We are told from a very early age that we must have one; like winds that carry seasonal warmth and jet streams that bring unseasonable temperatures, we are ingrained to be purposive, teleological and focused upon the goal in mind.
Wisdom-filled proverbs echo beyond the history of instructional transference from parent to child, community to individual and generation to modernity: aiming for the target; sticking to a task; seeing things to their completion; being patient in everything you do; treating others fairly; 5-step, 10-step or multi-step plans for one’s life; we are admonished throughout of the importance of having a direction in our lives, as if the destination has been predetermined and arriving is merely being pointed in the right direction, traveling some distance and getting there without thought.
Some people clearly follow such a linear route – like the proverbial straight line from point A to destination B; then, there are others who never seem to get a handle on such a concept, while most of the rest of us meander through a confounding maze and are stuck somewhere “in-between”, like those kids in the middle of a brood of accomplishments lost in anonymity between the oldest who is the star of the family, the first born and who gets the greatest amount of attention, and the last one who is the “baby” whom everyone fawns over. But what if a community, a society, the nation as a whole, no longer embraces a cogency of purposive goals?
It is like that “cause” we all live and die for; where modernity scoffs to expunge such lofty ideals, the residue of the populace must abide by its dire consequences, where echoes of past vestiges haunt in cave dwellings of paintings now faded and meaningless, lost forever to the history of silent voices.
Once, there were causes to fight for – of man’s manifest destiny; of fascism to defeat; of the great “Red Scare”; of the domino theory occluding freedom and resulting in totalitarianism; of patriotism and the flag upon a hill; and other images, all the while where the fighting and dying is accomplished not by the sons or daughters of the wealthy and privileged, anymore, but by sons of southern belles and minorities who die or get blown to bits.
Of what door does one knock upon to get one’s direction of life? Where, in life, do we get a free pass to obtain the map in order to even know where we are, where we are going, and how to get there?
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 positional duties, the direction of one’s life becomes fairly linear whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.
There are three “pathways” to steer upon: Stay in the job and suffer; Resign and walk away with nothing; or, the best direction in such a life, is to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. And, even as to the second of the three roads taken (Resigning) – remember, you have up until one (1) year from the date of separation from Federal Service to file a Federal Disability Retirement application with OPM.
It is, in the end, good to have a compass in order to lead onwards in the right direction of life, wherever that may be, however one may obtain it, and whenever it is finally achieved.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: advise from opm lawyer on disability retirement physician statement, after being on owcp your agency fire you, american disability retirement attorney for civilian federal government personnel overseas, anxiety hostile environment opm medical retirement lawyer, arthritis fers injury attorney, being sent to a referee doctor since 2nd opinion doctor, bipolar disorder and hostile work environment in federal employment, blog information from fers attorney end of federal employment for disabled us postal workers, bullying of disabled usps postal employee, chances of opm and federal owcp approval, civil service attorney helping and showing how to get disability benefits from csrs, civil service disabilities classification process attorney, civil service ptsd lawyer, diabetes fers lawyer, disabilities pension postal lawyer, disabled detective federal government fers lawyer, disabled employee fired from us postal service, does federal government pay for long term disability leave? yes it does, dol workers comp what can I do after secop denial, early retirement usps employees with medical incapacities, excessive sick leave penalty federal lawyer, federal disability retirement chrones disease, federal employee applying for social security disability income, federal employees on lwop for poor health, federal employees with ptsd and other mental conditions, federal government leave policy for ptsd, federal law enforcement agent and ssdi filing, fers application for immediate medical retirement us postal service shared services private attorney light duty, fers disability attorney helping ms residents, fers disability physician statement needs to use legal eligibility criteria, fers disability retirement process and attorney, finding a qualified federal medical disability attorney, functional capacity evaluation owcp and my options besides federal workman’s compensation, gad generalized anxiety disorder after dog bit on letter carrier usps, help on how to complete the sf 3112 form, impairments fers lawyer for postal employee, inability to perform federal job termination proposal lawyer for fers employee rights, injured flat sorter post office lawyer, letter of resignation usps medical or mental limitations can get disability retirement even if off duty injury or ill, light duty disability for federal employees, low performance award fers employee medical disabling condition, medical resignation letter example for post office employee and leave service without any benefits?, medical resigning process for usps, medical retirement from federal government, medical retirement opm due to ptsd, mississippi federal disability retirement lawyer, office of personnel management retirement csrs disability, okla city fers medical retirement attorney, opm anxiety retirement attorney, opm disability retirement application, opm disability retirement case managers in first two stages are not lawyers, opm disability retirement review, opm fers monthly pension payments for ptsd, opm medical form and resigning from usps, opm medical retirement attorney for ptsd, owcp disability retirement lawyer, postal vera and disability retirement consideration, postings on opm postal disability retirement by attorney McGill, proposal for removal from federal employment for medical conditions, pstd anxiety usps lawyer, quitting my federal job because of a disability: do I have any rights?, quitting your job at the post office for stress of harassment and hostile environment, removal proposal for medical incapacity doesn’t necessarily grant usps or federal disability retirement, return to work inability postal rtw attorney federal employee disability retirement attorney serving in arizona area, second opinion owcp and opm disability lawyer, sf 3112 a medical annuity, social security disability insurance (ssdi) benefits for a postal employer, specialized opm medical retirement lawyer, u.s. government employee medical retirement lawyer, us lawyer disabilities in usps, usps medical retirement lawyer federal government employment, usps vera early out, va employee disability retirement attorney, vera ver early medical out postal service, workers comp reasonable accommodation denied, workplace bullying opm disabled employee, you may apply for federal disability after quitting job but it’s usually no recommendable because of opm statute of limitations | Leave a comment »
Federal Disability Retirement Law: Fool’s Gold
Pyrite is often the element mistaken for gold, with its bright yellow appearance and shiny, reflective compound. Why a given mineral is determined of greater value than another of similar appearance is a complicated affair, encapsulating economic principles of supply and demand, the fungibility and replacement feature of one over the other, and the plain fact that the elemental differentiation itself constitutes “real” versus “fake”.
It is, in history books, novels and plays, a metaphor for greed, corruption, ill-fated endeavors, and motives which propel obsessions of determined failure and futility. For that which we seek with a blind eye, we end up becoming blinded to. During the course of a career, one can often lose sight of why we were working towards a goal, the values which we once cherished, and the reasons for our very essence and being.
For the Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker who suddenly finds himself or herself with a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s positional duties, the metaphor of the fool’s gold is an instructive one. For, to pursue one’s career at any cost, is ultimately a fool’s errand; and when the price to pay is one’s own health, such a continuing act of futility can result in greater calamity than necessitated by one’s progressively deteriorating circumstances.
Priorities in life always have to be readjusted, in order to accommodate the unexpected vicissitudes of life’s challenges.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal Workers, the work is important for most, and is a “high priority” in order to accomplish the mission of the agency or the Postal Service; but when one’s health contraindicates the priority of one’s Federal or Postal career, a change of venue should be considered, and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is an important first step in making sure that the proverbial pot of gold one once sought, has not been replaced by the mirage of fool’s gold, lest the leprechaun who mended your shoes is caught during the process, in which case the three wishes granted may override the need to reshuffle one’s priorities.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Fables, Stories and Analogies about CSRS and FERS Medical Retirement Benefits | Tagged: advantages in filing for usps disability retirement benefits is the opportunity to work elsewhere, agency managers that misuse their authority are causing depression among federal government employees, appealing commentary on usps drac committee recommendations, asleep at work federal government, average time for opm to decide medical retirement is about 6 to 8 months in most cases, being removed from a federal job for poor health, border patrol disabilities on and off duty, caught being asleep federal government may underline medical conditions, cbp disability retirement attorney, civil service ptsd lawyer, considerations before resigning federal job for medical problems, defense intelligence agency medical retirement attorney, department of labor functional capacity evaluation private attorney for federal employee, department of labor medical retirement lawyer, dhs disability retirement attorney, disability retirement letter mental health issues, faa air traffic controller medical retirement lawyer, fed employee disciplined for taking lwop due to hostile work environment, federal disability retirement application guidelines, federal disability retirement for nervous breakdown, federal employee medical termination tsp, federal employee rights when requesting resignation for medical reasons, federal employee sleep apnea, federal job related stress leave, federal manager abuse of authority causing stress and anxiety, federal opm lawyer for medical retirement applications, fers disability heart failure sample assistance from top attorney in the field, fers disability lawyer and carpal tunnel syndrome, fers office of personnel management for disability retirement, filing a complaint with owcp department or applying for opm medical retirement benefits, getting fers medical retirement with sleep apnea, help with sf 3112 disability retirement forms, how do I resign from a federal job for health conditions, how to get disability retirement fers, how to get disability retirement from opm, how to handle your transition toward medical retirement with the employing agency or usps, how to sign up for medical retirement from post office, inability to perform duties constitute inefficiency for removal from federal government, insufficient usps drac committee accommodation, job offers owcp and accommodation issues, lawyers helping with light duty issues post office, light duty request form from apwu or law firm, limited duty law government employment lawyer, long term stress leave federal, long term usps workers comp benefits, medical documentation is required for fers disability, medical inability to perform removal in the us postal service, medical inability to perform the duties in federal government job, medical retirement due to injury at job with cbp, mental health and claim hostile work environment with federal government for early out pension benefits, opm agency certification of inability to place employee, opm disability documentation due to depression, opm federal disability retirement, opm medical retirement attorney for carpal tunnel syndrome, opm process time disabilities termination with annuity payments, osteoarthritis opm medical retirement benefits, owcp accepted conditions in contrast to opm medical condition that affect job performing, owcp and unable to return to work, owcp sending employees for a fitness for duty evaluation, owcp unfair accommodation, Post Office disability retirement, post office disability retirement benefits lawyer, post office disability retirement lawyer, postal disability lawyer, postal disability retirement process, postal employee unable to return to work stress, postal services shared services division of disabilities retirement, proven success on federal disability retirement claims, pstd anxiety usps lawyer, psychiatrist signing 'return to work' form for the usps, removal proposal for excessive absences due to medical conditions, resign post office for medical reasons and walk out empty handed?, resigning your position from the federal government for illness, return to work physical exam federal employment, should I resign from the postal service for a medical condition?, sick leave denied and being awol in the postal service due to a medical condition, the attorney’s role in guiding a usps medical retirement application, us postal service personnel management, usda retirement information for employees with disabilities, usps performance improvement plan for medically related inefficient job performance, usps return to work after being out on stress, va employee disability retirement lawyer, what to expect during the fers or csrs disability retirement claim, workplace bullying in the federal government causing disabilities on employees | Leave a comment »