OPM Disability Retirement Law: The Fortress We Build

It is a mindset.  And, like all mindsets, the strength of the belief is revealed by the actions we take.  Whether stemming from an insecure childhood or some trauma experienced later in life, the mentality of the fortress we build manifests itself in the way we approach problems, the manner by which we live our lives, and the methodology of our reactive devices.

Do we live without concern for tomorrow?  Is our attitude one of trust and acceptance, or do we fear others and distrust even those closest to us?  Do we hoard things, believing that tomorrow may foretell of disasters yet to occur?  Are we wont to avoid new relationships because the old ones have failed us?  And: Do we fear life, as opposed to viewing each day as a challenge to be met and conquered?

Then, of course, our vulnerabilities will open us further to the fortress mentality, and medical conditions will surely test our resolve.  Medical conditions ascertain for us and validate such a mindset — that we need to build and create stronger fortresses against a world which continually fails us.

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 “fortress” we build may likely include filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

For, that is precisely what the Law of Federal Disability Retirement was intended for — to allow for a fortress of future security resulting from the vulnerability resulting from a medical condition.

Contact an OPM Retirement Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of forging a different kind of fortress we build — that of a Federal Disability Retirement annuity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The Tiring Life

Yet, there is but one of those; unique, limited in duration, mortal and allegedly comprised of free will unfettered by the classical notion of pre-determinism; and yet, we all tire of “it” — of life’s trials and challenges unexpectedly and (so we say) unfairly posed.

Life is tiring; the tiring life we live possesses so many components to it: Of problems arisen; problems created; problems confronted; problems ongoing.  And like the popular arcade game of Whac-a-Mole, where the head of a problem pops up the moment you think you have resolved another, there seems to be an endless stream of misery no matter how hard we try.

Was life always this hard?  Let’s remember Thomas Hobbes’ famous (or infamous, however you want to characterize it) quote from Leviathan, that the “life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”  Yet, surely life and the conditions surrounding have improved since he wrote his Magnum Opus in the mid-17th Century — of advances in medicine, antibiotics that prevent simple infections that lead to death; of greater focus upon leisure activities instead of a constant striving to gather food just to survive (i.e., a short trip to the supermarket as opposed to hunting or farming for your own food); of entertainment wired directly into your living quarters; and many other advantages besides that are plentiful in modernity previously unthought of.

But that’s not the point, is it?  It is the tiring of life because of the constant struggle, whether of financial, ethical, personal or professional — that seems to confront us daily.  And when medical conditions deteriorate, it seems to exponentially compound even the slightest nudge of difficulties presented.  For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition and whether the medical conditions prevent the Federal employee from continuing in his or her career, it may be time to consider preparing and filing a FERS Disability Retirement application.

The Tiring Life is one which we are all confronted with; and the truth is that we all live for those sporadic moments of peaceful joy.  But when a medical condition seems to take over every aspect of such periodic moments of joy, it is then time to consult with a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement, lest the Tiring Life turns into a Life so Tiring that we end up making a wrong decision because of lack of knowledge or foresight.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: Adversity in B-Minor

But that we could live life as if playing a musical score, then changing the tonality in a different pitch, thereby perfecting a piece for the final performance.  Adversity is an unavoidable event; no matter the effort to avoid it, the encounter inevitably catches up to us.

Can we ever replay it, but in a different pitch?  Can the musical score be altered, but this time without the raised voices or the heightened stress?  What is it about a certain look, a particular tone, that gets one’s gander up; and while some are tone-deaf and wouldn’t be able to differentiate between a major or a minor score, does the same apply to social graces and the cues that trigger responses otherwise better to be left unsaid?

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, preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, becomes a necessity in the height of adversity, whether played in B Minor or C Major.

It always appears as if adversity can never be avoided.  First, there is the medical condition itself; then, to compound matters, making them worse, there is the pressure of the Agency; and suddenly, one feels as if the musical score so often rehearsed has fallen out of tune, and we begin to wonder if the chords played, the instruments used and the conductor followed, makes any sense at all.

The jumble of life is too often like the mixture of one analogy into another.

In order to sort out the proper “chord” to be played, it is important to consult with an attorney to sort out all of the elements in properly preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application: the documentation to be gathered; the guidance of how the narrative reports would be formulated; the legal memorandum that persuades and the entirety of the Federal Disability Retirement packet that is “effective”, leading to an approval by OPM.  Otherwise, your life may remain in adversity in B Minor, or some other discord unanticipated.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement: The peril of procrastination

Time is considered to be a continuum; it remains throughout, and except for artificial slicing imposed by seasons or bifurcations recognized by night and day, sunlight or darkness, or other natural categorizations which creep beyond our calendars, “time” remains a rhythmic cycle barely noticed until deadlines scream to be met and the ageless alarm clock suddenly awakens.

Noticed when the hands on a clock move; of the hour hand, slowly and with slumbering care; of the minute hand, more deliberatively; and of the second hand that ticks away while we watch time pass by.

In this digital era, time refuses to “march on” as the metaphor once informed us, and instead stares silently through the redness of a glaring, impassive face.  Waiting makes for awareness of passing; waiting in line to get into this or that establishment; waiting in a doctor’s office; waiting for a train; or do we just wait because there is nothing left to do?

Procrastination is a form of waiting, except we put the proverbial cart before the horse: Instead of waiting for the allotted time or event to occur, we wait for its non-occurrence, then rush to complete the non-occurrence before the expiration of the allotted time.

Certain events make for pleasantry of time — as in being with others you enjoy; performing a deed of delight; or merely resting, relaxing, engaging in activities of mirth; while others extend the laborious into an unbearable anguish of unending torment — of pain, unwanted relations and uninvited calamities.

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, time can become an enemy if one fails to foresee the peril of procrastination.  At some point — and often, early on — it becomes obvious that filing for Federal Disability Retirement under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, becomes a necessity.

Trying to qualify for OPM Disability Retirement benefits is a long and complex administrative process, and delaying that which one knows must be done is not merely the peril of procrastination, but an exacerbation and potential worsening of circumstances that may already require your attention today, if not yesterday or the day before.

For, in the end, it is not procrastination itself which creates the peril — rather, it is the peril of the medical condition left to time and its progressive deterioration — and that is why procrastinating can itself be avoided by consulting today, without delay, with an attorney who specializes in the the proper preparation, formulation and filing of an effective Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application.

Now, as for that chore that was left for tomorrow…

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Organizing the apocalypse

The apocalypse, by definition, has no future.  Whether by biblical reference, or in a generic sense where the foreseen event entails such proportions of catastrophic immensity, the concept itself is beyond the grasp of human comprehension.  It is where Being becomes non-existent, and the existential contrast of the conceptual puzzle encompassing Nothingness is somehow attempted to be understood, if only within the limited means of linguistic expression.

Poetry cannot abide the meaning; prose can barely describe its repose; and human thought is unable to grapple with the vicious circularity of its conundrum:  to comprehend it is to consider its very converse; to think upon the inversion is to extinguish all conceptual paradigms.  It is an act of self-immolation, where the devouring of one’s own flesh must by necessity occur in order to stave off the pangs of starvation, but where each bite merely ensures the death of the guarantor of life.

That is what Malraux touches upon when his characters discuss the self-contradiction of revolutionary movements; the very people who initiate such explosions can never be the ones who continue the implosions following; for, it is the breed itself which cannot remain in order to build.  By their very nature, the destructive forces must themselves disappear, lest the cannibalization of such extinguishment is the intended goal, which is never considered unless anarchy and dystopia are the ends sought.

We often think that those who are compelled by causes which history, in its visionary retrospective insights, can remain to maintain stability and administration of the revolutionary idea; but Mao proved otherwise, and the haunting bones of Cuba’s leaders where poverty, desecration of abandoned ideas and fading combat khakis declare to us that we wish Mick Jagger never came out of retirement.

There is, in every epic of historical proportions, a loss of meaning whenever the cause has been attained, and that is the natural course of life.  The question thus becomes:  Once the pinnacle is reached, what does one do?  In microcosms of life and smallness of living within the spectacle of the common man, the issue that remains and looms amidst is, How to organize the apocalypse.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from continuing in one’s chosen Federal or Postal career or vocation of financial stability, the fact that one must end one’s Federal or Postal career early is akin to an apocalypse, where hope is no longer a goal to endure.  That being a fact of irrefutable and irreversible content which arrives at a point of incontrovertible reality, the issue remaining which must be considered is, How do I rationally organize this apocalypse?

Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is often the first step in ensuring that the metaphorical “revolution” which brings about a change uncalled for, like the wave of a historical sweep in epic battles of mankind’s folly, comes about in a rational, organized and steadfast manner, such that we are not left behind like the haunting whispers of Mao’s Cultural Revolutions or the stale cigar smoke from Castro’s toothless grin, where history laughs in the dark corridors of forgotten tombstones overrun with the swallowing of earth’s grief.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The problem of inductive reasoning

The difficulties inherent in deriving universal truths from particular observations have been annotated throughout the history of logical analysis, from Hume to Popper, and continue to haunt attempts at scientific certitude.  That probabilities can be imputed, as opposed to arriving at undeniable conclusions, allows for that “wiggle room” which is the hallmark of modern science.

Today, where the intersection and commingling of science, politics and entertainment requires less than rigorous experimental verification, and where drug companies argue for fast-tracking of medications with limited-to-little trials, even of “controlled” ones — inductive reasoning, though unverifiable and certainly wrought with inherent self-compromise, nevertheless compels people to act.

The classic example of having seen only white swans, leading to the general conclusion that there exist only white swans in the entirety of the universe of such species, is merely a convoluted tautology in a world of untrained and unsophisticated populace.

Rigor in argumentation has been decimated; simple Aristotelian logic is no longer taught (leaving aside Bertrand Russell’s 3-volume compendium of advancement in symbolic logic through his work, Principia Mathematica); and instead, we are left with the inane comments and diatribes on Facebook and other chatter which camouflages for intellectual discussions (where are the Buckleys and the Hitchens of the world when we needed them?  Or is it that aristocratic New England accents and British elocutions merely sound of a higher order?), where cyber-bullying has pushed aside the quite reasonings of timid voices.

Of course, deductive reasoning, as well, can be criticized, and has been by insightful corners of cautionary esotericism; for, the question always begins, From whence did the universal statement in such deductive analysis derive?  Were they not, also, from singular arguments based on the particulars of observations?

But more to the point:  For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are preparing one’s Statement of Disability on SF 3112A, it is important to recognized the problem of inductive inference, and not to engage beyond the factual basis of the medical reports relied upon and conclusions derived.

Be careful not to make vast generalizations and presume conclusions not referenced in the medical documentation attached; for, in preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, it is always important to stick to the relevant particulars of one’s case, and not get sidetracked into making unverifiable conclusions beyond the confining realms of logical validity.

Otherwise, you might be called upon to defend against Hume’s systematic dismantling of the soundness of inductive reasoning.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Brady, Deflategate & OPM Federal Disability Retirement

It is likely he knew, by evidentiary implication, as the report stated; whether, in the offseason, people pay any attention at all, is another matter altogether; and the dismissive refutations that attempt to justify the actions by minimizing the impact of the insignificant advantage gained by engaging in such conduct, misses the point.

At a certain level of any professional endeavor, the proportional advantage gained by even the smallest of competitive edge, increases by an exponential factor.  When everyone is good at something, then even a minimal sliver of market advantage makes the difference.  This is well known to everyone who once performed at the “top of his or her game”.

For individuals who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact one’s ability and capacity to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, the issue of competitive advantage is tantamount to the proverbial “no brainer”.  Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who work at peak performance levels for an agency, recognize the concept of employment disadvantages, and how a traumatic or chronic event such as an injury or a progressively debilitating medical condition will begin to reduce the capacity once reached.

For Federal and Postal employees considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, it is the deliberateness and intentionality of engaging in such conduct, as exemplified by the case of Deflategate, which irks the Federal or Postal employee.

Life already offers enough tumults and turmoils, and when others engage in acts which clearly violate the standard rules of fair play and traditions of a mere game, while others — such as Federal and Postal employees who must end one’s career early because of an unexpected medical condition — must trudge along, it only points out the exponential factor of what lengths some will go to, just because they think they can.  Not to mention agencies, supervisors, coworkers and other unnamed personnel whose Federal fiefdoms must be protected.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement Law: Agency Adverse Actions

Calamities coalesce in concurrent coordinated couplings; often enough in life, when one action is engaged, another follows in reactive reflection.

For the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who has a medical condition, such that the medical condition impacts one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, the necessity to, or mere hint of the need to, file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, often invokes a concurrent action on the part of the agency.

Whether such actions are mere coincidences (unlikely); retaliatory (a good chance); or deliberatively intentional (often enough) is anyone’s guess.  Trying to figure out the underlying motivation of agencies is merely a waste of one’s valuable time; what to do with the agency’s adverse actions, is the more productive approach to embrace.

The argument that finds some precedence for OPM in arguing against a Federal Disability Retirement case, is that somehow the Federal Disability Retirement application was merely a pretense to avoid termination, and thus is somehow invalidated.  But, in fact, the reverse can be argued as well:  Because of the medical condition, the agency’s adverse actions reflect the poor performance, the excessive taking of SL, LWOP, etc., and irrefutably confirms the validity of the Federal Disability Retirement filing.

What the agency’s adverse action states; how it is characterized; what surrounding correspondence exists; and the extent of one’s medical documentation around the time of the agency’s actions, and prior to, are all important components in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire