FERS Medical Retirement from OPM: Fiction and Falsity

Are the two the same?  Or, is it the awareness which bifurcates the two into a conscious difference?

Fiction is one thing, falsity, quite another.  When fiction is put forth as fact, then it is falsity by another name; but falsity is what it is from the very beginning; it does not transform like Kafka’s Metamorphosis because the intent behind the falsity was to deceive, to begin with.  Movies; novels; television shows — they all give us the fiction of entertainment; but how we embrace them and live our lives within the fiction of our own lives, blurs the distinction between Fiction and Falsity.

It is, perhaps, an insidious, incremental falsity which begins to invade our daily lives.  We watch such action films — of the Bourne Sagas, or the 007 series & Mission Impossible movies, and we begin to perceive the world as somehow inclusively integrating such fiction; perhaps in distant beliefs that our government reflects some partial psychosis of such representations.  And when we read or hear of governmental misdeeds, we harken back and say to ourselves: See?

What happened in those fictional movies actually happens, even though falsity would — or should — protect us from such absurdities.  But read a short story like Ferdinand von Shirach’s tale entitled, “Self-Defense”.  It is fiction, but clearly based upon his experience as a top Criminal Defense Lawyer in Berlin.  Is it “fiction”?  Yes, at least officially.  Is it Falsity?  Just as clearly — not.

It is beyond fiction or falsity, because it is real and true.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, where the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from continuing in your Federal or Postal job, it is always important to distinguish between Fiction, Falsity and the reality of your situation.

As the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is clearly an agency which is ready to pounce upon any indicia of fictional falsity, you may want to contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law, to make sure that your representation of reality doesn’t cross the line into Fiction or Falsity.

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 under FERS: Learning a New Language

Perhaps, with modern technology, there is little need — or incentive — to do so.  There are “apps” for foreign languages, translation of phrases, and electronic dictionaries to convert concepts from one’s native tongue into esoteric languages of foreign origins.  And, like testing one’s knowledge and memory, something has been lost with the rise of technological ease.  No longer is it necessary to try and communicate by trial-and-error combined with over-exaggerated hand gestures, universal sign languages and facial expressions of grave frustrations.

No — we all just turn to our Smart Phones and allow for technology to perform the working of learning a new language.

In some instances, however, not even modern technology can assist in learning a “new language” — such as the language of Federal Disability Retirement Law.  For, in many senses, a Federal or Postal worker attempting to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits must indeed learn a new “language” — of the rules of eligibility; of what constitutes a legally viable accommodation; of foreign terms and legal concepts which must be understood and grasped before moving forward.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, contact a “translator” who can assist and guide you in learning a new language — a Federal Disability Retirement lawyer.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Sound Advice

“Sound” is a word which completely changes its meaning when combined with the word “advice”.  Taken separately, independently and in isolation, the word when articulated will not evoke the meaning produced by the combination, but rather, of noises one may hear, a song one is particularly fond of, or the voice of a familiar person, etc.  When placed together with the word, “advice”, it takes on an entirely separate meaning: Of being solid, reliable, truthful, etc.

Of course, one can also argue that it is merely a repetitive tautology, unnecessary and redundant; for, “advice given” should, by definition, be sound to begin with, otherwise it is neither advice nor sound and the duality of the meaning doesn’t add anything one to the other.  But clearly there is such a thing as bad advice, or advice which is “not sound”, and so there is a reason to combine the two words together, for the word “sound” does indeed add something to the word “advice” to combine and make up the concept, “sound advice”.

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, what is often lacking in the field of Federal Disability Retirement is not only “sound advice”, but any advice at all.  Agencies don’t want to disseminate information about Federal Disability Retirement; Supervisors and Managers offer ignorance as an excuse; and even your own Human Resource Office is deliberately unhelpful.

Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and obtain some sound advice, lest the soundness be less than sound and the advice becomes one which is regrettable.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: Seriousness in a time of folly

The young are expected to engage in folly; middle age, of some peripheral insight; the old, of wisdom finally gained; and of deathbed conversions, a last gasp of regrets untold.

The imbalances in a world turned topsy-turvy impede upon an ordered universe: Today, the young are idolized and youth is the new god of sunlight; the middle-aged engage in nostalgia before their time, constantly striving to regain that which was lost by a mere filament of grey, and begin telling untruths about one’s age, shaving a year here, getting a botox injection merely to flatten the crease of a smile’s delay; and the aged are shuttered in corners where irrelevance was merely an afterthought, in roomful of arms outstretched in hopes that yoga will prolong the agony of an uncertain afterlife.

This is an age which has been deemed the “Cult of the Youth”, but more than that, where seriousness can scantily be found in this time of folly.  We merely talk a lot.  Our grandfathers once gave us the tidbit of wisdom: Talk is cheap.  Yet, in this age of seriousness lost in a time of folly, we continue to merely talk especially because the price of doing something beyond talk is too great a burden to bear.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal worker to continue in one’s chosen career with the Federal Agency or the Postal Service, it is time to consider seriousness in a time of folly. The “folly” is the notion that things can continue as they have before; the “seriousness” is the decision to come to the realization that change is necessary and must now come about.  The further question is: What form does the change come in, and how does one go about it?

Federal Disability Retirement is a benefit which should be considered when the folly overtakes and the seriousness must be faced.  It is a long and arduous administrative process, full of bureaucratic pitfalls, and consultation and guidance by an experienced Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law is a first step towards recognizing that seriousness in a time of folly is a consideration to embrace for a future yet uncertain.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer

 

FERS Disability Retirement Benefits: The Resistance

The initial reaction to such a title is the obvious one: To what?  Of course, Newton’s Third Law of Motion comes immediately to mind — of every action having an equal and opposite reaction; thus, when one posits a “resistance”, the natural query must refer to its opposition, as in, “What is it that we are resisting?”

Throughout our “stages of life”, we either comply, conform, “go along with the crowd” — or resist doing so.  There are “middle” ways, of course, and yet to compromise and resist “half-way”, or in a half-hearted manner, often seems to ruin the whole point of any resistance, doesn’t it?

If one is to be a revolutionary, the point is to be one completely, or not at all.  During the Sixties, there was the famous line (often misattributed to Abbie Hoffman, the Beatles and others) which declared that the movement’s participants would “never trust anyone over 30” — spoken by Jack Weinberg in response to a hostile interviewer.  The underlying point of the statement is quite clear: By the age of 30, most people have “sold out”, conformed, lost their youthful vigor to resist; or, put more simply, accepted the status quo and have become cynical.  Yet, isn’t there a natural inclination to “belong”, to not stand apart from the crowd, and to be able to live a quiet, unassuming life?

“Resistance” can thus have a duality of meanings — it can imply that one is part of a movement involving resistance to the status quo or, even its opposite; that one resists change and is integrally a participant of the status quo.  Resistance to change is the greater dominating force.  Change is a fearsome entity where the unknown is to be avoided at all costs.  To be a part of “the resistance” that refuses to conform — well, that is best left to those under 30, unattached and without obligations and responsibilities.

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, resistance to change is often the factor that procrastinates, and keeps a person in a “muddle of the middle” where conditions deteriorate but one stubbornly insists upon maintaining the status quo.

But as medical conditions deteriorate and as the Federal Agency or the Postal Service persists in seeking change — by forcing the issue and initiating adverse actions in order to fill the position with a person who is able to perform all of the essential elements of the position — resistance to change must be replaced with becoming a part of the resistance: By preparing and submitting an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with OPM and forging ahead into a future yet unknown.

Remember —even Jack Weinberg became a class of individuals that he resisted, and went on to become a consultant and an adjunct faculty member; in other words, he was once in the “Resistance”, then became that opposite and equal force to fulfill Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Sincerely,

Robert R.McGill,Esquire