“One day I woke up and looked in the mirror, and realized that I was no longer the person who I thought I was.”
Is this a line from a novel? Or, perhaps a thought which so many people have considered? Or even a universal realization which comes as no surprise to anyone. Who am I? Who are you?
Do such queries become satisfied by taking out one’s driver’s license and declaring, “Here. This satisfies the question. This proves it!” Yet, somehow, we all know that it doesn’t.
People who search for their family “tree”; the uptick of businesses which match one’s DNA to various geographical markers; the rummaging through old photo albums, cellar chests and basement hideaways which might reveal something more than the rat race of paying bills — we all seek relevance in a universe which considers identity to be besides the point. And when an event further diminishes one’s identity, what then?
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers whose identity has been inextricably tied to one’s job, position, career, etc., within the Federal government or Postal Service, filing for FERS Disability Retirement may be a traumatic but necessary next step. It is always difficult to part ways from one’s identity as a competent working-X; but it may be necessary, precisely because the medical condition no longer allows you to remain attached to that identity.
Contact an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider the future and what identifiable identity you wish to pursue in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
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Federal Disability Retirement Benefits: Toxic Associations
At some point, the “distancing” begins. First, a subtle move — not saying “hello”; not answering a phone call; avoiding the places where the usual meetings once took place.
Then, perhaps the prefatory denials: “We weren’t really friends” (an adverb to enhance the denial, but a form of grammatical insertion which is more telling when used than not applied at all); “Oh, I didn’t know him hardly at all”. And then the final nail to the coffin: “Who? The name is not familiar.” Well…how about these photographs which show that you were with him/her multiple times?
Toxic associations can range from the blatant to the subtle; but once the toxicity becomes apparent, the rats begin to abandon ship in droves.
Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition are often treated as such associations — “toxic” to the extent that they are looked upon as plague-filled individuals who are no longer a member of the “team”. When those allegedly toxic associations begin to be felt — of coworkers ignoring you; of supervisors looking at you with suspicion, etc., it is time to consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.
Your medical conditions are often viewed as contagious — not in terms of transmitting diseases, but in terms of no longer being useful to the Agency or the Postal service.
Contact a Federal Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement benefits and begin to disassociate yourself from the toxic associations — theirs, not yours — and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Lawyer
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