Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: The Chasm Between Sanity and Twilight

Sometimes, there are moments of clarity where one is left with wonderment at the behavioral folly of individuals, organizations, and groups of collective consciousnesses (what an untenable word — the pluralization of that which ends in what appears to be the plural form of the noun).  Whether one agrees with the Supreme Court’s holding that corporations should be treated as “persons”, the fact is that organizations act in collective aggregates in similar manners as individuals and amoebas.

Group-think, herd mentality and symbiotic consciousness of behavior is not unfamiliar to us all; for Federal and Postal employees who suffer from an injury or disability, and where the medical condition leads the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker to file for Federal/Postal Medical Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether that Federal worker or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, it is a fairly routine matter that engagement with one’s agency can be characterized as one of workplace hostility, unpleasantness or unfriendly separation.

Why this is so; what bonds of loyalty become severed merely because the Federal or Postal employee expresses an intent to terminate the employment relationship as a consequence of the onset and intervention of a injury or chronic condition; and how the contextual animosity develops into a flashpoint where the Federal agency or the U.S. Postal Service believes that it must initiate adverse actions or punitive measures; these are all wrapped up within the conundrum of complexities which characterize the human condition, and that is why organizations and organic aggregates of individuals comprise a compendium of human behavior.

It is, in the end, an unexplained and incomprehensible phenomena; what it is; how it can be explained; where one goes to for enlightenment; these questions must be relegated to the dark corners of behavioral recesses within those chasms between sanity and twilight.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: The Distant Whisperings of Change

When the warning signs in the sky prophesize that it is time to go to the promised land of Federal or Postal Disability Retirement

Sometimes, it is a gnawing sense; other times, a faint murmur whispering a warning of wayward paths impending upon the precipice of time, urging one to consider a different trail to take; but more often, it is not the distant sound of the mountains which we fail to consider; rather, it is that we selectively hear, but deliberately ignore.

Medical conditions tend to betray us; they do not provide the subtlety of quiet and gentle reminders, and when they do, the progressive nature of the drumbeat of persistent pain, chronicity of signs, and incessant expansion of deteriorating dimensions call for an attention which refuses to be avoided.

Change is often and inevitable aspect of life.

For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, the need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal Worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the growing nature of one’s debilitating medical condition cannot be ignored.

If the precept of life is accepted, and change is an inevitable component of the precondition for the future, then ignoring the warning signs impending is merely to delay the consequences of that which is existentially fateful.  Unlike the sound of the mountain permeating the morning sunrise, where the mist of calm begins to lift like angels in the twilight of heaven, medical conditions which require a change in one’s life must be acknowledged and accepted.

Federal OPM Disability Retirement is a benefit offered to all Federal and Postal workers who have the minimum 18 months of Federal Service under FERS, and 5 years under CSRS; it allows for the Federal and Postal employee to move forward in life, and not remain stuck in the misery of changelessness. As change is the bellwether for the future, so remaining stuck is to ignore the distant whisperings of change, and the inevitable necessity of acting.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire