The falcon flies in our midst; with an unknown distance of its perimeter to prey, it suddenly appears, perched with watchful eyes for squirrels, rabbits, other birds, etc. Its flight is silent and graceful, and long before people realize its presence, the silence and sudden muteness of wildlife activity reveals the fear imposed by its mere appearance. It flies silently, swiftly, and with a grace which demands awe and respect. From its high vantage point, the targeted prey below rarely stands a fair chance of avoidance. Those eyes are focused, with a singular vision operating to corner, catch and consume. Organisms under a microscope must feel a similar sense, if indeed they become aware of being studied and prodded.
People, too, who are being surveilled and inspected; there is often a sixth sense of being constantly and vigilantly watched. Federal and Postal Workers who are under the onerous burden of a Performance Improvement Plan (the acronym of a “PIP”) have that same sense. It is not a positive or productive feeling; it is, instead, a dread of knowing that the “watching” part is merely a prelude for further actions forthcoming, like the noiseless glide of the hawk above.
Being under the constant gaze of a predator often requires preventative action on the part of the prey; for Federal and Postal Workers who come to recognize that his or her job performance is deteriorating because of a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management may be the best option and course of action to take. Because it is taking such a long time to get an approval these days, preparatory steps should be taken early. Waiting for a separation from service, while still allowing for time thereafter to file, is normally not the wisest course.
As it is always better to be the “watcher” than the “watched”, so the Federal employee who needs to file for OPM Disability Retirement benefits should take the affirmative steps to prepare for an eventuality — that time when, like the hawk who has made a decision to target its prey, the Federal or Postal Worker has a place of refuge to enter.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Pre-Application Considerations | Tagged: a battle worth fighting for and against a very strong and resourceful opponent, a fight few federal employees foresee in the future: fighting for survival after a disability, administrative actions against federal employee, aggressively defending disability claims made by us federal workers, animal analogies and fables and fers disability retirement, argument by analogy, attorney defending postal employees, blog on civil service disability retirement, consequences of an agency's adverce action, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, current performance evaluations and fers disability retirement, deficiency in performance or attendance requirement, disciplinary action against the postal worker, don't let the agency scare you with investigative reviews, facing the demons of inaction with a pragmatic file-now worry-later approach, federal disability attorney defending aggressively your disability rights, federal disability retirement: fighting for your rights with everything you got, FERS disability retirement, for those disabled federal workers being placed on a pip, getting fers disability retirement after a long legal fight, going from thoughts to actions: fers disability retirement for government employees, government lawyers defending agencies against disabled federal workers, how agencies use review evaluations with the goal of getting rid of the federal employee with disabilities, job evaluation for federal employees with mental and nervous problems, just like a wild sanctuary defends animals from predators -- federal disability retirement defends human beings to move on with life, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, learning from nature and the animal kingdom, learning what the federal agency is really up to by issuing an pip, light duty federal workers in danger of inaction, MAKE NO MISTAKE pip is a set up to get rid of the employee who has not performed well due to a disability or other kind of medical or psychiatric condition, nationwide representation of federal employees, Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), running like a chicken or fighting like a hawk: the shining path towards financial and physical recovery, setting a performance improvement plan (pip) as a means for failure, taking charge of your future after fers disability, taking control of your federal disability application, the disabled federal employee and the price of inaction, the intense reservations and concerns of a disabled federal worker may drag him to inaction, the risk of a federal employee's inaction after a disability, the use and abuse of PIPs in the federal workplace, the uselessness of waiting for action from the Federal Agency, this puppy won't quit without a fight: defending your rights under federal disability retirement laws, USPS disability retirement, when inaction means continuing on a path of self-destruction, when red flags show the need for immediate action, when the fear and anxiety of the process lead to inaction, when the federal employee is placed on a pip, wildlife metaphors for federal disability retirement education | Leave a comment »
CSRS & FERS Medical Disability Retirement: Supervisors, Performance, and Other Matters
In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS (although the latter is increasingly becoming a rarer animal, almost to the point of extinction, and has been recently annotated on the “endangered species” list), the concern of many Federal and Postal employees often centers around past performance reviews (a history of “outstanding” performance, etc.), the potential statements of the Supervisor on an SF 3112B, and similar issues.
What the Federal or Postal employee contemplating filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits fails to understand, is that the reason why he or she has reached that critical juncture where Federal Disability Retirement must be considered, is tied directly to that long and commendable history of outstanding performance.
To put it bluntly, the Federal or Postal employee who has done his or her job so well over the years, has killed him/herself in doing it. That is why the medical condition has not improved; that is why the progressively deteriorating process, whether of a physical nature or of a psychiatric bent, has reached its critical mass, and one cannot go on in the same manner, any longer.
It has come to a point of a necessity to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. It matters not what one’s history is; if one cannot perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, then it is time to file; regardless of what one’s performance history is, or what one’s Supervisor’ Statement may potentially reflect.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Application - SF 3112B Supervisor’s Statement for CSRS and FERS | Tagged: accepting opm disability clients all across america, civil service disability retirement, current performance evaluations and fers disability retirement, deteriorating medical conditions during federal employment, essential elements of jobs, federal disability lawyer, filing for OPM disability retirement, great occupational evaluation reviews before the opm disability retirement application, job performance before the federal disability retirement application, legal services for federal and postal workers all across america, living with a deteriorating living condition and the injured postal worker, more on the opm disability application supervisor's statements, nationwide representation of federal employees, opm disability retirement - when procrastinating could means a deteriorating health, performance issues during the opm disability application, postal employees with progressive deteriorating illnesses, postal supervisors and managers, preserving one's deteriorating health, representing federal employees in and outside the country, some advice on taking advice: taking your doctor's advice over your supervisor's, supervisor's statements and defamation, supervisors and disabled employees in the US federal agencies, the importance of supervisor comments during the federal disability retirement process, the limited importance of the supervisor's statements in the opm disability process, the supervisor's opinions during the federal disability process, what would happen if man's past medical issues are rated as excellent | Leave a comment »