The time we spend implies the level of our concern, our interests and our priorities. The proportionality reveals where one’s “mind’ resides. If work takes up the greater portion of our lives, then one is deemed a workaholic; if video entertainment seems to dominate, then some will whisper of being “addicted”; or of too much of anything — leisure, pleasures, topical asides or exotic obsessions — the tendency is to make judgments based upon the time given and the attention reserved.
When does an “interest” in something become an addiction or an obsession? Does it depend upon each circumstance and the context surrounding the reasons imparted?
Certainly, initiating a “start-up” requires greater commitment than to be employed with an established firm; and learning a new activity or engaging a fresh issue will require a greater commitment at the outset. Medical conditions, as well, often require a greater focus and investment of time. The problem with medical conditions is not the disproportionate time needed, but the time it takes away from other activities — from work; from time with family; from the time previously spent on other necessary activities, including the mundane like taking out the garbage.
For Federal and 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, the time we spend on an ongoing medical condition — from taking SL, AL or LWOP (or being deemed AWOL), to being unable to complete tasks, etc. — is an indicator of when a Federal Disability Retirement application should be filed.
To obtain an objective assessment of one’s likelihood for a successful outcome, consult with an Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: abusive postal supervisors causing stress, attorney for us office of personnel management fers retirement for disabling conditions, being on owcp and sick leave for a long time, bullying of disabled usps postal employee, choosing usps csrs buyout or medical retirement, csrs medical retirement lawyer, disabled employee fired from us postal service, donation sick leave postal employee who is sick for a long time, eeoc medical discrimination are often harder to prove than opm medical retirement claims, employees who don’t qualify for federal owcp can still qualify for opm medical retirement, federal employee injured off duty do I have any rights?, federal employee light and limited duty employee injured on the job files for permanent disability, federal employees on lwop for poor health, federal lawyers for disability in alabama, fers and csrs disability retirement attorney for alabama residents, fers claim denied now what’s next?, firing of federal employees with disabilities near retirement, flat sorter usps with severe back pain, forms for fed worker comp limited duties compensation annuities, harassment of federal employees with medical conditions who are reaching retirement age, how to qualify for opm disability with top nationwide fers and csrs attorney, information about fers disability retirement, janitor postal sick leave, law blog on tips to complete sf 3112 attorney for federal employees, lawyer blog on how to get approved for fers medical retirement, limited financial resources for suing usps over disability discrimination, lwop usps sickness long term, medical removal from federal position, monterey ca area fers disability lawyer, nervous to check owcp disability retirement claim status, opm harassment on employees causing mental stress, owcp long term disability postal custodian, private postal attorney representation early opm retirement for health related issues, proposed removal for insubordination but underlying mental condition, san diego california opm medical retirement attorney, standard form 3112 for disability, stress in the federal government employment, stress postal medical retirement attorney, taking sick leave before you resign from the federal government opm for severe disabling conditions: is it good?, u.s. government employee medical retirement lawyer, usps.gov employee disabilities | Leave a comment »
Federal Disability Retirement: The Ledger of Life
The Ledger was once that oversized binder which recorded the economic transactions for various purposes — of maintaining income and outlays; of keeping an accounting of various details in one’s life, whether of activities in business or even of one’s habits and patterns of existence. Somehow, it doesn’t seem the same as typing such information into a computer, or of buying a software that categorizes and makes everything neat and simple.
That old Ledger that had to be lugged from one place to another reflected the weight of seriousness just in the act of lifting it; and when you opened the front cover and turned the pages where the latest entry still emitted the scent of ink still drying, one sensed the permanency of recordation as a trait of relevance that could never be erased.
And what of the metaphor — of one’s “Ledger of Life” — a recordation of the transactions that one has engaged; of the weightiness of that placed on one side of the ledger as compared to the negative notations appearing on the opposite side; of the image of St. Peter as the gatekeeper reviewing the annotated columns to determine if you “made it” — all because “The Ledger” reflects the value of your actions during the course of a lifetime?
Do we even think in those terms, anymore? Or, while the dusty old books that used to be kept beneath the wooden grains of counters in dark and dank workshops were left behind when first the technology of modernity made for obsolescence of such anachronistic record keeping, did we then just revert to making mental notes for the things we did or did not do?
Most of us, if asked if we are “eligible” to pass through St. Peter’s exclusive club, would respond thus: “Oh, all in all, I have been a pretty good person and so, Yes, I believe I would qualify.” And so we approach most things in a similar vein: We give ourselves a “pass” and believe that the Ledger of Life would favor our eligibility status.
And so it is with Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer form a medical condition and need to file for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Because you suffer from the medical condition and believe that the medical condition cannot but be proof of eligibility, so you believe OPM cannot but see what you see. But filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a paper-presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
It is very rare that any Federal Disability Retirement application is a “slam-dunk” case, or even an “easy” one; and like the Ledger of Life that we have left behind in the dusty heaps of bookshelves long forgotten, preparing an effective FERS Disability Retirement application is not just a simple transaction to be annotated into columns of neat book keeping, but a bureaucratic process that must be proven and argued for — somewhat like the Ledger of Life that must be submitted to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: advise from opm lawyer on disability retirement physician statement, after the usps disability denial insufficient medical documentation, atrial fibrillation fers medical retirement attorney, attorney serving disabled federal employees in massachusetts, awol for medical reasons federal employment, biased disability reasonable accommodation committee in post office and what my options are, dealing with inaccurate information on standard form 3112d with an attorney a board, dealing with supervisors negative comments on request for fers disability retirement, degenerative disc disease on postal employee, disabilities bop retirement benefits, disability leave for postal employees, disciplinary actions and disabilities discrimination fers attorney, disciplinary actions for awol medical leave fers lawyer, documentation needed to show usps disability retirement, federal employee disability retirement attorney serving in arizona area, federal employee disability rights under fers, fers application for immediate medical retirement, fers benefits if resign for physical or mental impairments, fers opm boise Idaho retirement attorney, fitness for duty examination postal employee with arthritis, forced fers medical retirement by us postal service, free first time consultation with fers lawyer, harassment in post office by management and stress leave, how to resign from the postal service if I have a disabling condition, ice owcp medical retirement benefits lawyer, if a usps employee is terminated for mental stress but the excuse by management is criminal misconduct, law blog on tips to complete sf 3112 attorney for federal employees, looking for resignation example from federal employer due to disabilities, ma federal disability retirement lawyer, mdd help with depressive condition in federal employees, medical documentation needed to show or prove usps medical retirement, mental conditions postal service incapacity opm pension, mental disabled designation criteria in the usps, modified job assignments medical limitation postal attorney, office of personnel management retirement csrs disability, opm advanced sick leave denial considerations, opm definition hostile work environment for retirement purposes, opm lawyer for help in fers disability retirement process, opm medical retirement for lumbago and low back pain, opm schedule of rating disabilities, paperwork to file for fers disability and expert advice, postal employee terminated unfairly mental stress and anxiety, postal service letter to sign for disabilities, postal service ps form-50 termination proposal for excessive sick leave, power of attorney signature in fers disability attorney contact attorney mcgill first first time consultation is always free, qualifying for a disability retirement under opm fers, removal medical inability to perform federal position attorney, resignation not advisable fers medical retirement lawyer, resigning from federal service health reasons, separation from federal employment medical inability to perform position chores, supervisors at postal service creating a hostile environment for usps employees, suspension of disabled employee fers disability lawyer, terminated from government employment for physically inability to perform tasks, termination proposal of postal employee with disabilities without opm pension benefits, unfair termination of usps employee for misconduct but real reason is mental stress, usps owcp disability retirement forms after workers comp nurse’s return to work, when advance sick leave is denied in the usps what can I do next?, when dealing with federal medical retirement forms know what law says you need to prove, when sedentary postal positions for light duty won’t work, when you are being surveilled and harassed by postal inspectors while on owcp, workers comp with usps long term sickness, working while filing federal retirement disability | Leave a comment »