FERS Medical Retirement: Not for Public Viewing

Whether such a statement or declaration is actually applicable today is questionable.  For, is anything left to the privacy of one’s insular imagination, anymore?  Everyone bares all — of private, intimate details; of private parts, private affairs, private moments, private thoughts; no matter, just post it onto social mediums and allow everyone into your bedroom.

Private “gentleman’s clubs” often had rooms “not for public viewing”, and in stodgy buildings hidden away with a grim-faced doorkeeper ready to bar your entrance, one learned that nothing actually of a salacious manner (or matter) occurred behind those heavy brass doors, but merely old men who wanted to smoke a cigar and read the financial papers in peace.

Medical conditions are the exception.  They are the issues not for public viewing, and that remains somewhat valid today.  For, of the privacy which we all cherish and attempt to protect, our medical conditions remain at the top of the list.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a health condition such that the health condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the basic elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, maintaining one’s privacy in the face of preparing and submitting an effective disability retirement application may be a priority, but one which must be balanced between the voluntary submittal of a FERS Federal Disability Retirement application and the need to protect such sensitive information in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application to a large, faceless bureaucracy such as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Contact a Federal Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law and see whether or not preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal or Postal Service Disability Retirement application under the current Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, can be accomplished — to the extent possible — while protecting that which is Not for Public Viewing.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Law: Thoughts

Can they be controlled?  Or, are they independent conceptual Forms, sort of like Plato’s Ideas of Goodness, Truth, Beauty, etc.?

Aristotle, of course, thought that Plato’s Forms were a bunch of bosh; and so we have two lineages of Western Thought, neatly bifurcated: That of Aristotle’s school, leading linearly to the “scientific” methodology, and Plato’s more “artful”, cinematic approach, involving metaphorical and analogical thought-processes.  Both are legitimate ways of approaching the world, and both involve that ephemeral conceptual constructs designated and labeled as “Thoughts”.

Have you ever obsessed over things?  Worried?  Have thoughts “controlled” you throughout the day?  If you are unable to contain and control them, then aren’t they independent and separate from the “you” which “thinks” them?  Have you experienced that sensation of an “earworm”, where an unwanted “catchy” tune keeps repeating and looping itself in your mind?

Thoughts are interesting entities; for, they are the foundation of meaning in our lives; guide us in utilitarian ways, as well as in intellectual pursuits not otherwise applicable.  They are the product of worries and anxieties; of dreams and plans; of needs and wants.  They both exist independently, like Plato’s forms, and in controlled disciplines, like Aristotle’s logical analysis.

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, here is a thought: Consult with a Federal Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law, and let the worries of your health take the priority they deserve, by moving forward beyond your Federal or Postal career, thereby taking “hold” of your thoughts and applying them for the virtue of your own good.

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.

 

FERS Medical Retirement from the OPM: That cup of tea

It is the symbol of a quieter life; of a pastoral time of past remembrances, where the slower pace accorded a tranquility now lost forever.  It is referred to in many of William Trevor’s short stories — of that time in England when people still sat around and had “that cup of tea”.  For, somehow, the notion of fine china, the curling wisps of winding steam and the aroma of warmth and comfort retain a resonance of civility, quietude and the sentiment of calmer times.

Coffee, on the other hand, betrays a greater americanism — of forging ahead, forever seeking progress and movement, a person on steroids who cannot take the time, will not, and in fact has no time for the silliness of having that cup of tea.  That is why coffee is taken on the road, in plastic or styrofoam cups; in mugs and sturdy, thick jugs; whether plain, with a bit of milk and with or without sugar.

The two represent different times; of lifestyles gone and replaced; of civility and crudity.  Starbucks and others have tried to gentrify the cup of coffee, of course, and to create different “Internet cafes” with sophisticated-sounding names for lattes, “XY-Americano” or some similar silly-sounding names; but in the end it is the bit of coffee painted with a lipstick on the pig, and it remains the shot of coffee that provides the taste.

People are like that; and we all reminisce about times past, of “good old days” and for some, we miss that cup of tea.  For the greater society, the two contrasting flavors of a drink represent a bifurcation of sorts: One, for a kind of life we long for; the other, the reality within which we find ourselves.

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, the distinction between the cup of tea and the mug of coffee is like a metaphor of one’s own circumstances: the body and mind requires that cup of tea; the reality that swirls around demands the mug of coffee.

Preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is perhaps the antidote to the growing problem.  While it may not be every person’s cup of tea, it is something that — given the environment of the Federal Agency and the Postal Service in requiring every worker to act like a caffein-induced maniac — may medically indicate a change from the coffee-centered culture that cannot sit even for a brief moment to enjoy that distant reverberation of fine china clinking amidst the calm of a quiet morning.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Government Employees: The spare

It is a peculiar word when left alone, for it often is used with an accompaniment, as in “a spare tire”, “With room to spare”, or even, “Do you have any spare change?” queried the panhandler to the passerby.  It is a word which either describes a certain set of circumstances or of a person’s demeanor, characteristic or even of physical features, as in: “He had a spare bedroom”; “He was a spare, bald-headed man”; or how about: “He was spent and had no energy to spare”?

But to make it into the central character, as in the title above — “The spare” — makes it suddenly rather peculiar, for it is meant to always be the character actor, the word that “adds onto other words” and the unique little offshoot that never takes center stage.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition where the medical condition begins to impact the Federal or Postal employee’s ability and capacity to continue in the chosen career of one’s life, the word retains multiple relevant applications, whether standing alone or in accompaniment with other words.

For the Federal employee or Postal worker who no longer has any spare energy left at the end of the day; when one must be careful in using sparingly any accrued Sick Leave or Annual Leave; when time can no longer be spared beyond doctor’s appointments and attending to work, family obligations and the spare time no longer forthcoming; and where that spare reserve of energy is now devoid and profound fatigue has set in, it becomes time to consider preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement, because any spare time, effort or energy has now become a deficit to be reckoned with, where the spare of anything and everything must be focused upon that which can never be spared: One’s health.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: The buttons we believe accomplish

We believe, on faith alone, that pushing a button does the deed; and then we go on with life, and nothing really has changed but the belief in our own self-satisfaction.  It is that virtual world of computers, light switches, garage door openers and even the disc-like appendages to our shirts and sweaters that lead us to conclude that all such contraptions are of equal weight and value.

We see the cause-and-effect of the garage-door opener — of pushing a button and seeing the door slide open, then another push and it reverses course.  We push buttons on the computer keyboard, and with each tap the screen changes, or concludes with the deed completed; and of “buttons” on a shirt or sweater, we appreciate the invention that holds two sides of a separated apparel together to enclose our bodies with a warmth of a material embrace.

What does it mean to accomplish a deed with a mere pushing of a button?

We have been habituated into such thinking, and it is this disconnectedness that allows for society to continue to move “as if”.  It is only when we encounter the counter – belief that all of a sudden the world of buttons begins to sow some seeds of doubt — as when the boss comes and says, “Why haven’t you sent me X” and you respond, “I emailed it to you last week “ (it isn’t quite the same to say, “I pushed the button that accomplished the deed”).  “But I never got it” is the response which prompts you to go back and re-press the button, hoping somehow that doing so a second time will make a difference that the first time did not.

This time, however, just to be doubly sure, you go back and ask your boss whether he received it (not, again, “did my second button-pushing work?”), thus verifying the causal connection that had failed to occur previously.

What made the difference?

Somehow, in the ethereal universe of circuitry and magic we have no clues about, there exists a causal chain that “works” and “accomplishes” deeds — just like the garage-door opener that issues an immediate gratification of causation.  But that all of life would allow for such instantaneous confirmation — and of buttons we think accomplish.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition necessitates a consideration 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, the buttons we need to push are many, varied, and long in waiting.

Whether they comprise of the metaphorical “buttons” to get people moving, or of emails that need to be sent, confirmations that require a response — what we do know, throughout, is that the reality of one’s medical condition has a discernible difference both of reality and of urgency when it comes upon the need for causation to occur.

The buttons we think accomplish remain somehow in that “other world” of magic and the unknown; the medical condition that remains is somehow the reality of the “now” that constitutes pain and suffering; and that is why preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is of greater importance than the buttons we believe accomplish.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Lawyer Representation Federal Disability Retirement: Other worlds

We can imagine other worlds in which things are different; science fiction does it all the time, and even traditional literary fiction – though the differentiation between “science fiction” and “regular fiction” can often be lost in esoteric and academic ways – can depict other worlds not quite familiar, though recognizable enough to keep it apart from fantasy or that of the bizarre.

We can imagine, for instance, a world in which a pot of water sits upon a burning stove, but the pot never boils because the heat from the burner never transfers its element to the water; and so the isolation of each entity remains unmoved, as each fails to influence the other.  Or, that rain falls, but nothing gets wet.  What about people?  Of a persons who talks and talks and everyone hears, but no impact results.  You say to your friend, “A skunk has climbed up on top of your head,” and the friend responds, “Yes, thank you,” but does nothing and goes on with his or her life.

It would be a universe where we are consumed and subsumed within the universe of our own thoughts, and the world around us remains separate, isolated and without influence upon entities remaining placid, implacable, undisturbed and without any capacity to embrace the causality of an effect that remains otherwise unperturbed.

Come to think of it, that somewhat describes the world we actually live in, doesn’t it?  It started out as some science fiction genre – other worlds – and yet the universe that was described, of a world where people talk and no one listens, others hurt and no one helps, and the gravitational pull remains isolated to the planets within a galaxy, but never extending beyond to the human lives that populate this earth.  Isn’t that what occurs in this world, today?

People lie to themselves thinking that they have hundreds of “friends”, and yet sit alone in an apartment staring at a glowing piece of machine called a computer, and converse quietly on Facebook and through other social media outlets, yet never say a word; and the “conversations” on the medium are merely a series of rants and raves, and at the end of the late evening, everyone goes home.  People live with great wealth – of extravagance of living never seen heretofore in this or any other universe – while others barely make a living; and the impact felt moves not a teardrop or a sigh of resignation.

Federal and Postal employees live in such a universe, especially when a medical condition begins to impact the Federal or Postal employee’s ability and capacity to perform all of the essential elements of his or her Federal or Postal position.  The agency doesn’t care; the postal facility is indifferent; no one says, “Ah, we need to do everything to help you out so that you can get better!”  Instead, we rely upon quiet laws to be enforced, so that our “rights” can be protected and compelled.

Other worlds are not mere fantasies that we dream up; and for the Federal or Postal employee who must take the next step in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, welcome to the bizarre universe of an administrative process that cares little about injured or hurting people, but one in which the cold bureaucracy of laws and rights must be enforced in order to assert that which remains unmovable in the face of a medical condition that won’t go away.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Lawyer Representation for OPM Disability Claims: Unheralded individuals

Most of us fall into that category; rarely is there a person of “outstanding” qualities where a string of superlatives is deservedly ascribed.  This, despite a generation or so of children in schools being told that “every child is special” and that if you put your mind to it, you, too, can accomplish great things.

No, one may not be the star athlete, or even a starting one; or be talented in music such that one is accepted into some named consortium, or even be recognized for work in everyday, common settings. Yet, we all agree that it is “important” to give compliments, assign praise and shower accolades upon others, if only to ensure the healthy developmental aspects of the human ego.

Then, of course, there are those who “act up” for various reasons, and psychologists will speak about the yearning for an identification, the need for an outward showing of love, and how a person “acted out” of a need for expression, from frustration or sought-out recognition.  Is that what we all mean when that sudden terrorist act occurs and we hear the constancy of the next-door neighbor: “He (or she) was such a quiet, good neighbor.  Who would have thought?”

Is there really such a person?  What if an individual grows up and wanders throughout life never receiving any recognition of any sort – would that person end up being a healthy, well-adjusted, well-rounded and contributing individual?  Like unnamed tombs left for the weeds to overshadow in abandoned backyards of churches left to rot, can a person become a “person” and fulfill his or her “personhood” even if no one ever recognizes or otherwise points out such a person for some individualized, focus variant of an accomplishment seen?

Yet, such people are what are grouped into a faceless amalgamation as the “backbone” of a country, are we not?  Of those quiet, unassuming individuals who just work quietly, go about their business and work out the daily problems of the day, while those “heralded” individuals take the credit, appear on television and get their 15 seconds of fame in the world.

In this Kardashian-based universe where appearance trumps reality, the old philosophical arguments of Platonic Forms as opposed to the irrelevance of surface-realities, no longer applies.  The world has become a format (or, more appropriately, a floor-mat) of topsy-turvy indulgences.

For the Federal or Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition, where 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, the whole issue about being an “unheralded individual” is probably nothing new.

For, once the Federal agency or Postal facility sees an individual as “that one with a medical condition”, the entire outlook changes and the person with the medical condition suddenly becomes the proverbial persona non grata, the one relegated to the corner desk facing a wall, or otherwise shunned by the agency, the Postal facility and all coworkers besides.

Somehow, that is the “true” accommodation – to shun and ignore a “problem child”.  Well, you certainly are, at least, getting your fair share of recognition, now.  However, recognition of that sort can be dispensed with, and the best way to do that is 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. That way, you can fulfill your fullest potential by becoming one of millions of unheralded individuals.  Welcome to the club.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement Attorney

  

Federal Disability Retirement: The mortality reminder

When does mortality become a concern?  Certainly, not during the youthful vigor when the future holds bright concurrent with the cellular construct yet expanding and multiplying.  Is it with the first encounter that reveals vulnerability?  And what is defined as a “healthy” sense of it, as opposed to an obsessive conduit to a dementia of nihilism?  Does a “close shave” necessarily haunt everyone, or does it matter as to the sensitivity of a soul that such karma encounters?  What “reminds” one of a future terminal, as opposed to becoming an all-consuming journey to avoid the ultimate consequence?

Whether for future promises of glorious defiance of it (Christianity and similar belief systems) or of denial of the substantive reality we face by it (Hinduism, Buddhism and similar negation-bases faiths), the treatment of how it is approached, the methodology of embracing or rejecting, and the paradigms constructed in order to answer the underlying metaphysical queries, are “projects” which Heidegger has identified as those very endeavors to avoid the inevitable.

For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from chronic, debilitating, or otherwise delimiting medical conditions, such that the medical conditions prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties, the brush with the question of mortality becomes a reality precisely because vulnerability from the secure world one has previously taken for granted, becomes threatened with each day passing in the empirical experience of contending with the medical condition itself.

Medical conditions remind us of our mortality.  Certain and specific conditions tend to exponentially magnify it tenfold:  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (in nightmares, intrusive memories and recalling of traumatic events); Major Depression/Depressive Disorder (by the loss of stamina and the overwhelming sense of despair); Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which may include suicidal ideations and panic attacks (via the heightened sense of intolerance to work-place stresses); and those physical conditions which result in chronic and intractable pain, from multi-level degenerative disc disease, cervicalgia, myofascial pain syndrome; Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, as well as the ongoing list which every attempt to become “all-inclusive” always fails to mention, precisely because there is never a single right answer to the mortality reminder.

The key is often missed because the focus is misdirected – it is not so much the medical condition itself, but the impact of that medical condition which prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties:  that is the essence and foundation of a successful Federal Disability Retirement application.  But more importantly, it is that “nexus” which is the key to the mortality reminder, and that which prompts the Federal or Postal employee into a spur to action:  Prepare the Federal Disability Retirement application well; formulate the foundation for Federal Disability Retirement carefully; file the Federal Disability Retirement application in a timely manner.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement: When we used to speak of meaningful things

Perhaps the negation of ideas trickles down, just as water from a crack in the roof tiles; of Derrida, Foucault and the deconstruction movement after the lengthy period of disillusionment represented by the French Existentialists headed by Camus and Sartre; for, if meaning constitutes parity and the loss of hierarchies and paradigms in crumbling corners of inconvenient truths, then Orwell’s prediction of how totalitarianism will infect society with the tools of our own making, will come about sooner than we thought possible.

Let us not speak of Logical Positivism and how the expungement of ethics and metaphysics from kitchen table discussions resulted in the loss of meaning, value and truth; for, if validity of a statement is determined from on high in the ivory towers of Russell, Wittgenstein and Ayers, et al., one has only to look at the state of British society today to realize that while the island continent allowed for profundity of thought in the isolation of its heyday, its impact and influence should have remained contained in order to spare the rest of mankind.

There was a time when we used to talk about meaningful days.  Oh, it doesn’t refer necessarily to what is said, but more as to the discretion of what is kept silent.  For, it is the pause between thought and spoken word which reflects the depth of thoughtfulness; and, in modernity, the comma of silence between the typed garble considered a sentence, and the push of that button which shoots it into the eternal space of the Internet.  Just take a cursory preview of random Facebook and Twitter pages; of the inane, the insane and the intemperate; there was once, long ago, a time when work and toil to put bread on the table prevented the leisure of thoughtlessness allowance for indiscretion of a spoken word.

To be wrong is one thing; most mistakes are correctible and even forgivable; it is the engagement of lack of thought, discretion and unadulterated vacuity of breathtaking stream of words spoken, shared and disseminated without care, which destroys the society of binding values and becomes replaced with angry shouts of rights and privileges, and more so by those who engage in the self-immolation of devaluating acts.

Greater quantification of information does not implicate knowledge, leaving aside the concept of wisdom; instead, as Orwell knew so well, words mean something.  We tend to think that the more said, the greater volume of voice, and the increased amassing of a library of information, somehow leads to a smarter society.  It is, instead, quite the opposite, and the negative effect of thrashing about to escape from quicksand; the more we say, the stupider we appear.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are contemplating preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, it is important to understand that obtaining a cogent and effective medical narrative, in conjunction with preparing a compelling Statement of Disability on SF 3112A, are the two mainstays of a high-octane Federal Disability Retirement packet which increases the chances of a successful outcome.

Federal and Postal employees who are seeking to file for Federal OPM Disability Retirement benefits need not worry about speaking or discussing meaningful things; the tragedy of a medical condition, by its very nature, is a significant event which impacts upon a life, a career and a future.  Yes, there was a time when we used to speak of meaningful things, but those days are over — but for the intersection of human lives when words really matter, and lives are actually lived.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Separation from Federal Employment due to Disabling Conditions: The Cost of Human Detritus

Whether used metaphorically or in stark linguistic pragmatism but described with a shroud of nicety cloaked by innuendo and oblique allusion, the aggregate of detritus produced and scattered is daunting when calculated by daily volume, multiplied by the current population, and exponentially projected in terms of a mere decade or two.  But waste or debris can take on many forms, including a reference to loss of potential, shattered emotional and psychological constructs destroyed by garbage left in the wounds of a child harmed.

Human detritus is the compilation of all of the garbage gathered by society, whether of abandoned towns and provinces left hollow and uninhabitable because of the ravages of war, or the production of things used and discarded for daily convenience; and in metaphorical terms, of the skeletons of men and women shed of the substance of form and character because of the treatment weathered on the shores of indecency.

Gather up the cumulative aggregate of human detritus having occupied this planet, both in terms of physical objects and the wounding shards of deliberating projectiles intent upon destruction and devastation, and we have a daunting sense of who we are, what we stand for, and where we are headed.  Waste and debris; in the end, will those two words describe the sum total of what we have contributed to the world around us?  What is the algorithm, or methodological approach, in determining that conclusion of accomplishments at the end of our lives?  Is it determined in terms of how many neighbors and friends we destroyed, or of whom we bamboozled?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who seek to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits out of necessity of circumstances, it often appears that the answer to the previous question is found in the extent and unlimited character of cruelty found in the essence of humankind.  Harassment, workplace stress and intolerance of less productivity discovered in the Federal or Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition, are merely further indicia of the eternal bewilderment we discover concerning human invective.

Accommodation of one’s medical condition is rarely found; an exponential rise in human passivity and loss of empathetic response has become the norm; and because there is no other exit, 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, is the alternative of choice, and understandably so.

For, in the end, the cost of human detritus resides not in the workplace which we left, or the placards promised but discarded in the hidden closets of dusty psyches; rather, the cost is counted by the scars hidden when actions known to benefit remain mere thoughts of procrastinated dreams, like the warm breath of gods and angel’s wings fluttering in the timeless eternity of last year’s wishes.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire