Federal Employees Disability Retirement Systems: The Quarantined Mind

From early childhood, the necessity of imposing constraints and conformity produces the positive effect of a well-ordered society.  But corollary and unforeseen consequences often occur, as in the quashing of creativity and mindsets which step outside of the proverbial “box”.

The problem with people talking about thinking “outside of the box” is that such a thought process itself constitutes nothing more than mundane conventional wisdom.  Those who have considered thoughts beyond the artifice of social concordance have already done that which is widely preached, but little known.  Then, along comes a calamity or crisis, necessitating a change of lifestyle and a different manner of approaching the linear and customary manner of encountering life.  The other adage comes to mind:  necessity is the mother of invention.

Medical conditions tend to do that to people.  Suddenly, things which were taken for granted are no longer offered:  health, daily existence without pain; the capacity to formulate clarity of thought without rumination and an impending sense of doom.

Federal Disability Retirement is a benefit offered to all Federal and Postal employees who require a second chance at life’s anomaly; it allows for a base annuity in order to secure one’s future, while at the same time allowing for accrual of retirement years so that, at age 62, when the disability retirement is recalculated as regular retirement, the number of years one has been on disability retirement counts towards the total number of years of Federal Service, for recalculation purposes.

It allows for the Federal or Postal employee to seek out a private-sector job, and earn income up to 80% of what one’s former Federal or Postal position currently pays, on top of the disability annuity itself.  It thus allows and encourages the Federal and Postal worker to start a new career, to engage another vocation, and consider options beyond the original mindset of one’s career in the federal sector.

In the end, it is often our early childhood lessons which quarantined the pliant mind that leads to fear of the unknown because of changed circumstances.  To break out of the quarantined mind, sometimes takes a blessing in disguise; but then, such a statement is nothing more than another conventional saying, originating from the far recesses of another quarantined mind.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement Legal Representation: Laconic Latitudes

Brevity of words often reveals otherwise unnoticed characteristics through silence; being concise, while important in conveying specific information, can interrupt the natural flow of linguistic rhythms; and, as with music, it is the silence and the pause between notes which create for the beauty of a piece.

In preparing an effective narrative, the essayist, the novelist or the biographer must set a tone in order to draw the reader into the web of verbiage, and like the opening to a secret entranceway leading to the cavernous dark of insular worlds, a light must shine in order to invite the way in. But if the traveler is mired in confusion, how can the journey into a pathless narrative allow for any sense, logic or directed discourse? Even Science Fiction and Fantasy genres must have some relational connection to the world we know; otherwise, it is merely relegated to the private musings of insanity extricated.

The laconic dialogue often requires greater concentration, precisely for the lack of words, where silence and large tracts of pauses mandate implications and inferences.

Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition are often mired in the confusion of the process of seeking security and a pathway for their future.  In the midst of such confusion, they are asked to fully comprehend the entirety of the administrative process recognized as “Federal Disability Retirement“. To prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application is to have foresight, mental acuity, intellectual capacity and physical stamina to embrace a complex bureaucratic process, and all the while deal with major medical problems.

It would thus be understandable if a laconic Federal Disability Retirement application was prepared; but unfortunately, from the perspective of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (which is the singular agency which makes a determination on all Federal Disability Retirement applications), rarely are pauses and silences taken into account.

While there is always some latitude in reviewing an OPM Disability Retirement application, regardless of whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS-Offset, the time for brevity and implied latitude should be replaced by concise verbosity of a longitudinal perspective.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire