FERS Disability Retirement: The Unwritten Last chapter

In one sense, of course, the last chapter has already been written for everyone — for, mortality imposes an identical outcome for all, and no matter the attempts of delay or circumvent that ultimate outcome, by artificial means of making one’s appearance younger than one’s stated age or by cellular-regenerative methods like exercise and good diet, etc., in the end, all such attempts are ultimately futile and we must all succumb to the natural deterioration and decay of our physical existence.

But it is in the “how” of mortality’s inevitability which makes for the uniqueness of that last unwritten chapter for each of us; of how the dusk’s phase of life was lived, the wisdom gained and imparted prior to departure, and what lasting legacy was left for those whose lives have many more chapters left to be written.

Is it with a bang or a whimper?  How many friends and family gather about to say farewell?  What stories and memories hold sway in the final paragraphs?

For many, applying for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is tantamount to writing the last unwritten chapter of one’s life — if only because it always feels like the end of something significant; and indeed, it is an “important next phase” in one’s life — but it need not be the last unwritten chapter, but instead, the first in a series within a new beginning.

FERS Disability Retirement secures one’s financial future so that many more future chapters may be added in the coming years, including beginning a new career, going back to school, or traveling the world over.  Contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider whether the unwritten last chapter in your life might not be the first chapter in a new and exciting novel at the dawn of your life.

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 Employees Retirement System (FERS) Disability Retirement: Self-Help

It is a concept which is rooted in American individualism — of the ability and capacity to bring one’s self out from the problems created, whether the problems themselves stem from one’s self or by the actions of third parties, etc.

Self-Help books are published daily, and by popular demand and consumption.  Everyone loves the story of redemption, the prodigal son or the road to Damascus — take your pick, for each contains elements which can be abstracted beyond the inherent religiosity of their essence; although, as fewer people are familiar with the traditional texts of mainstream religions, the analogy hinted at may become of lesser relevance.

Nevertheless, the self-help methodology of storytelling all have a familiar pattern: Beginning with failure, struggling with life, coming up with a winning solution, and the outcome of a conclusion predictably positive: You, too, can follow the way of success.

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 Federal or Postal job, self-help can take the form of filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.  The problem is that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as the “Gatekeeper” of all Federal Disability Retirement applications, is not there to help you help yourself.

Contact an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and request the help that you may need in your effort to self-help out of the untenable situation of having a medical condition which no longer allows you to continue in your career.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: The Pariah

The irony is that some in the universe of bloggers and ceaseless appearances on the Internet consider that the word itself should be cast out of the sphere of daily lexicon usage; the word itself is considered a pariah, and therefore is treated as such.

Yet, words in and of themselves have no meaning; Wittgenstein is correct in positing that the concept of a “private language game” known exclusively to a single individual is nonsensical — literally — precisely because “meaning” is imported by the manner in which a word or sentence is communicated between two or more individuals, and the purpose and motive by which it is applied.

A pariah is an outcast, and there are many in the world who are treated as such.  Whatever its historical origins or derivative usage which have engendered insult or resulted in a connotation of disparagement, the problem is not in the word itself but in the motive behind its application.  The word itself is actually quite descriptive and describes accurately the manner in which many individuals in society are treated.  Expungement of the word would indeed be a great loss.

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 Federal or Postal job, the treatment of such individuals as a “Pariah” aptly describes how they are looked upon.

Consult with a Federal Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and see whether or not you might qualify for a Federal Disability Retirement annuity so that you can escape from the designation of a “pariah” and move forward in a life where you are treated as an equal, and not as an outcast.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: Desperation in a time of crisis

There is the crisis, perhaps born of a lingering problem allowed to fester and froth until the boiling point allowing for a simmering of persistent steam to rise and spill over; and then, of our reaction, our departure point where sanity and coherence become overwhelmed and replaced with a sense of doom.

We have all been through a crisis; it is part and parcel of a life lived; and though we never ask for it, it comes when least expected, when we are most vulnerable, and when we believe that we can no longer withstand the tornado of unbounded fury.

There have been moments where the crisis naturally passes, and we simply must await its presence and ultimate disappearance.  Then, there have been ones where we have the strength to muster, to counter and fight, and to overcome — and those are the ones where preparation in youth in replenishing and fortifying one’s strength of character and resolve allowed for the abundance of that inner reserve to take over, almost as if a transcendent, supernatural force took control and led one to greater heights of one’s capacity to withstand and defeat.

Then, at other times, where human strength alone may not have been enough, and it was the support of others — friends, family members, and even the family dog, who allowed one to survive and to continue on.  But it is the last within the list of responsive capabilities — where the crisis comes, and one’s sense of desperation in a time of crisis becomes apparent, and that is when the danger-point comes to the fore.

Desperation in a time of crisis is when one’s strength has been sapped; when the vulnerabilities are revealed like an open sore inviting infection to spread; and when no amount of support from family or friends can appease the soul of the epiphany of sorrow that will not be comforted and where the heaving sobs of despair cannot be stopped.  It is those times when some glimmer of hope must be shone, for it is desperation in a time of crisis that brings a person to the edge of the proverbial cliff, where the jagged rocks of life below foam with an unwary eye of remorseless undercurrent in dousing the flame of life’s gift.

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 Federal or Postal job, it is important not to allow for the growing medical crisis to become a moment of desperation in the time of crisis.

Consult with an attorney who is experienced in OPM Disability Retirement Law; allow for the door of hope to remain open, and do not allow desperation in a time of crisis to defeat that which may yet have a solution; it’s just that you may not know about the solution, but consulting with a Specialist in the field of FERS Disability Retirement Law may be the pathway out of a misperceived situation of desperation in a time of crisis.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
OPM Disability Lawyer

 

Legal Representation on Federal Disability Retirement Claims: “But…”

What is it about a certain voice inflection that forewarns us of that conjunction?  A long explanation is given; a reason for “why” a person is about to do something is adroitly conveyed; a detailed and rational discourse is provided; and yet something tells us that the inevitable “but” is about to be inserted, making of the independent clause just spoken merely a precursor for the real reason that the lengthy discourse was given in the first place.

It is also a metaphor for life itself, isn’t it? “Things were just great, and it was the happiest of times, but then…”.  It is like the metaphorical dark cloud that dampens the spirit, or the sudden gust of wind that topples the tower when one was just about to reach the apex; the “but” in our lives comes at the most inopportune of times.

Then, there is the causal intervention “but” in law, as in, “But for X, Y would have not been liable because X becomes the primary intervening cause that subverted Y and all other causal determinants.” But for this job, my life would be perfect; but for this minor incident in my otherwise stellar career, I would have been unstoppable; but for X, Y and Z, I would have reached olympian heights; and on and on.  Isn’t that what Bing Crosby said of Frank Sinatra (for those who are young enough to even remember such icons of yesteryears, that “But for Sinatra, I would have been the most popular singer of my time”)?

Medical conditions tend to insert that conjunctive into a life, don’t they?  For Federal and Postal employees who consider the “but” of a life to be that medical condition that has come to a critical juncture — not merely of a grammatical appendage, but of a true intervening cause that disrupts — because it prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of his or her Federal or Postal career, it may be time to begin to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

The “buts” of life are merely conjunctives that forecast the darker clouds that rain upon an otherwise stellar experience; to alter the “but” and instead turn it into a mere “and” is what preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application can do, and thereby avert the “but” word that makes the remainder of the paragraph simply an extension of an otherwise joyful phenomena called “life”.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Benefits: The Salvageable Segment of the Soul

Even of the most craven of personhood, as they walk the disquieted corridors to the gallows of their fate, one continues to believe that redemption is possible; that there is some segment of the soul which allows for the relative unimportance of value, worth, forgiveness and continuing relevance in an otherwise impervious universe.

Most lives are lived without a grand master plan.  But that we could all devise and lay out the architect’s blueprint of proportioned drawings and apply it to one’s future, the very act of unrolling the scrolls of time would be accomplished with childlike anticipation for the sweetness of that which is hidden in the wrappers of one’s future.

Instead, the reality of life is that we bump into a career; we accidentally meet out life’s mate; we mistakenly decide upon a place to live; and we meander through our cusps of career choices and daily decisions forced upon us by life’s frenzy of busy-ness.   It is when a trauma befalls us, as the unshakeable foundation of security and repetitive monotony suddenly reveals a fissure of fragility, that we suddenly realize the need for a master plan.  Medical conditions tend to do that.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suddenly find that one’s career may be coming to an end because the medical condition prevents him or her from continuing in the same modality of life’s misgivings, consideration needs to be made for filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

This is where “planning” becomes necessary.

When a medical condition impacts one’s ability to perform all of the essential elements of one’s positional duties with the Federal agency or the U.S. Postal Service, there is often a sense that life is in a state of disarray, and the future clouded with bleakness.  But just as every craven soul must of necessity retain a segment of a salvageable hint, so the Federal or Postal employee whose career is cut prematurely short, should consider that there is still life to be lived beyond the compendium of life’s misgivings permeated by the coalescence of a career choice suddenly confounded by a medical condition.

Federal Disability Retirement through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management allows for the Federal or Postal employee to receive an annuity, then to go out and make a living in the private sector in another vocation.  Perhaps that second vocation will entertain a master plan, with the guiding light of that salvageable segment of the soul identified following a wrong turn down life’s maze of adventuresome avenues.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire