Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Orchestration

The quality of a piece of music is defined by sound and silence.  It is the former which is focused upon by most individuals; it is the importance of the latter which is ignored, precisely because the negation of X is never recognized as X until and unless its existence is suddenly lacking.  Silence — that momentary pause which allows for sound to pass by in waves of sonorous beauty — is the untouched beach combed by the lapping waves of quietude.

The orchestration of combining each entrance of every instrument, at the precise moment, preceded by pauses of silence, and tapped by the conductor with precision and sensitivity, is the core of a brilliant musical performance. But orchestration embraces such beauty of composition in all walks of life — from the predator silently creeping to pounce upon its prey in the footprints upon grounds which give way with a flicker of silence or sound, allowing for alerting the victim or not; to the composition of a breathtaking novel in coordinating characters, scenes and descriptive metaphors; the ability to coordinate the complexity of singularities into a cohesive whole is the art of orchestration.

And so it is in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal Worker is under FERS or CSRS. Federal Disability Retirement may seem to be a purely administrative endeavor which has no connection to the beauty of musical orchestration; but it is in the cohesive adherence of law, statement of facts, and procedural preparedness, that the invisible thread of creativity must come to the fore.

One’s Statement of Disability, standing without the law, is insufficient; the argument of the law, without the medical foundation prepared, is merely a hollow voice of reason; and the lack of creating a bridge between one’s medical condition and the positional requirements and essential elements of one’s job, leaves an abandoned castle surrounded by a dangerous moat.

Metaphor is a key to understanding complexities of life; for the Federal and Postal Worker who needs to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS through OPM, the orchestration of life’s complexities may require a conductor who guides the instruments toward a successful outcome in the preparation, formulating and filing of a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether one is under FERS or CSRS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: The Analogy of Games

Games created and imagined by societies will likely reflect societal values, beliefs, fears, and generally the character and personality of the social structure of the time.

That is why life situations are often described and elaborated upon by reference to particular games, by analogy, to elucidate the reality of a specific situation, or perhaps even the absurdity — because by describing the game, it removes the need to discuss a present reality, and instead to speak of it in terms of a third-person phenomena.

Thus, one might refer to the game of Go — and instruct the novice that, as in life, every time you “pass”, the opponent gains a move, and the more you pass, the greater gains, until victory occurs.  Or the oft-quoted game of Chess, in which one must always think in terms of 5 moves ahead, lest your opponent already has mapped out the path to checkmate before you have even considered your options.  And so we live life as we play games.

For the Federal or Postal Worker who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, such analogies are instructive.  “Passing”, as in the game of Go, will only allow the two opponents — the agency, and the medical condition against which one is battling — to gain the upper hand both in terms of time and closing potential options.  Failing to consider future moves, as in the game of Chess, will only increasingly limit and restrict one’s future ability to act; and so one’s future is diminished by the enemy of time.

In the end, games are created merely for recreation; but life itself is more than a period of fun and games, and failure to consider the seriousness of an analogy is only to the detriment of he who fails to consider the applicability of parallel universes.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: Timing the Legal Tools

In any administrative procedure, the use of legal tools and citations may be of limited efficacy for the process itself; it is, however, building a foundation for future application, and to that extent it provides a fair warning to the agency.

Inasmuch as any portion of obtaining an entitlement or meeting an eligibility requirement engages the applicant with a faceless bureaucracy — and one which recognizably is filled with non-lawyers, clerks, etc. — there is always the question as to why an attorney is necessary at the administrative level of adjudication.

The reason is simple:  the non-lawyer governmental worker, while perhaps not fully appreciative of the legal citations which may be argued in a particular case, is nevertheless aware of the consequences of failing to acknowledge the validity of such references.  Being audited and finding that a particular case worker has a high percentage of cases denied, then reversed on an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, has an impact upon the agency worker.

Furthermore, building a foundation for future reference before an Administrative Judge — where the Judge turns to the agency’s representative and asks, “Well, how about Case X, which has already been cited by the Appellant?” — can be quite effective and often short-cuts the entire process.

For Federal and Postal Workers who are attempting to obtain Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, the effective use of legal tools and citations is crucial at all levels — if only to warn OPM of the consequences of having to go before an MSPB Judge for further adjudication of the case.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire