed to a task or a project, it all depends upon how it is characterized.  When identified or closely associated with an individual, we tend to be harsher judges — especially when it involves our own participation.  Perhaps there is a simple, even “objective” definition which encapsulates the concept of failure: Of merely not achieving that which was expected.

If we work with that definition, then the focal point would be upon our own expectations, and perhaps we simply needed to adjust them to a more realistic perspective.  Then again, such an approach would merely be a circular tautology, and there would never be any failures — i.e., every time a failure occurred, we could just say, “Oh, we expected that”, and every time our expectations were not met, we would say, “Oh, we changed our expectations, so it is no longer a failure”.  But clearly, that does not reflect reality, and there are truly times when failure does occur.

In the end, what is important is to recognize that our expectations — both of ourselves and of outcomes in reality — cannot always be met, precisely because there are other intervening factors that may account for the prevention of meeting them.

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 recognize that the intervening factor of the medical condition itself is what prevents you from meeting that expectation of reaching full retirement, and that is why Federal Disability Retirement benefits are there to assert.

It is not a “failure” to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits; rather, our expectations concerning our own health intervened in the meantime, and we have to adjust to accommodate — not a failure, but of human frailty.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement for Federal Employees: Agency Actions

Agencies possess a great deal of power.  When a Federal or Postal employee is subjected to the actions of an agency or the postal facility, future consequences yet undetermined may reverberate without full knowledge to the employee.  The results may be subtle, but just enough to minimize the chances of successfully obtaining a Federal Disability Retirement.

The same goes for Federal and Postal employees who go through the First and Second Stages of a Federal Disability Retirement application process without an attorney.  OPM, as a Federal Agency, wields a great deal of power over an individual — determining the future course of a Federal Disability Retirement application, for one; and just as their actions can impact the decision-making process of a Federal Disability Retirement applicant, so too can other agencies during the procedures of processing a Federal Disability Retirement application.

How an SF 3112B is completed and the language used; what is stated or attached to SF 3112D; what the applicant says in response to the questions posed on SF 3112A; all of these can have subtle reverberations down the line.  Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer before you go down another rabbit hole that may result in agency actions which negatively impact you.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Medical Disability Retirement: Problem Solving

We are not all that good at it; some, better than others; the rest of us, standing by as watchful bystanders.  Is problem-solving done by methodological discourse, or by random attempts of trial and error?

Certainly, for engineering and scientific challenges, esoteric training and background has an advantage; but did the first person who came to the end of a peninsula and observed an island just beyond — did the thought of a bridge or a boat appear because of some specialized knowledge, or simply out of one’s imagination?

In modernity, problems and their solutions tend to be compartmentalized into specialized areas of training.  Aside from problems of the run-of-the-mill character (family squabbles, teenagers, lost pets and a leaky faucet, etc.), most are challenges within a specified field of expertise.  We no longer live in a world where mysteries abound and explorers wonder (wander?) whether there is an edge at the far side of the oceans.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who have a problem with a medical condition which prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it may be time to call an expert in the field of Federal Disability Law and prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.  For, problem solving is not merely a matter of a problem identified, but of a solution thoughtfully contemplated.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal & Federal Employees with Disabilities: Apparent Perfection

There are no perfect lives, only the appearance of perfection.  We walk past one another, bump shoulders in large crowds (well, in these times, with social distancing and masks required, perhaps not); and we imagine other lives, other families and other strangers to live lives of perfection, or near-unblemished ones, until we hear otherwise.  Twitter, Facebook and other social mediums provide that appearance; but deep down, we know that perfection can never be achieved, only the appearance of it.

As the old idiom goes: Before you judge a person, walk a mile in that person’s shoes — and it is when we learn about the private details of another’s life that we begin to either appreciate our own, or become even more discontented.

Medical conditions are often masked by the appearance of normalcy, and we judge based upon the surface manifestations — a grimace; a groan; a wince; a request for assistance; or perhaps a vacant stare or paralysis of actions.  Not all pain can be verified by a diagnostic image; some conditions can only be correlated by real-time sensations.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who can no longer perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, contact and consult with an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider whether the apparent perfection you have been presenting to your Agency or Postal facility is no longer possible because that presentation of perfection has been undermined by the medical condition itself.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Sound Advice

“Sound” is a word which completely changes its meaning when combined with the word “advice”.  Taken separately, independently and in isolation, the word when articulated will not evoke the meaning produced by the combination, but rather, of noises one may hear, a song one is particularly fond of, or the voice of a familiar person, etc.  When placed together with the word, “advice”, it takes on an entirely separate meaning: Of being solid, reliable, truthful, etc.

Of course, one can also argue that it is merely a repetitive tautology, unnecessary and redundant; for, “advice given” should, by definition, be sound to begin with, otherwise it is neither advice nor sound and the duality of the meaning doesn’t add anything one to the other.  But clearly there is such a thing as bad advice, or advice which is “not sound”, and so there is a reason to combine the two words together, for the word “sound” does indeed add something to the word “advice” to combine and make up the concept, “sound advice”.

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, what is often lacking in the field of Federal Disability Retirement is not only “sound advice”, but any advice at all.  Agencies don’t want to disseminate information about Federal Disability Retirement; Supervisors and Managers offer ignorance as an excuse; and even your own Human Resource Office is deliberately unhelpful.

Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and obtain some sound advice, lest the soundness be less than sound and the advice becomes one which is regrettable.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: Memories of Yesterday

There was a recent single-captioned cartoon that had a man and a woman together (presumably a married couple), where one says to the other, “It’s sad when the ‘good old days’ are just yesterday”.  The point of the cartoon was to give us a sense of where we are today, where the pandemic has come upon with such rapidity and impact upon our lives such that memories of yesterday have become the fond fodder of our daily discourse.

The “good old days” are not a decade ago, or even a couple of years ago; they are yesterday.

Memories of yesterday: No concern that just by going out to the grocery store, you will contract a deadly disease that will land you in the hospital; or that there is any concern about eating at a restaurant; or that shaking hands with someone, opening the door to a store or visiting the home of a friend or neighbor will pose a danger.  Or that you may not necessarily be the victim or patient, but rather, you may become the unwitting carrier of a virus which may impact another, more vulnerable person.  Memories of yesterday remain fresh in our minds.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition impacts one’s ability and capacity to continue in one’s chosen career, memories of yesterday are nothing new, and this pandemic has merely exacerbated the situation.

Federal Disability Retirement may be an option to consider, and you should contact a Federal Disability Retirement Attorney to see whether or not the memories of yesterday — before the onset of your medical condition — may prompt you to be qualified for the reality of today by filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: This Day’s Trial

It is enough to contend with; this day’s trial, as opposed to tomorrow’s, or the day after that; or of constant rumination upon yesterday’s trial, or last week’s.  Life is complicated and challenging; to worry beyond the trials of today makes it almost too much.  Between obligations of work, family, taking care of one’s elder parents, fear of the pandemic, attempting to juggle the multiple demands coming at you from every which way — beyond this day’s trial is something that must be set aside until the next dawn’s light opens one’s eyes.

For those with medical conditions, of course, the trial itself is exponentially pronounced; for, the yearning for the time when the day’s trial merely contained all of that which has been described — but without the medical condition — would be preferred on any given day.  But that this day’s trial could be without the medical condition.

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, this day’s trial always begins and ends with the medical condition itself.  Consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Contact a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer, and begin to minimize this day’s trial so that tomorrow’s trial is less of a burden than this day’s trial.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire