Tag Archives: articles by postal medical retirement lawyer

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement Attorney: Negating the Sense of Panic

It comes upon all of us; the stealth of the sapping subtlety; the interruption of sleep, once removed in the quietude of dawn’s calm but for the far echoes of distant yearnings once deliberated, but as in the morning dew which forms soundlessly upon the bending blade of beatitude, the slow slide and dissipation tells us with an alarm that awakens:  What am I doing?

Panic is the alarm system which propels with an urgency, and often it results in the furious activity of unproductive futility.  Are we merely spinning our wheels?  A sense of one’s fate, the inevitability of timeless onslaught; these are all buttons pushed which call upon a person to act.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact and prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal position, the sense that “something” needs to be done is always just around the next proverbial corner, and leaves one with the feeling of unease and panic.  And while King Lear may admonish his daughter of brevity by noting that nothing comes from nothing, the “something” which we do should not be merely engaging in acts of futility, but constructive advancements toward a teleological embracing of an identified goal.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, for the Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker, is a concrete goal with tangible benefits to be accrued.

As panic is an ephemeral but powerful sense of the unknown, the antidote to performing non-constructive modes of activities is to recognize, identify and initiate a concrete process with actual ends; and for the Federal or Postal worker who has realized that continuation in the Federal or Postal job is no longer a viable option, preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, will help to negate that nagging sense of panic, and compel one towards a constructive and productive future.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Procedural Hurdles

Bureaucratic complexities have become a part of everyday life.  When societies become entrenched in administrative procedures, where the process itself is paramount over the substantive goals intended to achieve, and the proper filing of standard forms cannot be ignored lest the conformity of all is undermined by the exception of the singular; then, it is declared that progress has been made, the height of civilization has been achieved, and the pinnacle of human inventiveness has been reached.

Whether one agrees with the satire of bureaucratic conundrums or not, the reality is that the inherent complexities of government must be contended with, and attempting to subvert or otherwise evade the necessity of completing standardized procedural methodologies is an act of futility bordering on rebellion.

For injured/ill Federal employees and Postal Workers who must consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS or CSRS, or even CSRS Offset, the importance of overcoming procedural hurdles cannot be overstated.  SF 3112A, SF 3112B, SF 3112C & SF 3112D must be completed for all Federal and Postal employees filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset; and for FERS Federal and Postal Workers, one must also complete SF 3107 (as opposed to SF 2801 for CSRS & CSRS Offset Federal and Postal employees).

And, while there are ways to provide additional addendum information beyond that which can fit within the neat spaces provided on the standard forms themselves, nevertheless, it is necessary to follow the rules and abide by the bureaucracy of conformity.  Yes, administrative hurdles are a headache and a difficulty to overcome; but, no, you cannot ignore them, as the reality of administrative and bureaucratic headaches is a constancy we must live with in a society deemed to be the pinnacle of human achievement and progress.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Attorney

 

OPM Disability Retirement: The Coming Year

Calendric rhythms constitute artificial attempts at becoming partnered with time; like the music to which the dancer dances, there is nothing uglier than being out of step with the aura of a beat.

Eternity of time marches in a continuum without notice or constraint; our bifurcated days are broken down into days, hours, minutes and fractions thereof, as ordered slices like slabs of beef prepared for delectable consumption.  But whether the artificial imposition of our subjective categories have an impact upon the rhythmic tone of a cold and impervious world, is gleaned in rare moments of sudden insights, when a tremor shakes the foundations of tranquility, and we are awakened from the slumber of our own inventions.

Medical conditions tend to do that.  Suddenly, priorities of life must be reordered, calendric impositions of tasks to be accomplished seem to pale in weight of sufficiency, and leisure activities no longer constitute a viable avenue of escape from the drudgery of daily monotony.  Medical conditions bring to the fore the importance of that which is the essence of relevance:  not possessions, not contraptions nor toys of distractions; but of human connections.

For Federal and Postal employees who put so much of their time, effort, lives and worth of energy into the performance of daily work, a medical condition that prevents one from performing the essential elements of one’s positional duties becomes a trauma of sorts, and a shifting of tectonic plates.  Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is an option one should take when once the notion of value, time, priorities and the interruption of calendric rhythms has been evaluated.

In the coming year, there will be moments of clarity and insight, when it becomes obvious that one’s body is attempting to convey a warning, or where the cognitive deluge of despair blares a clarion call for the quietude of yesteryear, when the chains of time were but a hollow echo whistling in the cavernous dark of unknown depths.  The coming year will tell when it is time to file for Federal Disability Retirement.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: Conceptual Relationships

Word associations are revealing.  When once a word is uttered, the immediate association of another concept provides a prelude to the cognitive perspective of an individual.  Conceptual relationships are forged through upbringing, personal experiences, and memories fulfilled through impact, trauma, significance of meaning, and attribution of value.  The thinking “I” within the subjective realm of a personal universe, is made up of ghosts of the past, goblins of present fears, and gadflies yet to swarm.

Medical conditions, and terms associated with diagnoses and disabilities, whether physical or psychiatric, tend to engender fear and loathing, precisely because of the limitations they impose, the havoc they wreak, and the problems they present.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact the ability and capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the option of choice to resolve the impending problems of unbalance — of the growing and magnified inability to juggle work, medical care, and physical/cognitive/emotional health — is to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

No, it is not a perfect solution.  Yes, it is an option which is final, in the sense that one is retired from the Federal System.  But when alternative courses of actions are delimited within the purview of pragmatic choices, conceptual associations must be tempered within the objective realm of reality.

The moon may well be made of blue cheese, and such conceptual associations can be wrought within the realm of Platonic Forms and cognitive gymnastics; but in the real world, conceptual relationships must by necessity be forged within the iron ore of a witch’s cauldron brewing the germinations for future discourse.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Rhythmic Interruptions

A simple alteration such as moving the clock forward or backward one hour, in accordance with daylight savings time, can interrupt the rhythmic habituation of daily living.  Such minor tinkering has greater impact than we care to concede, and to which we fail to respond appropriately.

Man enjoys the pinnacle of technological snobbery; daily, he lives “as if”; whether lost in the insular privacy of his own thoughts, or deliberately in the parallel universes created through video escapism, virtual universes of linguistic scaffolds high atop the animal kingdom, the ignoring and averting of biological rhythms is to the detriment of health, whether mental or physical.

One can get away with dismissing a singular incident of feeling out of coordination because of a long day, a tiring embattlement with work, or a protracted convalescence from unexpected turmoil. But medical conditions which are progressive in nature, chronic in defying avoidance, and deteriorating to a degree which cannot be denied, are all greater exponential forces beyond mere rhythmic interruptions of daily routine. Some things, we can ignore; others, we do so at the cost of paying a greater price by procrastination.

Federal Disability Retirement benefits are available for the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker who decides, after long and quiet deliberation, that an impasse has occurred between one’s health and one’s physical or cognitive requirements of the positional duties required by the Federal or Postal job. Rhythmic interruptions are one category; medical conditions which have an interceding impact upon the ability to perform the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, quite another.

Fighting the good fight does not mean that one should expend to the end of time at the cost of one’s health.  When the Federal or Postal employee recognizes that the fictional fantasy of being at the pinnacle of the animal world does not include being exempted from the biological reality of injury and disease, and that rhythmic interruptions resulting from a health issue need to be attended to, then the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement will be appreciated, as it is an employment benefit available to all Federal and Postal employees who have the minimum years of creditable service with the Federal Government.

One can lie to one’s self only for so long; and as the species of Man can survive with the blanket of surreal condiments by asserting exemption from biological entrapment, so the Federal and Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, can endure pain and rhythmic interruptions only for so long.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

OPM Retirement for Mental or Physical Incapacity: Life Changes

For some, transitions constitute mere alterations with minimal reverberations; but for most, change from routine is itself a traumatic event worth resisting even at the expense of one’s own good, one’s advantage, one’s self-interest.  Stability and the status quo represent a daily habituation of life where symbolism of sameness parallels security and safety.

It may be the routine itself; and while complaints about work may abound, the complaining itself engulfs a camaraderie of a community of collectivism. But for the injured Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker who begins to suffer from a condition, such that the progressively deteriorating nature of the injury or disability begins to prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, it is often the forced imposition and lack of choice in the matter, which exponentially magnifies the hardship of acceptance.

Man lives by routine of daily monotony.  Economic requirements imposing a time to get up, to groom oneself, perform the toil of the day, and then to come home exhausted but satisfied that some contribution to society was made, some significance in the greater cosmos of teleological void was marked in an unnamed and unrevealed book of acknowledgments; to interrupt such a routine after years and decades of fighting for an obscure cause, is a shock of life.

To choose to change is one thing; to have the choice made for you, quite another.  And of course, acceptance of an altered life can take some time, but time is never on the side of the Federal or Postal worker who must find an alternate source of income.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is never an easy venture to undertake.  Alone, it is a lonely meandering within a confusing morass of administrative conundrums; with some guidance, it is merely a directed disruption of a disquieted life. But necessity mandated upon the Federal and Postal work often reveals an inner strength which somehow manifests itself in the sea of change, and for the Federal and Postal worker who must file for Disability Retirement from the OPM because of the imposition of a medical condition, life’s inevitable changes must be accepted in this world of shifting sands, as time marches on whether the invisible chains of stability keep secure the earthquakes felt, or yet to be experienced.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire