Medical Retirement for Federal Workers: The Guiding Sense of Direction

Global Positioning Systems are widely relied upon these days.  In conversations, there is never anymore an effort to recollect, whether of an old movie, a struggling synonym, or a name on the “tip of the tongue’ — for one only needs to whip out the smart phone, do a quick search, and the delicious exertion of an extended discourse greets the cessation of social interaction with silence. But one’s hand-held GPS merely gets the individual from point A to point B; it does not provide a wider perspective of one’s place in the greater world.

In the old days, the social interaction of spreading out a map before taking an extended trip was a requirement, unless of course one wanted to foolishly brave the winding roads of unfamiliar territory with the declared intention of undertaking an adventure of sorts. It was the mental exercise of figuring out the confusing grid system, of marking and remembering various routes, which taught one about the smallness of one’s being within the greater context of the world.

And in a similar vein, the pleasure of struggling to remember the name of something once known, but now locked in fuzzy storages in the dusty bookshelves of past memories, is now replaced by expediency and wasted efforts. Making decisions of important issues is somewhat akin to using a GPS or searching for information on the internet.

For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition impacts one’s capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s job, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether one is under FERS or CSRS, is a decision somewhat akin to using a GPS or searching on the internet.

For, in the end, it is not just a matter of traveling to a different point from one’s departure-point; it is important to have a wider perspective on all of the legal issues involved, the impact for future courses of decision-making, and the proper deciphering of the complex grid which characterizes a Federal Disability Retirement application. One can always push a button and go through the motions; or, one can have a deeper understanding by expending a little more effort in any given endeavor.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is too important an avenue to undertake, to leave it to chance, or to declare that it is an adventure of sorts. It is likely necessary that one may have to resort to figuring out the complex grid of the administrative process, and in most cases, that will require the guidance of a map greater than a simple directional device.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement for Federal Workers: Cower v. Cowardice

To cower paints a word-picture of crouching or retreating in fear.  Cowardice, on the other hand, is the cumulative character of a man or woman, wrought upon through a lifetime of milestones and the reactions to each.  The latter can represent the aggregate of the former; the former may be, but is not necessarily, a singular action symbolizing the former.

Sometimes, there is a basis for being fearful.  Fear is quite obviously an evolutionary instinct which has a survival value attached; how one responds to the overwhelming stimulus of fear will often determine the value of such survivability instinct. But to cower in response to a given circumstance, a sudden crisis, or an unforeseen emergency is not to conclude cowardice; it is, as Aristotle would point out, merely one indication in a lifetime of red flags determining the linear value of one’s essence.

For the Federal or Postal employee who must face the crisis of a medical condition, such that important decisions must be faced, made and lived with, the step to Federal Disability Retirement is one fraught with the fear of the unknown: for one’s future, one’s vocation, and one’s financial security. To cower in confronting such a major decision is understandable; it does not indicate a character of cowardice. Facing a medical condition takes fortitude and clarity of mind, and in the midst of dealing with the crisis itself, it is often difficult to make cogent decisions ancillary to contending with one’s health issues.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS or CSRS, and filed through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is a daunting task which requires mental acuity and intellectual stamina. In one’s weakened state, it is often advisable to have objectivity and good counsel. To cower in the face of a challenge is sometimes understandable; but to reveal cowardice is unnecessary, especially when the Federal or Postal employee who must decide upon the issue of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits can turn to competent assistance to guide one through the complex process of the administrative morass.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: Identification Recoil

Is it the identification which, if recognized, prompts one to engage in a commensurate reaction?  Does recognition of the identified condition require a societal conditioning, such that fear becomes a learned response as much as a sudden movement or a shrill shriek piercing the midnight hours of darkness?  Does the expansion of knowledge have a parallel and exponential quantification of fear and the list of things we fear?

Or is fear a singular emotion, triggered by multiple sensors and perceptual sensitivities such that variegated pathways may find their way to a single receptor which determines the responsive requirement, as in a shudder, a trembling, flight or uncontrollable screams?

The list of medical diagnoses has expanded over time; whether this means that there are more diseases, conditions and syndromes today than a millennium ago, or the bureaucratization of mere annotative indexing of that which has existed, been parsed and more precisely been categorized, is a question for the “experts” to debate.

Death sentences are rare; but lesser commutations of conclusions regarding one’s mortality and health are often regarded in the starkest of terms. When a Federal or Postal employee learns of a medical condition which impacts the ability and capacity to continue in one’s chosen vocation, the residual consequences which must be considered are indeed serious and life-altering. Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is not an easy decision to make. It is considered within the context of a bundle of issues, including medical, legal, financial, family, social — and dealing with the fear of the unknown.

Just as a child may at first identify an object of fear without recognition of the underlying reality of that emotion, and recoil without thought; so the Federal and Postal Worker who first learns of a debilitating medical condition may react in a similar identification recoil. Taking that next step in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, often requires a pause and an indentation of time, precisely because one must first deal with the cumulative fears crowding out the voice of reason.

Gargoyles come in different shapes and sizes; like a chameleon in the wild, it is often our reaction which impedes our progress, and less so the objectivity of the thing to which we respond.

 

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Workers: The Universe of the Possible (Part I of II)

Children are brought into the extensive and unlimited world of the “possible”, precisely because (we believe) it provides for greater expansion of the fertile, creative mind.  But for the adult, the world of the “possible” is conceptually meaningless, and without objective import; for, the statement and belief, “X is possible”, retains no boundaries, and therefore it allows for all manners of fears, frauds and frivolities.

It is interesting to listen to news stories which confuse the concepts between the universe of the “possible”, and that which is “probable”.  When a report is issued beginning with, “Sources say it is possible that X occurred,”, it is of no greater or lesser value than if one declares that it is “possible that aliens from Mars intervened in an event”.  Both are equally possible.  It is only when facts enter an equation that the universe of the “possible” becomes contained to the smaller world of the “probable”.

For Federal and Postal employees who have encountered the “real” world of medical conditions, dealings with unsympathetic agencies, confrontations with supervisors and managers, the world of the “possible” quickly shrinks to the harshness of one’s immediate environment.  Concurrently, however, as fears and thoughts of potential agency actions magnify concerns and ruminating upon the unknown, one often allows for those childish dreams to wander, and to entertain the universe of the possible.

Get the facts; obtain proper counsel and advice; for it is only when facts and advice based upon real-world events are gathered, that one can properly limit the unlimited universe of the possible and deal with the reality of the probable.

For Federal and Postal employees who must make decisions for a real future, where filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits must be seriously considered, and where an encounter with the bureaucracy and administrative processes circumscribed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management must be followed, it is important to recognize that the universe of the possible is merely for children and the unbounded imagination of childhood; whereas the world of the probable is what adults must contend with daily.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Employee Medical Retirement: Fear & Darkness

The veil of darkness provides a contrast; for the predator, it allows for an advantage in stalking its prey; for the prey, the shimmering shadows reverberate of the unknown, but still, if one remains calm and quiet, an equality of disadvantage is allowed for, in that the predator must maneuver through the identical lack of visual acuity as they prey.

The singular equalizer for both predator and prey, in the calm shadows of darkness, is fear.  For the former, waiting and hoping that fear will flush out its prey by making a noise or venturing out thinking that a different location will provide for a safer haven; for the latter, it is the extent of one’s imagination which often leads to defeat; of fear instilled and mixed with images of what may happen, what could be out there, and where will it all end?

Why nightfall stirs the deep recesses of one’s imagination is a mystery; and even in the midst of civilized society, in the safety of one’s home, as one attempts to turn to the refuge of sleep for restorative relief, it is often then that thoughts of fear pervade in the dark of night, and in the void of one’s mind.  Such fear reaches back to the days of primitive life, and is complicated by the unknown.

For the Federal and Postal Worker who suffers from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact one’s job performance; and where supervisors and agencies have been stirred to initiate adverse actions or discussions have already occurred of such dealings, it is often those primitive chasms from times past, of fear of the unknown, which must be countered with systematic and pragmatic steps to secure one’s future.

Man, in his essence, has not changed much over time; those in power still act as predators, and prey upon the scent of weakness.

Federal and Postal workers who suffer from medical conditions may need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS or CSRS, in order to escape the predatory practices of one’s agency.  Ultimately, the modern equivalent of the veil of darkness is ignorance, and in this case, not knowing the law and one’s rights is often the greatest harm suffered by Federal and Postal employees; and the modern equivalent of fear?  It is still the stepping into the unknown.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Worker Disability Retirement: The Anxiety of the Unknown

It is a testament to the complexity of human intelligence which brings about unsolvable medical mysteries such as panic-induced physical manifestations and chronic, progressively deteriorating somatic illnesses which reveal no clear organic orientation.

Anxiety is a permanent feature of our culture, now; for, with so much uncertainty pervading our lives, with the growing complexities of changing economic circumstances, greater intrusion of technology and violations of basic privacy issues, the onslaught of stimuli for which Man has had little time to adapt, portends of a response both by one’s psyche as well as the body, to react to the unknown and unknowable.

The contradiction is inherent in our nature; on the one hand, human frailty is the basis for a community’s sympathy and empathy; but as we become more and more removed from our communities and disjointed by the medium of technology and the virtual world, those who can withstand the coldness of the world are “fit” for survival in the new world.

For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition such that the illness or chronic, progressively deteriorating disability prevents the Federal and Postal employee from performing all of the essential elements of one’s job, it is often the anxiety of the unknown for one’s future which further exacerbates the medical condition itself.  Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is often a first step in attaining a level of stability in one’s life; for, with a Federal Disability Retirement approved, it allows for some semblance of certainty for the future.

Unfortunately, the anxiety of the unknown is a characteristic of our society which will remain, and the Federal and Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition must contend with that feature as best they can, and it is often the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement which is the first positive step in response to the frightful uncertainty of our times.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Employee Medical Retirement: Lives of Trepidation

Most of us live lives of subtle trepidation.  Whether borne of childhood experiences of insecurity or fears, psychologists and mental health professionals can perhaps shed some light upon a theory or proposed paradigm of explanatory adequacy.

In adulthood, it turns to reticence and self-limitations, where avenues are deliberately avoided and potentialities remain consciously unfulfilled.  It is all well and good for others to declare such pithy catchphrases, such as, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself,” and other such banners and choruses intended to lift up one’s spirits; but the reality of the harsh world around us more often than not confirms, magnifies and reinforces the very fears and anxieties which limited us in the first place.

Thus does one begin life with inborn fears, and stumbles about and experiences confirmations by the harsh reality which we encounter on a daily basis.

Medical conditions, whether physical or psychiatric, tend to magnify and delimit those subtle trepidations.  For the Federal and Postal Worker who finds him/herself with a medical condition which impacts one’s ability and capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s job, Federal Disability Retirement benefits, filed through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, may be the best option and choice to take.

It is perhaps one avenue where a benefit does not confirm one’s subtle trepidations of life, but rather, counters it by allowing for a modicum of security, while pursuing another vocation, and concurrently allowing for that rehabilitative period of quietude in order to recover from one’s medical conditions.

It is well that such a benefit exists for the Federal and Postal employee; for, as a subset of the greater society which has no such availability to the benefit provided by Federal Disability Retirement, the “rest of us” must trudge along with those subtle trepidations and make our way in this harsh reality of our own making.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Worker Disability Retirement: The Bureaucracy

Most people, organizations and entities do not act with deliberate ill-intentions; rather, they fail to think, and actions emanating from thoughtlessness often constitutes the negation of good.  Bureaucratization often results in the unintended consequence of negating the good; for, in following a set pattern and algorithm of administrative procedures, consideration for individual circumstances cannot be excepted.

One can argue, of course, for the positive aspects of a bureaucracy — of the equal treatment of all; of applying the same standards and criteria across the board, regardless of individual needs; and there is certainly something to be said for expunging the capacity for human favoritism.  But bias and favoritism will always pervade; it will merely take on a more insidious form.

For the Federal and Postal Worker who is suffering from a medical condition such that the medical condition is impacting one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job, encountering the bureaucratic process of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will become a necessary evil to confront.

The key to a successful interaction with the administrative process will be to reach beyond the faceless bureaucracy, and to make relevant one’s own particular and unique facts and circumstances.  That is a tall order to face, in the face of a faceless bureaucracy.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement for Federal Workers: Fear and the Masking of Medical Conditions

Fear can exacerbate, and simultaneously hide the underlying cause.  The Western philosophical quest for the essence of a thing never considers whether the human element of fear is part of the problem; instead, the focus has always been to unravel and lift the veil from the world of appearances by either recognizing the imperfection of perceptual engagements, or by acknowledging that the objective world is unreachable and unknowable.

But fear is the penultimate human emotion of irrational masking; and when an individual has a physical or psychiatric condition such that this medical condition begins to deteriorate and debilitate, and impacts upon one’s workplace relationships, social engagements and family security, the exponential magnification of fear can mask the condition itself — or, at the very least, deliberately cover the symptomatologies which trigger alerts daily.  But the underlying motivation prompted by fear can only conceal for a time, until a flash-point occurs where the seriousness of the medical condition exceeds the ability of fear to mask; and when that crisis-point reaches fruition, the condition itself becomes a point of crisis.

Yes, fear can mask for a time; man has the unfathomable capacity to lie not only to one’s self, but to lie to the self which lies.

For Federal and Postal employees who walk with fear because of financial and workplace security, who are beset with a progressively deteriorating medical condition, fear is a factor of which one must contend.  Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is a great leap of faith.  But faith should first be reinforced with information; and so the best medicine to treat fear is to initially gather the information on the entire process.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement; understand, reflect, and battle against the fear of ignorance.  That is the proper methodology and approach.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire