Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The Words We Choose

Is there a psychological study of those who choose certain words as opposed to others?  Does the choice of words reveal who we are?  Antiquated words — like “husband and wife” — as opposed to the modern usage of “partners” or “significant other”; do they merely unravel a generational divide, and has the replacement verbiage been thoroughly vetted, thought out, considered, reflected upon?

“Partners” certainly implies an equality of station, as does “significant other” (where “neutrality” of gender identification appears to be the primary purpose) — but in the end, someone has to empty the dishwasher, take out the garbage, pick up the dog poop, cut the grass, change the diapers, work to make enough money to earn and make a living, etc.; and when all is said and done, the division of labor seems to naturally work itself out such that the words we choose matter less as one grows older.

The words we choose often reveal more of the innocence of our inexperience, more than some politically meaningful apparatus of choice.  In fact, what we think we choose is often done without thought, is forced upon us, or we are hoodwinked into thinking that certain words — by merely stating them — somehow empowers us, when in fact they merely conceal our insecurities.

“Husband” is the guy who takes out the garbage and opens the door for his wife to enter; “Wife” is the woman who softens the coarseness of a still-insecure guy who fell head-over-heels to marry his wife.  “Disabled”, too, is a relative term, but in a Federal Disability Retirement case, it has a special significance which requires thoughtfulness in the words we choose when preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

The word-usage and choosing of words is relevant and significant; for, as the legal standard to meet for eligibility purposes in a Federal Disability Retirement application is different from other venues, the words we choose are important in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and take care in the words which are chosen.

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.

 

Federal Disability Retirement Law: David Versus Goliath

It is in the Biblical book of Samuel, and even in modernity — where the once-obvious cultural reference was universally known, or otherwise familiar, but cannot now be presumed — most understand by a conceptual model in other ways: The odds stacked against one; the unfair advantage, at least on first appearance, of one over the other; that bulk versus agility never means that one can predict the outcome; and similar referential assumptions.

But with a sling and five smooth stones, the underrated David overcame the odds of fear, trepidation, unfair advantage and overwhelming odds.

We all love a story where the underestimated and disadvantaged individual overcomes the odds of life.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition(s) prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it is an appropriate analogy to apply: The Goliath, of course, is the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — the Federal Agency which makes a determination on all Federal Disability Retirement applications under FERS.

The “David” is the Federal or Postal worker who must prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  And by extension, what constitutes the 5 stones which brought down Goliath?  The Law, of course.

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.

 

FERS Disability Retirement for Federal & Postal Employees: Traps

We set them in order to get rid of those undesirable creatures which scurry about in the middle of the night.  There are, of course, multiple and different kinds of traps — of the ones which snap loudly in the darkness of deep quietude and which are difficult to “set” because — every time you put it along the baseboard — the sensitive nature of the “catch” sets it off.

There are, of course, those “humane” ones — the ones which do not kill but mere captures the creature with the mechanism of a trap door.  What you do with the creature is up to you — but most suspect that when you let it go down the sewer drain just down the road, it quickly makes its way back to your home (often before you yourself are back in the front door declaring, “Honey, I got rid to it!”).

Then, of course, there are the large “traps” — for possums, squirrels and other rodent-like creatures which have created a nuisance of themselves in suburban neighborhoods which no longer tolerate the encroachment of nature.  But enough of such rodent-focused traps.

There are other kinds of traps — traps set by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.  Just look at the innocuous-looking questions posited on SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability.  In the end, it is the traps which cannot easily be seen, or the ones which seem attractively safe, which catches you.

Contact a FERS Disability Retirement Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and prepare your Federal Disability Retirement application while avoiding those traps which invitingly are set for your naive notions of the process.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Filing for OPM Disability Retirement: Starting the Process

Perhaps you tinker around the issue; you have “thought about it”; you have looked it up on the Internet; but for some reason, you cannot actually take the next step — of starting the process.  Delaying the inevitable; procrastinating for one reason or another; you may have been already told by your doctor that you might want to “consider” going out on disability — but you still have not taken the next step — the “concrete” step — in starting the process.

Federal Disability Retirement is a hard fate to accept; for, in the end, it means the loss of your career (at least in the form that you have become accustomed to), a partial loss of your identity (you’ve been know for many years by the title and designation of you job), and a reduction in your income (although, under FERS Disability Retirement, you can make up to 80% of what your former position currently pays, on top of the 60% of annuity the first year and 40% every year thereafter, thus potentially allowing you to actually make more in the end).

“Starting the Process” is indeed a foreboding next step — one that must be thoughtfully engaged.  However, the Federal or Postal employee does not come to such a decision lightly.  Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and let not the prospect of the process be more onerous than the process itself.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Employees with Disabilities: The “Weak” Case

All Federal Disability Retirement cases are weak at the outset.  A Federal Disability Retirement case must be built from the foundation up — like houses, buildings, marriages and children.  Is one FERS Disability Retirement case qualitatively different from another?

Sure — the potentiality exists, but unless properly prepared, almost all cases can be lost.  There is the occasional one — a devastating, traumatic event which orthopedically disables an individual, leading him or her to have to retire medically from a physically-intensive position.  But those are the rare exceptions, and exceptions never make the rule.

And don’t be misled: “Building” a Federal Disability Retirement case is neither illegal nor unethical: It is what must be done, properly, in order to effectively formulate a case.  One must solicit and gather the supportive medical evidence, then build the case from that important foundation.

Contact a private OPM Attorney who specializes in preparing, formulating and filing (including representation at all stages of the Federal Disability Retirement process) an effective Federal Disability Retirement case. While your case may seem “weak” at the outset, it is the strength of building which will determine the ultimate outcome.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

FERS Employee Disability Retirement: The Legacy of Achievement

We all dream of having contributed to society in greater or lesser ways.  Whether individual achievements are enough, where private satisfaction is gained through a restricted circle of those “in the know”, is doubtful; and even of leaving a name behind on a building, a statue or a commemorative stamp — what difference does it ultimately make, the cynic would wonder aloud?

When we pass by a building with a nameplate in one of the bricks or chiseled into the mortar, do we even acknowledge it, let alone recognize who that person was or what contribution he or she had made to the world?  Do we stand and Google the name and ooh-and-ah at the achievements bestowed?  Or of a statute with the proverbial fountain spewing daily freshness of recycled water, of perhaps a general who had once-upon-a-time led a charge and captured or killed a great opposing force — is that what we consider an achievement worthy of a bronze emblem?

And how about the more subtle legacy, of leaving imprints and personality traits, whether positive or negative, in one’s children or grandchildren?  “Oh, he is just like his father!”  “She reminds me of her mother.”  Or of those quiet achievements by challenged individuals daily around the world; we know not what effort it took, but for the person making the effort in the silence of his or her private suffering.

Achievement is a funny animal; it is ultimately a feeling; otherwise, why would we build statues to declare it to the world if we truly believed in the legacy entombed?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal employee to perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, perhaps the achievements one had hoped for in one’s career are no longer achievable, and thus the “legacy” of achievement is no longer possible.

In that event, the Federal or Postal worker needs to reconsider the values once sought, and to re-prioritize the goals pursued.  Perhaps “health” was not part of the original list, but should be; and that is where an effective preparation of a Federal Disability Retirement application comes into play: One’s career was never the legacy to achieve; it was merely down on the list of priorities to be sought, where one’s health and well-being should have been higher on the list to begin with.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
FERS Disability Lawyer

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: Yesterday’s sorrow

Yesterday’s sorrow may not be able to be put aside today, or even tomorrow; but yesterday’s sorrow may be today’s, or of the morrow if left unattended to.

Sorrow can take many forms; of the weight of anxiety and worry; of a traumatic event or occurrence; of news of a tragedy that touches one’s soul to the core; and if left unattended, or ignored or otherwise bifurcated, truncated or misplaced in the everyday hullabaloo of life’s travails that become lost in desiccated splices of yesterday’s memories, they can nevertheless remain with us in the subconscious arenas that become tomorrow’s paralysis.

Life is tough; loneliness in life becomes the daily routine of daily sorrow; and even when surrounded by family, so-called friends and acquaintances and even of spouse and children, the sense of being alone in the world can be overwhelming.  Who can understand, let alone sympathize, with one’s sorrows of yesterday when today’s trials cannot be conquered?  And who can fathom the contests yet to be met when we can barely handle the residue and crumbs of yesterday’s sorrow?

Yet, we all recognize that yesterday’s sorrow will be today’s shadow of haunting victuals, and even of tomorrows feast for beasts who prey upon the meals left unfinished; and yet we must persevere, with each day leaving some leftovers and allowing for the garbage heap to become more and more full, until one day the garbage we left in our lives spills over into a raging delirium of uncontrollable fright.

Yesterday’s sorrow is today’s mirror of what tomorrow may bring if left unreflected in the image of how we view ourselves.

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 duties, yesterday’s sorrows may be the medical conditions themselves which have become a chronic and unrelenting obstacles to today’s victory, and of the morrow’s fulfillment.

Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted ultimately to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may be the best course of action in attending to yesterday’s sorrows, lest they become today’s burden and tomorrow’s nightmare.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement for Federal Employees: Last

It is a peculiar word; for, it can mean both the final, end and trailing subject remaining in the far recesses of a sequence, likely to be forgotten and – except for the Biblical reference where such an entity can be accelerated to the front of the proverbial line – surely to be abandoned; yet, it also connotes endurance, the capacity to outfox others in similar circumstances, and the symbolic appearance of vitality and energy.  “Oh, that’s the last thing in the world you want to buy”, goes the dismissive utterance in considering that which is not of significance or relevance as a priority to be considered.  And:  “That’s one of a kind – it will last forever,” comes the accolade showered upon a product of excellence.

How can a single word comprised of four letters – the required singular vowel and the remainder of consonants surrounding like a moat protecting the castle encasing and elevating the royalty of linguistic peculiarities – possess such a diversity of meanings, like antonyms inherent in a conglomerate of a sole voice conflicted and yet without self-contradiction?  Is it like the grammatical equivalent of a tortoise in that famed fable who is considered always to be last, yet endures the scorn and scoffing of an audience that has no clue about that which will last beyond the ordinary circumstances of normative equivalency?

Yet, despite its innate complexity of meanings, ordinary people every day use it with aplomb, confidence and without any internal sense of being confounded by the challenges posed.  You don’t have to earn a higher-level degree or spend years of hermeneutical turmoil in order to offhandedly fling about in the daily language games engaged.  “I hope the good weather lasts”; “We’re the last ones in line”; “It is bad manners to take the last one”; “The parties hope for a lasting peace”.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal employees who need to file a Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the process of enduring a Federal Disability Retirement procedure will have a lasting impact upon the Federal and Postal employee, and this is especially true whether the Federal or Postal employee is the last person standing, in a proverbial sense, and often that is how the Federal and Postal employee feels – as if he or she is the last person in the Federal Agency or Postal facility to be considered for anything, because he or she is targeted as that last bastion of a thorn in the metaphorical backside of a lasting fight against the last thing the Federal Agency or Postal facility wants to deal with – the last man standing who will last through the harassment, intimidation and adversarial process of a lasting Federal Disability Retirement application.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The tentative step

This is a tough and dangerous world.  No longer a Hobbesian State of Nature nor of War, the Social Contract as envisioned by Locke or Rousseau provides some nominal protection, and thus do we identify ourselves as “civilized” entities in yet a dystopian universe where a greater majority of the rest of the world acts with unconcerned insanity by engaging in senseless wars of mass killings and genocidal encounters.  In such a world, we thoughtlessly bring newborns who must contend with an uncertain future, fraught with challenges unasked for and conflicts yet to be encountered.

Those tentative first steps of a toddler – how we watch with awe and observe with wonderment.  Why is that?  Why is the transition from ambulating as most other mammals do on four legs, to engaging an awkwardly wobble as a bipedal hominid, of such significance?  Is it because it marks the steps of initiation into the club of “civilized” society – that to stand upright and walk with our two feet, as opposed to the addition of the other two appendages, signifies the next stage of growth and maturity?  Yet, that tentative step reveals all, doesn’t it?

It marks the magnification of uncertainty for the future; it reveals the imperfection of the human animal; and it manifests the symbol of insecurity by deliverance of a vulnerable entity thrown into a pit of vipers and hyenas.  We do this to ourselves, and to the ones we say we love.  And as the toddler grows up, through further steps of initiations into a cruel world, how that tentative step cements and molds itself into a characterization of so much of life’s violent encounters.  Whether remembered or not, those nascent steps of uncertainty carry along with us like Pilgrim’s burdensome backpack, weighing upon us at different and varying stages of our lives.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who find that a medical condition reenacts those tentative steps taken as a toddler, one becomes reminded that we came into this world uninvited, presented without a guide as to how to go about living life, and suddenly find yourself with a challenge:  No longer able to perform all of the essential elements of your job, your choices are to stay and endure the pain; leave, resign and walk away without anything you worked so hard to attain; or file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether you are under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

And, like the toddler taking those first tentative steps, this is a new endeavor, a next phase, but probably without those doting parents cheering you on.  As a result, you may need to consult a lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement law, if only to steady those two feet as you jump forward into an uncertain future by submitting a Federal Disability Retirement application to the OPM.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Disability from Federal Employment: Predatory Pathologies

It is unnecessary to study the tendencies of other species and their internal drive to be who they are; for, it is presumed, the innate structure of their genetic makeup becomes the paradigm for self-explanatory justification, and like all conundrums of deviations from synthetic or analytic statements, the self-identity of the process itself makes it abundantly unclear.

Predators are by their very nature self-identifying; it would be a nonsensical proposition to ask the question, “Why”, in connection with the lion or cheetah that hunts and kills; or for the hawk, eagle, and even the household cat, despite their fuzzy beauty of cuteness and domesticated aplomb.  But of man, we question incessantly; of the long history of wars, cruelty, mass murders and genocide, the paradigm is one of puzzlement despite the footprints of self-explanatory consistency.

The need to act civilized in an antiseptic universe of artificial constructs jolts one back into the reality of who we are when deviations from such carefully created models shatter the very essence of our imagined parallelisms of worlds built upon virtual realities, and so we cry for such aliens who never were.  Barbarism tends to do that; and simple meanness in the workplace often shocks.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer such rude awakenings, perhaps it is because of the disconnect between what we thought we were a part of, and the reality of what is.  That “disjointedness” is often easily attributable to the “medical condition” from which one suffers, and to which everyone else points for justification of bad behavior.

For, the Federal or Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition, where the medical condition impacts and prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s positional duties, the focus becomes the Federal or Postal employee, and the predatory pathologies which erupt and shed their thin veneer of civilized behavior become justified because of the loss of “mission accomplishment” of the agency, or some such balderdash of scientific explanation.

The plain fact is that there are bad people in the world, and no amount of studies of predatory pathologies will help to set aside the negative behavior of people within Federal agencies or the U.S. Postal Service.

The solution for the Federal or Postal worker 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 positional duties, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is to file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Let the Federal agency and the U.S. Postal Service worry about the “mission of the agency”; that will continue with or without you, as all bureaucracies do, just as predatory pathologies will persist despite multiple studies to the contrary.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire