FERS Disability Retirement Law: This Unforgiving Time

The desolation of winter; the “deadness” of all that surrounds us — of trees without leaves, of limited sunlight; the shortened days, the biting cold (unless, of course, you live in Florida); January and February constitute the unforgiving time when nature’s toll requires animals to live with limited resources, or perish.

In the Human Kingdom, the political divisions, the economic divide — the lack of civil communication and inability to consider the other’s viewpoint — magnifies this unforgiving time in which we live.  Then, in the midst of it all, when a medical condition hits us, every negative perspective becomes exacerbated, becomes exponentially magnified, especially during the panic-stricken duration of Covid and the fear we all must face.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that consideration must be given to filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, this unforgiving time may require the forgiveness of work by filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.

Contact a disability attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider that this unforgiving time may be overcome by looking at the future — brighter, warmer, and perhaps even more rational, by being able to focus upon one’s health through obtaining an annuity under Federal Disability Retirement, and not having to worry about whether or not you might get fired because of your lack of ability to continue on in your Federal or Postal career.

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.

 

Top-Rated Federal Disability Lawyer: Legal Containment

We have all seen it, or even experienced it first-hand.  A party; a gathering; a group of kids; a bunch of young boys and girls; the noise, the “showing off” and the language too obscene for nascent ears; then, an adult appears and, suddenly, miraculously and without anyone saying a word, the entire character of the crowd changes.

Boys sit up straight, feel around their waists to tuck their shirts in; girls make sure that they are a decent distance from the guy they were just a moment ago sprawled all over; the language is suddenly cleaned up, with serious tones of “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and formal designations prefatory in quiet demeanors; and so the party ends.

What happened?  What changed the character of the gathering?  Why did the mere approach and presence of an adult radically alter the character of the gathering?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition necessitates a filing of a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Offie of Personnel Management, the lesson above should be a warning: OPM will often act like the unruly bunch of kids when a Federal Disability Retirement application is filed without legal representation.

Legal containment — a reserved, appropriate and serious response — occurs when the law hovers over the behavior of OPM.

Contact a FERS Disability Retirement Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and make sure that the teenage gathering — OPM — is made to sit up straight and behave within the legal confines of the laws governing Federal Disability Retirement.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

FERS Disability Retirement: The Grief of Life

“Good Grief, Charlies Brown!”  It is an expression of exasperation, often emitted from Lucy’s mouth during the long run of the Peanuts’ comic strip.  The phrase itself is undefined, and yet most of us comprehend its import: That life itself is a series of grief-filled moments; of mistakes and failures; of acts which people engage in that belie understanding; that the puzzlement and conundrum of events that hit us, emotions that arise and how people behave result in grief untold.

It is well that a child is often protected from the grief of adulthood, lest the child be damaged even before he or she enters the harsh reality of the greater world.  Yet, like raindrops that fall from the sky and, on its spiraling journey downwards, accumulates all of the dirt and grime of the world, so the grief of life begins to take it toll upon us all as we interact and encounter the sheer meanness of the world.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the grief of life takes two forms: First, the medical condition itself and the impact upon one’s career and positional duties, and Second, from the uncaring attitude from the Agency, the Postal Service, and coworkers who make up the aggregation of the “agency” itself.  Such a “double whammy” is often the impetus to contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Consult with an OPM Disability Attorney who focuses purely upon getting people Federal Disability Retirement benefits in order to limit the impact of engaging in the bureaucratic complexities of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits; otherwise, like Charlie Brown and others in the Peanuts gang, you may end up shouting in exasperation, “Good Grief!”

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Help with OPM Disability Retirement: Wintertime flowers

What do you tell a young child who tries to plant seeds in the fall, and when asked about the activity, responds, “I want flowers for the winter and am planting them now so that they will bloom by the time the cold comes”?

Do you: (A). Laugh and tell the child that he or she is being foolish, (B) Explain to the child that flowers don’t bloom in the wintertime, (C) Direct them to the proper plants that will produce the intended effect or (D) Let the child discover for him or herself as to whether such an effort will have any positive results?

Clearly, options A and B would not assist the child in learning and advancing one’s knowledge of the world (Answer B, while generally the case, ignores the greater effort required in explaining that some flowers do, indeed, thrive in the dead of winter or, alternatively, that this particular region is not conducive to certain plants); and choice D, while perhaps allowing for a greater lesson to be learned — may instead attain the wisdom of the harsh reality of the world through explanation and discussion.

Explanation and a proper understanding of the circumstances, context and limitations of one’s activities in light of the surrounding universe is the key to gaining wisdom and knowledge.

Given that, Choice C would obviously be the “best” option towards greater understanding.  Thus, it is not merely the vacuum within which what one is doing that matters; rather, it is the effective interaction between one’s activities with the greater world beyond that produces a balanced comprehension of one’s place in the universe, how one can be effective and even influential.

Camellias are wintertime flowers that continue to thrive despite the harshness of the environment; whatever the genetic make-up that allows it to remain in bloom while others wither or die, their hardiness in environments others hibernate from and shun is a testament to the reality that, indeed, there are such things as wintertime flowers.

That is sometimes a difficult reality and lesson to learn — for we too often categorize times of our lives in similar ways: In extremes where it is an “all or nothing” proposition.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows for the Federal or Postal employee to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal job, it is important to understand that the end of a Federal or Postal career does not necessarily mean that it is an “all or nothing” proposition.

There can be life even in the wintertime of one’s career; for, Federal Disability Retirement allows for the individual to work in the private sector, the state, county or municipal job, and continue to receive the OPM Disability Retirement annuity, so long as you remain under 80% of what a person’s former Federal Salary pays, and to the extent that it is medically justifiable that there is a distinction between the former Federal job and the non-Federal job.

Like wintertime flowers, you just have to find the right circumstances in order to thrive in the season of your life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Federal Disability Lawyer

 

Legal Representation on Federal Disability Retirement Claims: “As if”

Why are OPM’s denials of a Federal Disability Retirement application written “as if” it is an “all of nothing” proposition?  Conversely, why does an approval of a Federal Disability Retirement application (with the exception of the single sentence which identifies the medical conditions upon which the approval is based) reflect a regurgitation of a template used on countless occasions dating back decades?

Wouldn’t a more “honest” approach be for both the denial and an approval to have a touch of: “Well, okay, evidence X does clearly show that you likely couldn’t do essential element Y” and “Yes, all and all, despite having a good performance review in the past year, your absences aggregated to establish evidence that you weren’t able to maintain a satisfactory attendance, and therefore, even if it is a ‘close call’, we have decided that you have met the preponderance of the evidence criteria and grant you your disability retirement request” — or, “Therefore, even though it was a close call, we believe you have NOT met the preponderance of the evidence standard, and therefore deny your application for Federal Disability Retirement.”

In other words, why is the “as if” standard applied as a one-way street, where every Denial invokes a disparaging and often scoffing-tone as to every bit of evidence presented, and seems to selectively diminish even the most compelling of evidence submitted?  Is it because of the very human need for self-justification, or are there other, more nefarious reasons girding the foundation of every denial?

Certainly, when a “no” is presented, one is taught to make it worse than it actually is in order to justify the negation; sort of like when you really do feel deathly ill, but by all appearances, you don’t sound it, and may not even look it, so when you call in sick or you tell your mom you can’t make it to school, you put it on “as if” you are on the verge of mortality’s early calling.

But don’t be fooled.  OPM’s denials are presented “as if” you never stood a chance; “as if” there was never any basis for even making an effort to file; and “as if” you have wasted your time even bothering to file — is meant to discourage, if not dissuade, any further effort of fighting onward.  But that is not the reality of a Federal Disability Retirement case, whether you are under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset — for, the reason why you have multiple stages in which to fight on is precisely the reason why you must: “As if” you have a chance, and not “as if” you never did.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: Options

The telephone-recorded options are the most irritating of all, of course — for, if you hit the wrong one, or fail to remember the correct numeral identified after being offered an endless litany of alternatives, none of which quite fit what you are looking for, then you have to wait until a further option is offered to go back to the general directory in order to once again choose the option offered.

Have such recordings become more irritating as time has passed, or is it that we have become so numb to so many such encounters that we have lost patience with that metallic voice that has replaced the human one?  What is it about a recording that gets us so incensed?

Objectively, isn’t it all the same — we never “meet” the “person” anyway, whether it is a recording or a “real person” on the other end of the line: both are mere voices, but why is the automated recording so much more irritating than a live person?  Is it because we know the futility of landing a sarcastic response to the recording, as opposed to slamming our frustrations upon an individual who possesses feelings, and whose day we can potentially ruin by shouting, yelling, demeaning and spewing forth destructive epithets to and against?

In life generally, we all have them — options.  Sometimes, we are confronted with too many, and thus are left with a confounding sense of confusion.  At other times, the options are “there” somewhere, but we just don’t know them because we are too blind to the ones hidden or too stubborn to concede our ignorance.  In those instances, it is best to consult with someone who can present the options hidden, those unstated, or otherwise unknown.

In some circumstances, of course, the options available may be severely limited — as in a Federal or Postal employee suffering 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 the Federal or Postal employee’s essential job functions.  In such situations, the limited options must be considered in light of the priorities one assigns to the values one accords: How important is one’s health?  Is the deterioration of one’s health as exacerbated by the job one is remaining in important enough to continue with?  If so, perhaps disability retirement is not the “right” option.

Stay and remain; resign, walk away or get terminated and do nothing; or file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.  The three options presented must be considered in light of one’s health, the effects upon it if one remains, and whether the Federal Agency or the Postal Service will continue to tolerate one’s excessive absences, inability to perform many of the essential functions of one’s job, etc.

When, after the options are considered, the Federal or Postal employee decides to move forward in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, then it is time to consider further options as well, such as whether one wants to represent one’s self in the process, like the old adage of that person who has a fool for a client — of representing one’s self.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The Glare of Another

What we do in response to outside stimuli; whether we flee, prepare to defend, aggressively pursue, or otherwise stand idle with resignation and do nothing; whither to stand in consternation or to wither without care; throughout, it is the glare of the world, whether by glint of sunlight upon objects surrounding us, or through another’s eyes which magnify the hostility abounding, which requires our tepid psyche to stir in turmoil.

The test of life is often not in others, but in ourselves.  By then, perhaps the fight is gone; maybe the slow and incremental shavings that took years to whittle away, manifest a pile of residue left behind, and forever depleting any reserve of response, or stir a final call to arms.

Life has a way of deadening the soul, but it is often the glare of another which provokes the stirrings of the remains of the day.  When driving, the sudden glare of sunlight results in a raised hand or reaching for the visor, without thought, in a protective mode; or a reactive temper arising in response to an offending pair of eyes directed with hostility and provocation; in either case, life stirs, and the vestiges of a fight thought lost and gone forever, return with a vengeance and a fury of energy and strength.  Don’t ever think that the battle is lost, lest surrender means giving in to cowardice and contemptuous cocoon’s of cornered avarice.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who daily suffer the indignities of harassment and malice at the hands of the Federal agency or the U.S. Postal Service, who have “given their all” throughout these years, decades and large sections of life and time, the need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management can often be determined by the level of fight left in one’s self.  Like squinting an eye to examine the level of oil left by pulling out the long and flexible dipstick from the deep caverns of an engine hidden under the hood of a vehicle, the need to stop and examine one’s life represents a pitstop at a station of reserve.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM is not a surrender of any magnitude; it is, rather, a response which shows that necessity is recognized, that there is life beyond the “mission of the agency” or the “important work” of the U.S. Postal Service, and being treated in ways demeaning does not mandatorily correlate to one’s deteriorating health.

Preparing, formulating and filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is not an indicator of one’s reserve of strength or vitality left in check, but rather the necessary response, thoughtlessly reactive or otherwise, when the glare of another hits the Federal or Postal employee without warning or prefatory contingencies, and when life and living are realized and identified as precious beyond mere voodoo of echoing motions set long ago in a time when youth beckoned beyond call of purpose.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: The Soul of a Case

If you ascribe something to everything, then nothingness results.  For, to declare that all of X is contained in Y is to delete X into irrelevancy, and leave Y with nothing but X, thereby subsuming everything with nothing.  Thus, when we argue for a form of pantheism, the language of “all” tends to diminish the uniqueness of singularity, and the meanings of distinction and difference.  Fortunately, however, separate identities naturally manifest for specific entities where the exceptional outshines the mundane.

For human beings, the exceptional occurs daily precisely because there exist no mundane souls, only ones whose lives have developed a callousness to tragedy so thick that empathy has been extinguished for the price of a forgotten soul.  Thus do we have the proverbial “faceless bureaucrat” who merely stamps all incoming papers with repetitive monotony, and fails to view the content and substantive humanity beneath the surface of the linguistic mirage of daily deluge.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers formulating one’s Federal Disability Retirement application, that is the door one is attempting to unlock, isn’t it?  Every case has a unique “soul” to it; but from the viewpoint of a bureaucracy, such an argument only extinguishes the singularity of one’s own extraordinary circumstances into all others, and by doing so, that “something” becomes mere nothingness.

The key to cut through to the soul of the administrative process is by revealing the separateness of a Federal Disability Retirement case with the individuality of “this” case, in “this” instance, for “this” reason.

That is a tall order to fulfill.

For, as each Federal Disability Retirement application has a human story to tell, so the paper presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, must provide a narrative with a soul, and one which is not merely one among many, but unique in its singularity of particular facts and circumstances.  In other words, the “soul” of the case must be delineated with a soulful echo of humanity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

OPM Disability Retirement Attorney: Avoiding the Pedantic Prophet

Doomsayers are everywhere, and in every generation and region of thoughtful pronouncements, prophets foretelling of anticipated events await to ring the ears of those who desire future confirmation of that which was already expected.

Beyond the general prophesy of future events, however, is the one who focuses upon minutiae and details irrelevant to the greater paradigm of events.  It is like the man who was informed that major surgery would be necessary, and oh, by the way, the scalpel to be used is made by a German manufacturer whose great uncle was related to Lord Byron.  Interesting tidbits may be relevant in limited circumstances; one should avoid the pedantic repetition of facts, events and details which detract from the main theme of a narrative.

In preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application, filed through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether you are under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, part of the process must involve the preparation of a Statement of Disability as required by completion of Standard Form 3112A.  Certainly, details can be important; but a meandering rambling of peripheral issues detracting from the centrality and essence of one’s case, can not only become a self-undermining proposition, but annoying as well.

Begin the narrative with the focus upon the condition, then build upon that with reverberating ripples of riveting prose of significance and tactile tenses entailing direct links to positional requirements.  For, in the end, a Federal Disability Retirement application is a person’s story, told in narrative form, as a paper presentation to OPM which must be singularly focused, coherent and comprehensively conveyed.

When the world is foretold of coming to an end, one does not want to know the color and make of the undergarment to be worn by your neighbor; at best, it distracts; at worst, it may well reveal a privacy concern you did not want to stomach.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire