OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Life Patterns

Every animal has a pattern or rhythm; and so, by studying such behavioral patterns, we can ordinarily predict, with some amount of accuracy, future responses and reactive inclinations.  Human beings are the one species where, purportedly, if a pattern is detected early, deliberative alterations can be initiated; or, at least that is the theory.

In reality, most people are unable to break from the patterns of their lives.  We apply various euphemisms to explain away our inability to alter self-destructive behaviors — and call them “addictions” or childhood “traumas” and early-developmental imprints which cannot be easily cured.

So, in the end, it turns out that we are not much different from other species, and our DNA seems to be as entrenched in our behavioral predictability much the same as the Cheetah or the Chimpanzee.

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 all of the essential elements of his or her position with the Federal Government, the question to ask is: Is the life pattern of ignoring the medical condition and pushing forward while your health deteriorates — is that a life pattern you want to continue?  Or, should discernment that obtaining a Federal Disability Retirement benefit will break that life pattern so that you can focus on your health — is that a possibility?

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and see whether or not you will be one of the unique few who can identify a self-destructive life pattern, and break out of the mold of Cheetahs and Chimpanzees.

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 Disability Retirement Law: Doctor’s Orders

Does strict compliance with doctor’s orders guarantee recovery and good health?

Quite obviously — not.  Medicine is not a science, although it is “science-based”.  The history of medicine — including psychiatry — does not have a pretty history.  It possesses a lineage of trial and error; of successes and failures; of applications which now appear barbaric; but of great and impactful discoveries, as well, including antibiotics and medicines which have saved lives.

Doctor’s orders, in the end, constitute the bare minimum; the rest is often up the individual as to what further to do: Of reducing stress; of eating healthily; of changing or discarding bad habits; of exercising and changing the lifestyle habits which harm.

And what about filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS?

If you are a Federal or Postal employee who has at least 18 months of Federal Service, you may be eligible — but you must also follow the doctor’s orders.  That is one of the “unspoken” requirements of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — to be compliant with the medical regimens ordered, to see whether or not you have tried everything in order to get better.

For, OPM’s argument is that if the doctor’s orders are not followed, it can never be known whether or not it was the medical condition which prevented the Federal employee or Postal Service employee from performing his or her job, or the lack of compliance which intervened.

Contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider whether you have followed the “doctor’s orders” before you begin the process of following the “Lawyer’s orders”.

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 OPM: The Technical Application

In every system, specialty, sub-specialty, etc., there is a technical application and usage of a term, concept, acronym, etc.  Wittgenstein, the Austrian Philosopher and the author of “Philosophical Investigations” (as well as Tractatus Philosophicus and other works), discusses the concept of “Language Games” involving such unique and technical applications of word usage within different contexts and circumstances.

Thus, there are “computer software language games”, or engineering language games — where specific words have meanings quite narrowly defined, and which often excludes the general population’s understanding unless you become a “member” of that particular group, society, etc.

In Federal Disability Retirement Law, there are numerous technical applications within the language game of “Federal Disability Retirement under FERS” — and one of them is the usage and application of the term, “Accommodations”.  The term itself is widely and loosely used — as in referring to various work-related adjustments and changes.

Thus, a Federal Agency or the Postal Service might, for example, refer to a light duty assignment as an “accommodation” provided, when in fact — in the technical, legal sense — it is not at all an accommodation under Federal Disability Retirement Law.

The problem with a technical application, usage and misapprehension / misunderstanding terms and concepts used in a “general sense” as opposed to the “technical sense”, is that such failure of comprehending the precise meaning of a term can result in failing to apply and obtain Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

Contact a lawyer who understands the technical application of all terms under Federal Disability Retirement Law, and don’t let the language game of Federal Disability Retirement Law mislead you into a failure of filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

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.

 

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: Options Unrealized

Is an option an option if it is unrealized?  “Unrealized”, of course, can have 2 different but subtle meanings — of not being known at all or — in a second sense — of known but just not actualized.  If a person is entirely unaware of an alternative course of action or a pathway delving into a different set of circumstances, can those other avenues be considered “options”?

They are, of course, options in a generic sense, but perhaps not yet individualized.  Take the following hypothetical: buried a foot below the ground is a hidden treasure, a trove of gold coins left behind by Spanish conquistadors many centuries before, now covered by layers of sediment and overgrown grass.

A detectorist (yes, from that cult-like following of a 3-series program) who has gone over the same ground multiple times, suddenly receives a positive signal of a potential find; stops, digs, and — becomes rich and famous.  When asked about it, he replies, “I had gone over the same area many times before and knew that something might be there, but didn’t want to realize my option because, to do so would then take the fun out of it.”  Huh?

Now, that person truly had an option — knowledge of a potential treasure and a choice to exercise the option to find it, but refraining from doing so.  Or, by contrast, the first-time detectorist who stumbles upon the same treasure trove at the first opportunity to cover that same ground — he had no “option”, but simply exercised it upon receiving a positive signal from his metal detector.

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, the options unrealized are often those that have never been told of, announced or even considered — like preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

Perhaps your agency or the Postal Service never apprised you of the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement; or, perhaps you were once told but completely forgot.  In either case, the options unrealized are the ones that can do you harm, and it is only if you take the necessary steps to realized the unrealized options that it can do a person any good, and the first step towards realizing an option unrealized is to consult with an Attorney who specializes in that option yet to be realized: FERS Disability Retirement Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Employees: The unmerited edge

And what did they all do to merit the position of harassing? Merely a negation of something never earned: Not getting sick; not becoming crippled with a medical condition; not having a medical disability. Of what accolades should be showered for that? Why is it that the person whose only success in life is a negation of nothingness, should have any edge at all, merited, unmerited or otherwise?

Life often makes no sense; and, while the concept of “fairness” is quite a subjective one, most can agree at least that being in a state of unmerited oblivion should not accord one any edge at all, but to have it would be “unfair” by fiat of logical acceptability.

Should awards be presented to, and accolades showered upon, those who are in a position of power, influence or application of future determinations upon people’s careers and job security, even if that power that provides an advantage and edge is unmerited?

One can argue that the mere fact that a person has risen to such a position in and of itself constitutes a meritorious status and stature; but, even given that, does not continuing merit depend upon a current historicity of ongoing accomplishments? And, are not some characteristics not merit-based, but merely acquired – such as negations involving “not becoming sick”, “not having a chronic medical condition” and “not being prevented from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job”?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition has come to a point where he or she is no longer able to perform one or more of the essential elements of his or her Federal or Postal job, it may be time to prepare a 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.

In the administrative process of enduring this bureaucratic maze, that Federal or Postal disability retirement applicant will likely encounter the adversarial face-off with Supervisors, Managers and Agency heads who likely possess the unmerited edge – that advantage over the Federal or Postal Federal Disability Retirement applicant – and the power to determine the course of actions contemplated or otherwise begun.

Be careful, however, as the unmerited edge should be distinguished from the power to harass, intimidate and initiate adversarial procedures. For, there are many in this world who possess power and use it indiscriminately, even though it may well be an edge which is unmerited.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement from Federal Government Employment: Parting grace in silence

Does grace extend even when the intended recipient is unaware of its attachment?  Can the undeclared withdrawal of revenge justified have its own inherent rewards, without the unsolicited admission left silent by anonymity undaunted?  If given the choice between leaving the scene where injustice prevailed and dominated – of wreaking revenge or parting grace in silence – which would we choose?

Of course, there is a greater contextual awakening to be narrated before such an event would occur – of quietly enduring the daily harassment, the constant criticism and demeaning remarks; of refuting, rebutting and reacting, as against an agency that initiates adverse actions one after another in sequential persistence of unfettered meanness.

From that erupts the natural tendency in thinking:  “They can’t get away with this”; or, “If I have to spend my last dime, I am going to get even with them.”  Yet, is the cost of revenge worth the time, effort and expenditures depleted?  What does it mean to attain “justice” in an unjust world?  If a verdict is rendered or a settlement reached, what is the barometer by which one has regained one’s reputation, reestablished that one was ‘right’ or recuperated the toil of anguish and angst expended?

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is not a surrender of one’s soul to an agency that has not, will not or otherwise cannot accommodate one’s medical conditions.  Rather, it is an admission that there exists an incommensurability between the particular position occupied and the medical conditions suffered.

That is the point made in the case of Henderson v. OPM, in which the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board reiterated the alternative but equally valid approach in proving a Federal Disability Retirement case by a preponderance of the evidence:  a 1-to-1 ratio between a medical condition and an essential element of one’s Federal or Postal position is not the only methodology in establish a medical condition such that the Federal or Postal employee becomes eligible and entitled to Federal Disability Retirement benefits, but additionally, a showing that there is an incompatibility generally between the position occupied and the medical conditions suffered is also a basis for granting a Federal Disability Retirement benefit.

Whatever workplace issues have been a part of the content and context of a Federal or Postal employee needing to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, once that decision is made to prepare, formulate and file for Federal Disability Retirement, one might consider this:  The past has passed; the present must be endured while waiting upon a decision by OPM; the future is based upon the decision of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management; and in the meantime, where do you want to expend your energies?  You may want to consider parting grace in silence, instead of spinning the proverbial wheels heaping reactive acts of futile counterpunches upon those who know not the terms of justice.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement from Federal Employment: Mansions with many rooms

There is room enough, and the imagery posed by the concept presents the warmth of an open invitation, whether the guest is willing, able or otherwise unprepared for such unconditional hospitality.  Mansions often pose a stoic, cold and unwelcoming façade, and it is always the people who inhabit them and the guests who frequent such expansive and impersonal grounds that make the difference between icy relationships of uncaring attitudes steeped in jealousies engendered and encouraged by competition, envy and mistrust, or the comfort of caring families.

It need not be a steadfast rule that the larger the house, the less amiable the people; or, its corollary, the smaller the abode, the qualitative and proportionate substance involving mirth, laughter and joy.  It is, perhaps, the feeling that geometric expansion and distance between rooms correlates with a certain stoicism that encourages lack of closeness; whereas, if you have to double-up in bunks and share bathrooms, wait upon one another just to get by a narrow passageway, you are forced to tolerate the quixotic eccentricities and foibles of each other, and quick and easy forgiveness is not too far away when you have to live in close quarters where anger, holding grudges and carrying pockets full of resentments simply will not do, as such overloads of unnecessary burdens tend to weigh each other down into a pit of misery that cannot withstand a house full of people.

Once, a local pastor quipped, “Where there are people, there are problems.”  True enough, and one might add:  “And when gathered into close quarters, the ugliness shows through all the more.”  Perhaps it is that the heavenly mansion has many rooms, not because so many people are expected to arrive as permanent residents; rather, because angels and spiritual entities who have crossed the irreversible divide care neither for cramped spaces nor of expansive comfort, but live contentedly wherever they are.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who work for a Federal agency or a Postal facility, whether under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the mansion with many rooms is likened to the particular workplace that one spends so much time in.  Then, when you become the subject of gossip, the trigger point of harassment and the butt of whispered jokes because you have taken so much time off, filed for FMLA protection as well as grievances and EEO Complaints to try and ward off the constant adversarial actions directed against you, it may be time to consider a change of residences.

No, this is not to imply that you should consider the “spiritual” world; rather, to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  For, as with the proverbial mansion with many rooms, it is not the place itself that makes much difference, but the people whom you are surrounded by, and when a medical condition begins to impact your ability to perform the essential elements of the job, it is perhaps time to seek another with many rooms, or a smaller house with friendlier occupants.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire