Tag Archives: back pay for retirement disability

FERS Disability Retirement: Parts of the Day

Human beings like to bifurcate, separate, identify, categorize, and otherwise artificially divide time into manageable segments in order to re-order the world to their liking.

This is the simplified explanation of Kant’s distinction between the “phenomenal world” (the one we perceive through our cognitive faculties) and the “noumenal world” — that “objective” universe which we are never able to access because the categories of our human constitution impose upon the raw universe the mental ordering so that we perceive that which is uniquely human.

Thus, “time”, as Augustine viewed it, is merely the human imposition of expectations as to an anticipated future segment, and nothing more than a fiction based upon human categorization of past, prevent and future.

And of the “parts of the day”?  Perhaps it might go something like the following: Morning coffee period — enjoyable; the slog of late morning; lunch, a quiet respite; the sleepiness after a meal, but somehow to get over the hump of early afternoon; then, watching the clock as the minutes slowly make their way towards the end of a workday; the stress-filled commute back home; home, for last minute chores, children and a good night’s sleep.

With variations, each individual experiences a similar “phenomenal” day, cut up into manageable segments — until an interceding (and interrupting) force appears.  Chronic medical conditions often constitute and comprise that “interruption”.

Fortunately, for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, where the medical condition itself alters the Federal or Postal employee’s parts of the day — by necessity, to get through the debilitating symptoms of your disabling health condition — it may not be so simple as the hypothetical division as described herein.

What needs to happen, then, is to prepare an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), so that the parts of the day can look somewhat like the following: Focus on getting better; rest; focus on getting better; rest.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill,
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Medical Retirement for FERS Federal and Postal Employees: Paralysis

It is the complete and total inability, whether by physical incapacity or mental breakdown, to engage and maneuver within and throughout the world.  Partial paralysis is just that — of some but not all.  The spectrum on which a medical condition can fall is determined by the severity of that paralysis — Can you do some, but not all, of the essential elements of the duties required in your position description?

Most people who have an injury or a psychiatric condition do not suffer from total paralysis, but from partial — and still can remain productive, but in a lesser capacity.

That is why Federal Disability Retirement allows the Federal or Postal worker who has successfully obtained a Federal Disability Retirement annuity to go out into the private sector, state, county or local government, and make up to 80% of what your former position currently pays — because, as stated previously, most people are not beset with complete and total paralysis, but merely some partial form.

All medical conditions, whether physical or psychiatric, have an impact tantamount to a form of paralysis; however, not all medical conditions are equal, and some allow for further productivity beyond the point where the medical condition becomes a chronic, permanent condition.

Contact a disability lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and don’t allow the medical condition — that “paralysis of life” — to prevent you from moving on in your life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Autopilot

Somehow, the human capacity allows for such “non-engagement engagement” — of being able to operate without being fully engaged with the world, yet at an acceptable and safe level such that you can still accomplish certain things intended.  The “autopilot” is a mechanism of the subconscious which allows for performance without being fully conscious of engaging in that performance of actions.

Autopilot can occur in multiple and varied circumstances: Driving is a prime example, where we can be deep in thought and perform the mechanical actions of driving, and when we arrive at our destination, we wonder how we got there, as we were never fully conscious of being engaged in the act of driving.

Autopilot can also occur when we are multi-tasking — of typing furiously away while talking on the telephone, responding appropriately, yet not fully engaged.  Or in general conversation when we reply with the pablum of autopilot’s routine: “How are you?”  “Fine, and you?”  “Good.  Anything new?”  “No, just the same old things.”

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, however, being on autopilot becomes less and less of a capability; for, the medical condition itself often forces one to be fully aware, to be constantly engaged, to be heightened at all times because of the pain experienced, the anguish felt, the anxiety encountered.  Without one’s autopilot, life can be exhausting.

Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and consider the possibility of a Federal Disability Retirement.  It may allow you to have the time to recuperate so that your autopilot can be further engaged.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Medical Retirement Benefits: Forever and a Day

The concept itself is a conundrum; it is to emphasize the extension beyond eternity when eternity itself cannot be extended by self-definition.  The “add-on” of the extra day provokes the idea that it goes just a little further than that which we can comprehend; and yet, we can barely, if at all, comprehend the concept of “forever” itself.

For certain ideas, can we “feel” concepts better than we can “understand” them?  That, in and of itself, of course, is a puzzling concept; for, words, ideas and concepts are posited to intellectually comprehend as opposed to applying an emotive conceptualization of it.  To “feel” that you understand a word or a concept is quite different from comprehending it intellectually.  Yet, doesn’t the idea of “pain” fit into that category?

A person who experiences a great deal of pain may not be able to understand it, and yet he or she “feels” it, and in the very existential experiencing of the phenomena, comprehends it better than the person who merely reads about it but never experiences it.  Furthermore, the person who “understands” pain has a greater comprehension of the phrase, “forever and a day” — for the two are similar in experiences; the one is a medical condition that can barely be described; the other, a concept of existence that is similar to unendurable pain.

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, the feeling that life has become “forever and a day” is a familiar one, precisely because of the unendurable stresses inherent in trying to balance work, home, the medical condition and the growing stresses of it all.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement under FERS is a step towards realizing that days do not need to become lost in weeks, weeks into months and months into years, where the pain or other medical condition, physical or psychiatric, must by necessity be an unendurable conflagration of existence.

FERS Disability Retirement is a means to an end — the end being, having the time and energy to focus upon one’s health; the means, to retire medically from a situation that has become untenable; all, in order to recognize that “forever and a day” begins with a day that can be differentiated from the “forever” that never seems to end.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire