Federal Employee Medical Retirement: Apparent Normalcy

One can venture and maneuver through this world with a semblance of normalcy, where from all outside perspectives, a person is untroubled and unencumbered.

There are multiple complexities inherent in such a perspective, of course: what constitutes “normal”; to what extent do individuals have a responsibility in assessing and evaluating a person’s private world; as well as the problem of infringing upon the privacy of others, and the desire of the other to allow for any intrusion, whether consciously or subconsciously.

For, each person constructs multiple layers of privacy zones — from the proverbial picket fence, to one’s own private bedroom; to the gates of a home; but always, the foundation begins within the walls of the skull of one’s brain.  For, the gatekeeper is always maintained by the individual, as to what is allowed in, and what is manifested for others to observe.

For the Federal and Postal Worker who is beset with a medical condition, such that he or she must contemplate filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether under FERS or CSRS, with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, it is often the preparation of the actual forms which is the first manifested evidence of an impacting medical condition.

All throughout the previous many years, the apparent normalcy has been closely protected; great performance ratings, minimal leave taken, and daily smiles and platitudinous greetings; until the Federal or Postal worker arrives at a crisis point.

This is the apparent face and semblance of normalcy — the surprise of others, of the regretful and remorseful comment, “I just never would have realized.”  Or, perhaps it is the indicia of the busy world in which we all live, which allows us to lack any compassion to notice.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Disability Retirement: Preparation — like a Black Friday Event

“Black Friday” is a term which represents the concept of frenzied action, of waiting for the gates of hell to release the mass exodus of rationality, unleashed for the treadmill of buying, “saving” money by spending it, and furthering the cause of economic activity for the short term by exponentially expanding the debt-ceiling and widening the correlative concepts of debt, credit, and money-supply.

It is an apt metaphor for the way in which life is generally lived; and, further, it is an allegory for how Federal and Postal workers who are contemplating filing for Federal Disability Retirements benefits from the Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, must conduct their day to day lives while working with a serious and impending medical condition.  For, despite the clear and counterintuitive nature of continuing to work with a medical condition which feeds upon itself by progressively worsening and becoming more and more debilitating, exacerbated by the very work which is engaged in; and despite the obvious sense that Federal Disability Retirement benefits will provide the necessary relief in order for the Federal or Postal employee to reach a level of functionality such that the progressiveness of the medical decline will be stunted; nevertheless, it is the nature of man to work, and continue to work, at a job which is destructive to one’s health, because that is what the masses of activity-driven society (similar to the shoppers out and about on Black Friday) requires and mandates.

Federal Disability Retirement from the Office of Personnel Management is a benefit which is accorded to all Federal and Postal employees, as part of the entirety of one’s compensation package, which allows for an annuity based upon one’s average of the highest-3 consecutive years of service, a time of recuperation, and the potential to still participate in the economy of this country by being allowed to make up to 80% of what one’s former Federal or Postal salary presently pays.  It is a thought which should be grasped, and paused for — just prior to those gates of frenzied action being opened.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire