The problem with relying upon one’s Human Resources department to help in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the Office of Personnel Management (if in fact they are even willing to help, other than to provide the necessary forms — if that) is not based upon their lack of knowledge (some are fairly knowledgeable); rather, they work within the same mindset as the rest of government, and therefore unable to think outside of the paradigm of government regulations, rules, and statutory mandates.
Furthermore, Human Resources personnel are not lawyers; as such, the moment there is a problem with an application — whether in its substantive presentation, or in the legal criteria which apply to the eligibility of any one Federal or Postal employee — they have a tendency to side with the Office of Personnel Management.
That is not to say that there are not excellent H.R. Personnel — there are. But H.R. Personnel are trained to assist in the procedural stream of making sure that the paperwork is all “in order”. They do not comment upon — and nor should they — the feasibility or substantive credibility of a Federal Disability Retirement application under either FERS or CSRS.
Furthermore, the number of years a person has been a “Human Resources Specialist” is not indicative of the competency of that person in providing any guidance; those who have been in Human Resources often box themselves into a paradigm of repetitive labor, and perform a task “because this is the way it’s always been done”. That is never a reason to do something, let alone a good reason.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Human Resources Office | Tagged: agency's human resources and the handing of your fers disability application, agency's human resources department, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, FERS disability retirement, filing opm disability through the local human resources office, handling of opm disability retirement by human resources, how will the human resources office process your opm medical disability, human resources handling of disability applications in the federal sector, human resources limitations during the opm disability application processing, human resources specialists as federal disability lawyers, legal services for federal and postal workers all across america, opm disability and human resources in the federal agencies, OPM disability retirement, owcp disability retirement, paperwork processing fers disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, postal service human resources and their handling of opm disability claims, the postal service human resources shared services (hrss), the purpose of a human resources office in a government agency, the way your agency's human resources handles your opm disability application, USPS disability retirement, usps human resources and the processing of disability claims, what human resources can and can't do for you - fers disability claims | Leave a comment »