OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: The Trials of Life

This is a difficult period in everyone’s life.  We can try and put a brave front, attempt to have a “positive outlook”, and walk around with a frozen smile on our faces, but the plain fact is that life is tough.

These days, the trials which we face often appear to be insurmountable.  Inflation eats away at the stagnant pay; the bureaucratic state seems to pass legislation after legislation which does nothing for the middle class; the amount of waste and fraud in the federal expenditures leaves one wondering — why do we pay so much in taxes when everything seems to be given away in mindless and useless political paybacks?

Did we really have to give those billions for corporations to start building computer chip factories?  How many billions were stolen for pandemic-relief monies?  At last count, was it (conservatively estimating) some 40 – 60 Billion?  What percentage of kids are now on some form of anti-depressants?  How many kids are now unable to read, write, or to pass basic educational tests?  How many suicides are there, now, every day, every month, every year?

And meanwhile, we see the value of our paychecks diminishing because of the inflationary cauldron we fail to understand.

The trials of life, indeed, are heavy in modernity, but one aspect which still provides a ray of hope for people concerns Federal Disability Retirement Law under the FERS disability system.  At least, there, the Federal Government has continued to recognize the value of providing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits for those who cannot continue to work in the career of your choice.

Contact a FERS Medical Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and recognize that — even in the midst of the trials of life — there is still a benefit which can help a FERS employee who can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of your Federal job.

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.

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement from the OPM: Loss of Regularity

Regularity is tantamount to reliability; it is the repetitive acts which provide the context for human security in an insecure world replete with dangers, fears (whether founded or unfounded), deterioration, devastation and decline leading to demise.  The sun rises today and we expect it to rise again tomorrow.

We anticipate that the coffee shop down the street, existing for these many years, will be open as it was yesterday and the day before. But in the middle of the night, a fire may have raged, a storm may have blown, a tornado might have scattered; and when suddenly we discover the loss of regularity, an unsettling sense overwhelms us.

What can we depend upon and where can regularity be exposed?  Human frailty is the norm for human beings.

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 further continuing in his or her career of choice, the loss of regularity is often as devastating as the medical condition itself.  The key is to find the next phase of regularity, and to get a FERS Disability Retirement approved in order to attain that goal.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of finding the next phase of security, the next corner of reliability, and to overcome that loss of regularity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal and Federal Employee Disability Attorney: Telltale Signs

What are they, and how is it that we overlook them so often?  Take, for example, the Federal or Postal employee who begins the process of seeking a lawyer to represent him or her to obtain Federal or Postal Disability Retirement benefits.  The Federal or Postal worker makes a phone call — perhaps a voicemail is reached, and so you leave a message.  You don’t get a call for 2 or 3 days, or even until late the next day.  Isn’t that a telltale sign of something?

Or, someone does finally call you back or you actually do get through to a “live” person — but not the lawyer.  Instead, you are speaking to an “Intake Specialist”, or Mr. So-and-so’s “Administrative Assistant” or “Paralegal” or — better yet — someone who self-identifies as a “Disability Specialist”. ??????????

You began by setting out to hire a lawyer — a person who has a law degree and is versed in the legal complexities of Federal Disability Retirement Law, and you end up with a non-lawyer who holds the dubious credentials of being a “Disability Specialist”; are these not telltale signs?

If you want the wisdom, advice and guidance of an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, then make sure that you recognize the telltale signs and insist that you be represented by an actual Lawyer who Specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Fight or Give Up

Those are the only two choices for most of life’s challenges and encounters: To fight for something, or to abandon it completely.  Of course, the “middle ground” is often preached — as in some sort of compromise, or to learn the “tools” of “conflict resolution”, etc.  But that all depends upon the conflict itself, doesn’t it?

Some issues of contentiousness simply do not accord a middle ground; there is no compromise for the mountain climber inching up the North Face of the Eiger — going back down is just as dangerous as struggling upwards, and so it is to either fight or give up, where the latter results in sure death and becoming a frozen corpse of another defeated detritus.

And in the Animal Kingdom — is there ever an alternative third way?  The predator who chases after its prey; flight for the prey is tantamount to a fight — i.e., to “fight” for one’s life by trying to outrun the predator; or, to give up.  There is no “rationalizing” with the cheetah or the lion; one cannot “reason” with the predator in an effort to try and dissuade it from devouring you for its lunch or dinnertime meal.

And so it is with the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job — the choice is between fighting for the benefit or to simply give up.  There is no middle ground or “conflict resolution”; either the disability retirement is granted in full or not at all.

Further, resignation or termination from the Federal or Postal employment makes the choice as clearly defined in stark terms: continuation in the job is no longer an option, and inaction merely means you have given up because you only have one (1) year from the date of separation to file for Federal Disability Retirement.

If the choice is made to “fight” as opposed to “give up”, then it is best to have an advocate on your side and consult with a lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.  For, if the choice is between fighting or giving up, and the Federal or Postal employee decides to take the former course of action, then give it your best shot by having an attorney who knows the process, cites the relevant law and prepares your case to give you the best opportunity at winning.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Medical Retirement from the OPM: Who we are

The “I”, of course, always dominates; but the two cannot be separated, for they are inevitably interlinked and intertwined in the consciousness of our collective selves.  And so the “we” is subsumed by the “I”, and the “I” cannot effectively be distinguished from the “we”.  Who we are is inextricably aggregated with who I am; who I am is a product of who we are.

That is why the loner is distrusted in society; the maverick who does things his or her own way is a threat — unless that loner accomplishes something in life so irrefutably magnificent that we cannot but embrace him or her as the paradigm of a virtue we wished we had first thought of.  Whether by burning jealousy or with disdainful pride, we then go on and watch to see if that loner will not self-destruct, then relish the thought that, all along, we were right in predicting that the outlander was the scum of the earth, anyway.

Who we are — we want always to be able to distinguish ourselves from the pack, separate one’s self from the fold and glow in the spotlight away from the herd; and so we lose ourselves in the soliloquy of our inner worlds where the universe of the self-conscious “I” can imagine of heights and pinnacles that others will never see.  That is why virtual reality is so infectious; why the perfection reflected in Instagram photos and Facebook postings is so insidious; for, though we give lip-service to the proverbial “village” or wanting to belong to a certain cohesive society, we reservedly display all of the characteristics of desiring out.

It is, in the end, the “forced out” that is most intolerable, and 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, it is when harassment by the herd, antagonism originating from one’s Agency or the Postal unit, and workplace hostility initiated by one’s coworkers and supervisors — it is then that the necessity arises to bifurcate and differentiate by preparing, formulating and filing for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

For, it is no longer a matter of “who we are” — because you are no longer one of the “team” because of your medical condition.  Instead, it is who “I” am — to look after your own best interests, by preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, and consulting with an Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement under FERS & CSRS: Weekend Survival

The segmentation of time may be artificial; the rhythms of life, are not.  The 7-day week, 30-day month (give or take a couple here and there) and the 12-month cycle constitute human constructs that impose a rigid system of divisions based upon productivity, leisure, an admixture of both (isn’t it universal that Saturdays are spent in doing chores otherwise unattended to during the week, and Sunday is that respite and escape in total destitution of depleted dreariness?) and then a reset button pushed and the beginning of the cycle all over again.

Yet, while the system itself is based upon a conceptually artificial construct, the rhythmic underpinning of nature that glides above and beneath on a daily, quiet but consistent basis remains unperturbed.

That is why Daylight Savings Time makes grouches of us all — it is another artificial construct that jolts everyone from the natural rhythms of monotonous apathy twice a year, and breaks up that flow of biodynamic symbiosis between the planetary rotations, the daily sunrise and sunset, and the body’s reaction to a natural order within the constructs of an unnatural way of living.  The only compensation we feel grateful for is that extra hour of sleep that we are “given” in the Fall — only to have it stripped mercilessly and robbed from us in the Spring.

Thank God for the weekend — those two days of respite and leisure; of restorative rest and a quietude away from the mad dash of work and productivity; and we believe that we owe to the gods our lives and sacrifice our health for those pittance of days that are given to us.  But what are those 2 days worth?

Half of one is given up to do those things that we had no time to do during the five days of labor; the other half, spent in frozen immobility in front of a screen that blasts frightful images both from news of the “real” world as well as stories that are supposedly “entertaining”.  Then, with the one day remaining, we try and compensate for the exhaustion from the previous 5+1, only to wake up the following morning to engage the rush of the work-week that suffers and harms.

For Federal employees and Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition becomes a trial of survival during the week in order to make it to the weekend just to survive, it is worse because — not only is the “natural” rhythm interrupted by the medical condition itself — days, weeks and months all meld and melt into a singular whole of survival and consternation of life’s trials.

Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may be the only option remaining in order to re-order the rhythm lost in the daily struggle to reach that weekend survival where the cycle of life’s natural rhythm has been shattered by the trauma of a chronic medical condition.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement Attorney: Social Justice

Concurrent litigation entanglements occur often enough; if one has the capacity and ability to compartmentalize life, such multi-adversarial offensives can be effectively coordinated.  At the same time, however, it is important to recognize the folly of spreading oneself too thin; history confirms the defeats suffered at the principle of too much, too soon, as in Germany’s incursion on the Eastern Front while taking on North Africa and the entrance of the United States into a reluctant war.

Strategies of logistical considerations, as well as pragmatic considerations of finances, must always be a factor; thus, for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who face a future with an ongoing medical condition which prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, consideration should be given to concurrent filings.

If an injury or medical condition is “work-related“, there is nothing wrong with filing for OWCP/DOL benefits, while at the same time filing for OPM Federal Disability Retirement benefits.  If both are approved, the Federal or Postal employee has the option of choosing to activate one, and allowing the other to be approved but remain passive.

Filing for Social Security Disability benefits, for those Federal and Postal employees under FERS, is a mandatory requirement during the process of filing for OPM Disability Retirement, anyway, so obviously the concurrent nature of filing is a necessary given.

When considering more far-reaching litigation entanglements, however, such as filing an EEOC Complaint potentially leading to a trial in the Federal Courts, pause should be given, if only because of the statistical disadvantage and high cost of such litigation.  A 2009 WSJ Article found that EEO discrimination lawsuits fared worst in statistical analysis in wins-to-losses ratio, and more recent studies do not provide greater encouragement.

While the recent focus upon the Pao v. Kleiner Perkins case would seem to highlight such statistical disadvantage, at the same time, one must recognize that the particular court case was a gender discrimination case filed and tried in state court, not in Federal Court, and each case reflects the complexity of the uniqueness of a particular set of facts.

The point here, however, is that while statistical analysis certainly can be skewed based upon a multiplicity of complex factors, for Federal and Postal employees who are considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, a pragmatic assessment should be made which asks, at a minimum, the following:  Do I want to be involved in a protracted litigation with my supervisors, agency and coworkers?  What is the purpose of my filing for Federal Disability Retirement?  Is the cost-to-benefit analysis sufficient in justifying litigation?  What is my definition of “Social Justice”?

For Federal and Postal employees, filing for, and obtaining, Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a practical exit from one compartmentalized stage of life; there is awaiting the next stage, of which Shakespeare reminds us all.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire