Postal and Federal Disability Retirement: Of Knights, Integrity and Betrayal

Perhaps they are arcane and archaic concepts of feudal vestiges and residues of a time past, when the world was comprised of simple and simplistic codes of conduct; and of a world long declining, such surviving stewards adhering to outmoded manners will ultimately pay the price of extinction.  In a fast-paced world of changing circumstances, where the linguistic gymnast can contort truth into falsity and vice versa, integrity is merely a power move, and those who can get along without it can live with the betrayal of others and self, without consequences.

Federal and Postal Workers who suffer from a medical condition, and are shoved aside as mere objects of derision, experience a heightened sense of integrity violated and betrayal encountered.  It is often at the expense of their health that work was considered paramount and principled; and so long as production quotas and the mission of the agency was promoted, the smooth smiles of superiors and supervisors oiled the way for a seemingly bright future.  But medical conditions have an insidious character; they can be concealed for a time, but will ultimately manifest themselves in alternative ways of revelatory revulsions.  Hiding a medical condition only increases the stress; stress in turn exacerbates the primary medical condition.

For the Federal or Postal Workers who thought that unwavering fealty to an agency or the U.S. Postal Service would be rewarded by a similar response when a medical condition begins to impact one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job, the surprise, hurt, and betrayal felt is often of devastating effect.

The option of 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, is one which should always be considered as the singular viable alternative to act upon. Yes, integrity violated often tempts one to react against the agency; and, yes, betrayal should have a consequence. But knights and codes of valor are left to literary enjoyments of a bygone era; and we must always keep in mind of the story of that famous knight who fought bravely, only to find that they were merely windmills rotating in circles of futility.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement Benefits for US Government Employees: Dog-like Loyalty

It is of the old adage — of the dog which refuses to bite the hand which feeds him.  It is only the human animal which betrays the adage; but, then, that is part of the point of the saying, and the recognition of the perversity of man.

It is thus not a wonder that Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition, remain unilaterally loyal to their agencies, despite sufficient evidence to the contrary and which would easily justify acting in a disloyal manner.  Years of toil and doing extra work without asking for anything in return will not result in empathetic treatment by an agency when the Federal or Postal worker requires such extraordinary treatment during a medical crisis; and when the surprised Federal employee becomes aghast at the reactionary irrationality of the agency, those of a cynical nature will often respond, “What did you expect”?

But the adverse nature of how an agency reacts when its employee files for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is really the flip-side of the same coin:  the Federal or Postal worker acts like the loyal dog; the agency acts like the hand-biting dog.  It is the inherent nature of the complex make-up of the human animal which allows for such contradictory reactions.  Or, perhaps not — it may be just as simple an explanation that there are bad people in the world, and those who expect goodness from human nature will normally be sorely disappointed.

That is why when an agency provides for unexpected level of support during the process of a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application, we react with such gratitude and surprise because of the exceptional nature of such a response.

One indicator that is fairly reliable, of course, is the wagging of the tail — unless, of course, it is the tail wagging the dog; but that is another adage altogether, for another time.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire