Disability Retirement under Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS): Does Sequence Matter?

So, when you are building a house, for example — does it matter whether you start with a solid foundation?  Or do you start with the roof and move downwards?  Or in writing a short story — does a writer finish the conclusion, then work backwards?

That actually doesn’t sound so strange, does it? — because it is often the “idea” of an ending which prompts the writer to write a story; but when it is presented to the reader, what is the sequence?

Is the reader given the ending, first, then the narrative of how the ending came to be?  Yes, even that — some creative writers have accomplished that, and sometimes quite effectively.  But that is a deliberate style of presenting a story — where the sequence is reversed for dramatic purposes, and so even when the ending is first, sequence, in fact, matters very much.

For Federal and Postal employees who are considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, “sequence” does matter.

There are multiple and complicated tentacles which are required to be completed and accomplished in a Federal Disability Retirement application — from the type and quality of medical reports; treatment records; Agency’s portion of forms to complete; the Applicant’s portion which needs to be completed; the language which should be used; how a request should be made — in the aggregate where the chaos of multiple actions need to be performed, the sequence of how those actions are initiated is often overlooked despite its impact and importance on a Federal Disability Retirement application.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of ordering the sequence of things which matter.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

FERS Disability Retirement Benefits: Easing the Complex Process

Every Federal Disability Retirement is a “first” for every filer; or, even if it is the rare case of a person who attempted the process some years ago, was denied, and is attempting again to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS — even for that person, it will appear as if it is the “first time”.

The first time for anything is almost true of everything.  This is not like riding a bicycle, or driving a car, or coming home after work; you can’t gain any greater experience by “trying it out” a few times and then going for it as some “final phase”.

Instead, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS is to engage and subject yourself to a complex administrative process which has multiple tentacles of responsibilities, all of which must be coordinated into a single application which effectively persuades an always-unwilling Federal Agency (i.e., the U.S. Office of Personnel Management) to grant a benefit which will effectively pay you a lifetime annuity/pension.

Easing the complex process is the job of an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.  For the experienced Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer, it is not the “first” time, nor the tenth — yet, there is a recognition that each case is unique no matter what place in the sequence of cases he has represented.

Contact a lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and ease the complex process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective case.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: False Wisdom

The cottage industry which leeches upon failure and despair has always been around.  The false wisdom that “failure” is actually a positive outcome (because we can learn from it; because it leads to greater “growth”; that one cannot succeed without first tasting the bittersweet food of failure, etc.) is out there to be sold to, and purchased by, millions upon millions who have, indeed, experienced the outcome of failure.

There is, of course, an argument to be made: That you should look on the bright side of things; that lessons can, indeed, be learned from failure; that we might want to try things differently next time, etc.  On the other hand, most people would rather succeed, and do so on the first try, instead of experiencing the alleged “growth-potential” of failing at something.

False wisdom is pervasive.  Why?  For a number of reasons — because “wisdom” has been ill-defined; we no longer seek it, but only the benefits which can be wrought from it; because we interpret “success” purely in terms of material wealth, etc.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits because of a prevailing medical condition which impacts one’s ability and capacity to continue in his or her current position, false wisdom would say that there is no choice but to endure the present circumstances.

Contact a disability lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement, and avoid the false wisdom which pervades even in the field of a specialized area of law such as Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer
OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer

 

Federal Disability Retirement Application: The Other Side of Utopia

The plethora of dystopian fiction must be an indicator of society’s anxieties.  It used to be that Orwell’s 1984 was the singular defining work, followed by Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  More recently, Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and its sequel, Klara and the Sun; and Ogawa’s The Memory Police.  These round out the quality of dystopian novels — not relegated to pulp fiction, but of a serious genre.

Why we relate to such themes; whether this global pandemic will produce a wider variety of such works; and to what extent the negative worldview created by problems worldwide seemingly unsolvable and constantly inundating us with tragic stories about poverty, destruction, death and injustices — only time will tell.

Personal struggles and tragedies should not be overlooked and dismissed merely because greater worldwide catastrophes exist.  It is never helpful to minimize one’s personal problems by saying, “Oh, it is nothing in comparison to what happened at X”.

For Federal employees and U.S Postal employees 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, the other side of Utopia is not merely to endure the growing realization that you can no longer do your job; rather, the other side of Utopia is to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

Contact a retirement attorney who specializes in OPM Employee Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of precluding the dystopian worldview that a medical condition can surely impose.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Medical Retirement Benefits for US Government Employees: Managing

It is the present participle of the verb, to manage; but, then, who takes into account these days as to the grammatical application of a term?

It infers the successful control and direction of others (as in a supervisor “managing a group of employees in a project”), or of one’s self (as in the response to the question, “How are you doing”? The reply: “Oh, I am managing.”).

But the word has also come to have a negative inference — for, in contrast to “thriving” or “excelling”, it confers upon the subject the idea that one is in a state of mere existence or survival; of maintaining the status quo and stuck in a chronic purgatory.  To merely be “managing” is not the same as growing; it is, rather, like the football team that is continuing to “manage” a lead while the opponent is slowly making a comeback.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are merely managing to stay employed, the problem comes when the Agency begins to initiate a “Performance Improvement Plan” (a “PIP”) or, worse, prepares a notice of removal because of excessive absences or other issues.  “Managing” is not the same as thriving.

Contact a disability attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of moving forward as opposed to staying in place and merely “managing” a medical condition and its consequences upon one’s ability and capacity to remain employed.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Disability Retirement: Bifurcations

People always like to bifurcate everything into neat categories: Friend or not; useful or not; Good or bad; You or me.  The binary approach, the disjunctive methodology; perhaps it is all an innate necessity for survival?

The ultimate categories of bifurcations is to live or die; to survive for another day or to cease existence; or, in a more poetic manner, Shakespeare’s, “To Be, or Not to Be” — yes, that is the question of ultimate significance; of Heidegger’s “Being or Nothingness”.  Approval or Denial.  Healthy or disabled.  Efficient worker or not. Member of “the team”, or no longer.  Neat bifurcations streamlined into a disjunctive of Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or”; that is how we like life to be — or not.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, the bifurcation is clear: Either suffer through as you are doing until retirement age, or file for Federal Disability retirement benefits.  The rash “third” alternative is really a very bad one: Of simply resigning and walking away with nothing to show for all of the federal service you put in.

If you have a minimum of 18 months of Federal Service, you are eligible to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.  Contact a retirement lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of the ultimate bifurcation: To fight for your benefit, as opposed to the unwise other — to give up.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
FERS Disability Retirement Lawyer

 

FERS Medical Disability Retirement Benefits: Not Just

There are at least two meanings to the phrase; one can be considered as a declarative sentence, complete in itself; the other, a prefatory remark, unfinished and incomplete.

Yet, perhaps both are correlative in their meanings, and essentially state the same thing.  For, one can witness a violation of human dignity and declare, “Not Just!”  That would be one sense.  Or, a person can lament the incompleteness of describing one’s personhood, as in: “I am not just X, but also A, B and C” — or, more particularly, for someone to be seen only as a plumber, a teacher, a student, a child, etc., without regard to the greater complexity and inner psychological intricacies that make up the whole person.

But, perhaps, the two meanings merely complement each other: It is not just to just consider a person in a one-dimensional manner.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the danger is that the Federal or Postal worker begins to become characterized more and more as “just” that individual who isn’t capable of doing his or her job, anymore.

People judge others quickly and harshly; there is rarely any nuance to the judgment.  Either you are good or bad; proficient or not; part of the agency’s “team”, or an outsider.  And when a medical condition hits, you are “just X”.

Contact a disability lawyer who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement case so that you become not just another casualty in the heartless world of a bureaucratic morass, but a person not just defined by your medical condition.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Disability Retirement: Metaxu

In Plato’s Symposium, it is a Greek term meaning, “in-between”.  Above mere beastly and appetitive desires, yet not quite transcending to the angels, we are stuck between lofty thoughts and mundane chores.

What we do in life is a paradigm of anomalies reflecting who we are: the construction worker who comes home and turns on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; the merchant who haggles daily in money matters only to spend his weekends in museums and art exhibits; the young man or woman who loves, but dreams of a monastic life of prayer and refection.

Throughout, Man is caught in-between.  Perhaps that is how Roman Catholic theology came up with the concept of Purgatory — of that state of being in perpetual hold until the prayers of others releases you from the captivity of your own doing.

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 your Federal or Postal job, the concept of Metaxu is familiar and intimate: of that “in-between” state of being.

You can’t do your job but you keep struggling to act as if you can.  You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone today or this afternoon.

Contact a retirement lawyer who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of releasing yourself from the state of Metaxu — that “in-between” state of perpetual agony.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

OPM Disability Retirement Benefits: Holding on Too Long

We all have that tendency; we live with the old rule & adage: “throwing good money after bad”; “to abandon is to admit failure”; “maybe tomorrow will be different than today”, etc.

Few of us are able to cut the string or the proverbial umbilical cord when time, circumstances and all indicators reveal to us the wisdom of doing so.  We hold on for too long; we don’t want to admit and face “the facts”; we want to believe that tomorrow is that ray of hope where yesterday was the shadow of darkness, but where darkness was a thing of the past.

Yes, there are rare instances in which stories of hope and rejuvenation profited the stubborn exception; but that is why there are such stories in the first place — they are the exceptions which defied the normal course of most circumstances.

For the Federal employee or U.S. Postal Service worker who suffers 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, holding on too long has more than a price to pay in terms of time wasted; it has to do with your health.

Holding on too long can continue to help deteriorate the health which you are attempting to preserve.

Contact an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of “letting go” — an act of the will, and not merely the words of a Shakespearean fool who brings down the King and his kingdom with a crash of tragedy echoing beyond Lear’s empty ravings.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Medical Retirement Benefits for US Government Employees: A Slice of Paradise

Hank Worden played Moses Harper as the irritating sidekick alongside John Wayne in The Searchers.  At the end, he merely wanted a rocking chair to sit in, and rock the days and dusks away in view of the landscape’s beauty which told the story of the human narrative: of struggle, life and death; of wars and massacres; of the history of human inhumanity.

Perhaps that was his idea of a slice of paradise.  Everyone possesses a concept of it; for some, it is simple and fundamental; for others, complex and encapsulating endless greed.  Maybe it is just a place of your own on a mountaintop; a house in a quiet neighborhood; a family, or not; or a multi-million dollar mansion with wide and endless swaths of acreage.

Whatever constitutes one’s idea of a slice of paradise, that is what we live for.  For some, also, it is the negation of something.  We take for granted our health, and when we lose it, our idea of a slice of paradise is altered profoundly: For those in chronic pain, it is the negation or lessening of that pain; for those with anxieties and panic attacks and depression, just to get through the day without a breakdown.

For Federal employees and Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS may come closest to a realistic conception of a slice of paradise: For an opportunity to have some respite from the daily stresses of the workplace and attend to the priorities which envelope one’s daily life — the medical condition itself, which reveals that the fall of Adam and Eve, indeed, sliced paradise forever and a day.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer