Healthy individuals may wonder why, in such a tough economy, an individual would consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement under FERS or CSRS. This is an economy which has been shrinking and shedding employees. Yet, for the Federal or Postal employee whose health and increasingly debilitating medical conditions directly impact one’s ability to perform the essential elements of one’s job, the choice is actually not all that convoluted.
Where a Federal or Postal employee can no longer perform the job; where sick leave and annual leave have been exhausted to go to doctors’ appointments, or just to stay home to recover enough to make it into the office for another day; or for those who are on LWOP for greater than the time working; in such circumstances, the stark reality is that a disability annuity is better than what the future may offer otherwise. Removal for unsatisfactory performance; being placed on a PIP; being told that there is no more work at the Postal Service; being counseled for performance issues; these are all indicators of the proper choice to make.
Yes, it is a tougher economy; but when the economy begins to rebound, the first people that private employers turn to hire are those who are essentially independent contractors; and, especially with the looming overhaul of private health insurance, a former government worker who carries his or her own health insurance is, and can be, an attractive worker to a private employer.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Life after Federal Disability Retirement, Miscellaneous, Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: "accommodating" injured federal workers with unpaid leaves, advantages of disability retirement on a difficult economy, agencies not providing light duty assignments anymore, disability law for usps rural carrier, dol owcp disability, exhausting sick leave because of injury or illness, FERS disability retirement, fers medical disability, fers medical retirement lawyer, filing for disability retirement in the midst of a tough economy, for those disabled federal workers being placed on a pip, freedom and business opportunities under federal disability retirement, from sick leave to lwop to owcp to opm to financial survival, health insurance benefits, if injured fed workers should pursue opm disability or eeo complain, medical decision is more important than economic issue, more control over your future with opm disability retirement, nationwide representation of federal employees, no light duty jobs in the usps with the recession, no light or limited duty for a severe non-work related disability, no more annual leave (al) for doctor appointments, no rehabilitation jobs for federal employees, no work available for injured postal workers, no work for rehab positions in the Postal Service, opm disability annuitants as private contractors, OPM disability in a tough economy, OPM disability retirement, OWCP long term disability, OWCP Termination of Benefits, owcp to opm, performance counseling and the injured federal worker, Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), postal medical retirement, removal for unsatisfactory performance in federal employment, representing federal employees in and outside the country, resources for injured federal workers, setting up your own business as an opm disability annuitant, starting a business on federal disability or owcp rehabilitation, the economy and federal disability retirement, the insurance advantage in opm disability retirement, unfair agency's actions against light duty workers, usps and removal due to excessive use of lwop and sick leave, usps disability is supposed to be administrative non adversarial procedure, USPS disability retirement benefits, usps getting rid injured workers, what gives more money an eeo award or opm disability claim?, what to do when the postal service denies owcp benefits, when a federal workers spends most of his time in lwop, when the disabled fed worker is counseled over performance issues, when the employee can no longer perform the basic elements of his job, when the federal employee is placed on a pip, when the federal employee runs out of sick leave, when the federal job is not longer a good fit for federal employee, working as an independent contractor after opm disability, working light duty in the postal service | Leave a comment »
Federal & Postal Service Disability Retirement: Personal v. Objective
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a personal matter. It is personal precisely because it is considered as an admission of a disability; it goes to the heart of what a person does in life — one’s livelihood, one’s means of support; and it goes to the perception in our society of the “worth” of an individual — financial worth, productive worth, worth in terms of the ability to support a family, and worth in terms of one’s contribution to society. Because it is so personal, it is difficult to “objectively” assess and evaluate a disability retirement claim, by the individual who is thinking about filing for such a benefit.
That is often why it is important to have an attorney represent an individual who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. Often, when I am hired at the second or third Stage of the process, I read the initial submissions of the client, and find that the “personal” has indeed overtaken the “objective”, precisely because the very subject of the disability retirement process — the applicant — had to undertake the very personal process himself/herself. Such personal subjectivity cannot see beyond the very personal nature of the medical condition, and when that happens, it is almost too personal for the OPM representative to make an objective assessment of the case.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Applicant, OPM Disability Actors - The Attorney, OPM Disability Process - 1st Stage: OPM Disability Application, The Job of a Federal Disability Attorney | Tagged: a rational approach to opm disability retirement, an emotional vs. reasoned personal account of disability, an objective evaluation of your opm disability claim, attorney federal disability, blogs owcp and opm disability issues, civil service disability retirement, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, describing a medical tragedy without too much emotionalism, disability retirement in the post office, emotional comments won't always help to get opm application approved, federal civil service disability, federal employee and its acceptance of being disabled, federal employee disability, federal employee disability benefits, federal employee medical retirement, FERS disability retirement, FERS medical retirement, fighting feelings of worthlessness during the opm disability application, filing for usps disability, focusing on medical substantive issues not emotional problems, getting rid of emotional baggage during fers disability application, helping the opm disability specialist to evaluate your claim objectively, helping the opm representative to assess your disability claim, how to get approved for federal employee disability benefits, keeping emotions under control will help an opm disability applicant, keeping your tone cool and rational during application, Maintaining an Objective Perspective in a Disability Case, making rational arguments along with sound medical evidence, no work available for injured postal workers, not getting too personal during the applicant's statement of disability, nrp and defending injured postal workers, OPM disability retirement, OPM objective methodology, owcp disability retirement really is usually meant "opm disability retirement", postal service disability retirement, presenting a personal disability matter objectively, problems with personal disability retirement statements in opm application, rational perspective into the fed workers' medical condition, story of human tragedy, taking lwop for owcp medical condition, the fine balance between rational and emotional factors, the human side of a disability story, top federal disability retirement attorney, us post office disability attorney, usps rehab employees, value of a human being not defined by disabilities, when personal emotions overtake rational thoughts during application process, when the opm applicant can't handle the disability paperwork, why it can be difficult for the opm disability applicant to prove his claim | Leave a comment »