OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Words and Actions

Can empathy have meaning without acting when the necessity arises?  Can abstract affection without the inclusion of real people trigger a positive result, or does it leave a vacuum of insensitivity?

In modernity, it appears that words alone constitute action enough, so that in the political sphere, if one speaks the “right” words, then nothing further is required.  Thus, to be in favor of certain political positions is enough to be noble and lauded.

But in real life, if help is actually needed, can words of empathy be enough?  To merely speak the proper words — “I feel bad for him,” or, “I truly feel sorry for her circumstances” or perhaps to even shed some real tears; but without rendering physical or material assistance, does the lack of actions following upon words reveal either insincerity or, even worse, a perversity of emptiness in one’s vacuous soul?  Does not the test of sincerity require completion by action?

On a macro level, can a society claim to be a moral nation through flowery speeches, while allowing its citizens to suffer great iniquities?  To that end, the benefit of Federal OPM Disability Retirement is reflective of a government which not only expresses words of concern for its workforce but moreover, combines those words with the action of providing the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement for the eventuality of suffering from a disabling injury or illness which often results in devastating consequences.

Words and Actions.  Each complements the other and the combination is like the clasping of two hands — ineffective when separate and apart, but when used in tandem, can evince a practical strength beyond the coordinated combination of both together.

Contact a FERS Disability Retirement Lawyer who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law for Federal and Postal employees, and begin to actually act upon preparing, formulating, and filing an effective Federal/Postal Disability Retirement application under the FERS system, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Attorney exclusively representing Federal & Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Federal Medical Retirement: Eager Wishes and Little Thoughts

We all have them both, don’t we?  Of eager wishes: We wish for wealth; we wish for fame; we wish for friendship; we wish for love.  Wishes project us; they compel us; they motivate, even though such wishful thinking may never become fulfilled.  And so they remain little thoughts — “little” in the sense that they remain mere thoughts, mere wishes, with little chance for fulfillment.

It is often the little thoughts which loom large, if only because they reflect the fundamental needs and desires of most everyone.  Perhaps it is those little thoughts combined with eagerness which results in unfulfilled dreams and hopes, when the imagination expands beyond the monotony of our lives and we become sustained by the little thoughts, prompted by those eager wishes.

Much of life is a negation; of not having, of never fulfilling, of rarely achieving; and yet, when it comes to children, we fill their heads with grand dreams of illusory abstentions.  We tell them, “You can be whatever you want to be” or “live out your dreams”.  No wonder that cynicism easily and readily dominates in early life; and so the eager wishes and little thoughts replace the fairytales we tell our children, if merely to sustain their lives within the containment of reality.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a health condition such that the health condition necessitates preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, it may well be that the eager wish is to cease the madness encircling you between the disabling medical condition and your inability to perform all of the basic elements of your job.

It may seem like a “little thought” to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, and your eagerness may be restricted by the daunting task of engaging a monster of a bureaucracy like the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  But do not despair; such an eager wish upon a little thought may be attained through the assistance of a lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Contact a disability attorney who exclusively does Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin to advance your eager wishes of the little thoughts which make for life’s sustenance.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Law: The Skewed Perspective

Watching a television series — say, a crime story set in a certain town or suburban enclave — can bring about a myopic viewpoint about a county, a city, a state — even a country.

From watching such a series, one might conclude a number of things, including: A. Most people in that part of the country are bad people, B. That part of the country represents much of what it is like in the rest of the country, and C. The country as a whole is like that; therefore, I am moving to another country.

Now, one should be cautioned as to taking such drastic steps as stated in C above; and even A and B may be a perspective which fails to reflect reality.  First, murder-mysteries must normally involve — by necessity — a bunch of bad characters, and thus represent an extreme microcosm of moral failures within a narrow, compacted group of characters.  Second, stories told on television — whether in one episode or via multiple seasons — are based upon abbreviated biographies of individuals, and rarely represent a true picture of the greater community surrounding the murder-mystery.

Most of the people in the community likely live boring, uninteresting lives, and thus would not be brought into the storytelling within the context of the television show.  Thus, just as when you are telling a story at the dinner table to your friends and family about some interesting thing that happened to you, you will likely leave out the detail about how many times you went to the bathroom during the incident related; so, in parallel fashion, a television series will leave out many details which are monotonous and unrelated to the main plot.

It is the consequences of having a skewed perspective that is most troubling, of course — of “C” above, where you make a drastic decision based upon an untrue belief based upon a fictional depiction of an event.

Not filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS is somewhat like that.  You might have the wrong — skewed — idea about the process — that “no one ever gets approved” or that your specific medical condition somehow “doesn’t qualify”, and so therefore you don’t even try, and instead continue to devastate your health because of wrong assumptions.

On top of it all, the medical condition itself often contributes to the skewed perspective.

Contact a Federal Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and don’t let a skewed perspective undermine the reality of a life which is actually available to live.

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 Disability Retirement: Constellation of our lives

Of what do we owe to the constellation above; and of their placement, do we wonder whether our lives are impacted therefrom?  The order of the universe — of the date and time when we were born; of a day’s happenstance, of luck or coincidence; do we wonder, or is Darwin the god to whom we bow out conscious lives, forever pursued by the genetic code within but never by the stars beyond?

Shakespeare, of course, made multiple references to the constellation of our lives, as in Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2:

Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.

There are surer things in life; and yet, under which stars we were born, the order of the universe, the rhythm of a cold and impervious reality “out there” — is there a purpose, and does the question ever get answered, or only remain as a query without a response from one generation to the next?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it may well be that the constellation of our lives have been re-ordered or misplaced, and that the gods have made sport of the misery that overwhelms.

When such occurrences beset, the trick is to intervene and re-order the re-ordering of the stars, and one way to do that is to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in order to take control of the constellation of our lives, and to not let some fiction of a predetermined “fate” rule over us merely for the amusement of the gods of the underworld.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Lawyer Representation for OPM Disability Retirement: Trapped

Desperation is born of it; escape routes relieve the sense of it; and in the end, it is a belief in the hope that there are alternatives which provides a release from it.  The wild animal that is trapped will do everything to escape, including acts of self-harm if there is no alternative presented.  Whether of higher intelligence or some lesser level, the sense or “feeling” of being trapped leads to a suffocating belief of hopelessness.

Armies allow for it; battles often depend upon it; and the “it” which demands for an unconditional surrender is countermanded if there has been a history of genocidal atrocities committed.  It is the hope for some alternative to the present circumstances of despondency that results in a relief from the sense of being trapped; but options and alternatives often remain obscured by fear, lack of knowledge and the paralyzed state itself of “feeling” trapped.

For humans, it is knowledge which is the greater release from such a state of restrictiveness, and for Federal and Postal employees specifically, who suffer from a medical condition where the medical condition is impacting more than their careers — from growing harassment to an imposition of a “Performance Improvement Plan” to further actions, including a proposed removal, etc. — including the tumultuous upheavals experienced in their personal lives, the sense of feeling trapped is a natural consequence of failing to act.

Animals are known to act in desperation and reactionary ways; humans, it is wrongly thought, engage in a more reflective mode of acting — i.e., in a more deliberative, considered approach.  But the sense of feeling trapped often undermines the rational side of humans, and it is in such a state of desperation that the Federal or Postal employee will submit a poorly-prepared Federal Disability Retirement application, increasing the chances of a First-Stage denial.

Filing a Federal Disability Retirement application with the assistance of an attorney will not necessarily guarantee success at any given stage of the process, but it may raise the chances of such success at each and every stage.  In the end, it is knowledge of the options available which allows for the release of one from “feeling trapped”, and consultation with an experienced attorney when preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is the best way to release the hope for a more secure future in entering into the traps of OPM.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Lawyer Representation for Federal Disability Claims: Rituals

All of us engage in them — whether of religious significance or arcane remnants of superstitious beliefs harkening for magic, witch’s potions and lost incantations we believe can still work (or perhaps a childhood belief from watching Star Wars that there is really a “force” beyond the cold reality of day-to-day monotony) — we just don’t think of it in those terms.

How we wash our hands; what daily preparations we must engage before leaving the house; the manner of locking doors; the inner voices of prayers said before a meal; or of begging voices just before a sports event; these and many more rituals are the fodder that make for individual personalities otherwise uninteresting to the rest of world except to one’s family, spouse, brothers and sisters, and often not even to them.

Is it all bosh or superstition?  Can we — or should we — submit to the cold and impervious reality of logic, science and the algorithm of facts and mathematical calculations and discard the rituals of ancient cultures and dungeons where nuns bore babies and the fervently religious were tortured and murdered? Do we so callously abandon the humanity of our forefathers merely because the Age of Science is now upon us?

In the end, the rituals we embrace may give us comfort beyond the repetition of predictability; they may be engaged because they “work”.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it may be time to “change” some of the ritualistic thinking that we have become steeped in.

Change, alteration, modification, etc., is a difficult pathway to adopt.  One must, in the end, consider “why” we engage in a ritual — for, if it is because we have “always done it”, as opposed to retaining a meaningfulness and significance beyond the rote of repetitive monotony, then it may be time to reconsider and rearrange the proverbial furniture upon the deck of a sinking ship.

The Federal or Postal worker who has — through the pain of a medical condition — come to work and engaged in the daily ritual of performing the essential elements of a Federal or Postal job, may need to consider adopting a different ritual: one that focuses upon one’s health and rehabilitation of one’s condition.

Federal Disability Retirement is an employment benefit that allows for ritualistic thinking to be reconsidered, and for the Federal or Postal worker who can no longer perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, anymore, because of an ongoing, chronic or traumatic medical condition, it may be time to abandon those outdated rituals and consider preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and rearrange the priorities that have been ordered from a past that is no longer relevant.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The din of silence

They are opposites, and yet they can confer meaning and communicate conceptual clarity by the very usage of simultaneous reflection in conjoined placement within a singular sentence of repose.  Can silence be of such tumultuous unnerving, and a confusion of loud noises be characterized within the context of its opposite, and still retain a clear sense of meaning?  Would it make the similar, mirror-image sense if we transposed and flipped those same words, and instead spoke about the “silence of din”?

That makes it sound like a movie title, or a short story encompassing a mysterious foreign land where Zen monks chant within the quiet gaze of an assassin’s eye.  But there are times when silence becomes so overwhelming in its quietude, that truths become revealed and concealed perspectives are suddenly manifested, and it is during those moments of enlightening revelations that realizations of necessity come to the fore (or, perhaps, it merely means that our stomachs are rumbling and we are merely hungry).

To paraphrase Bertrand Russell, the ever-mischievous agnostic, who once quipped that when a person thinks that questions of eternal salvation, the need for a higher being and questions of profundity encapsulating transcendent issues and metaphysical concerns begin to invade and come to the fore, it is probably nothing more than indigestion and a good pharmacological prescription pill should take care of it.  But it really does not work the other way, or make any sense, does it?

There is no “silence of din” – the latter is just that, a tumultuous cacophony of deafening onslaught, and that describes most of living in modernity, where the search for a slice of silence within that din is like a breath of eternal sighs in exasperated tones of forgiving acrimony.

But there is a “din of silence” – that moment when we can stand in the unprovoked thoughts of our own reflections, when we can remove ourselves for a slice of contractions where pain cannot reach and confusion will not confound, and it is in the monastic paradigm of clashes where worth and value coalesce, when thought and action extend, and how the true essence of a person becomes revealed in a moment of naked reality.  But then, the real world comes crashing back, and we awaken from the slumber of transcendence.

There is, often in the momentary timelessness between reality and slumber, a realization of that which needs to be accomplished in order to move forward.  That is the point when the Federal or Postal employee, who experiences the pain of a medical condition, must decide as to whether to continue in the same modality as the “rest of the world” in trying to just survive, or to “move on” to another stage of life.

It sometimes takes the din of silence to figure that out; but for the Federal or Postal employee who suffers 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 the Federal or Postal position, it is never advisable to wait for the din of silence before deciding to file a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset; for, in the end, you may end up in the silence of din before achieving the peaceful repose of the din of silence.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Medical Retirement: The insular world of anger

It must be strange to live in a constant cacophony of anger; of a persistent and unrelenting fire pit, where demons jump from ashen glowering of hot red coals to roaring flames of unceasing rage, and back again and yet for more, ever fuming from the slights and hurts both imagined and real, but never able to escape from the corridors of one’s own making.  It is, in the end, an emotion of self-destructive turmoil, perpetrating a defiance of civility in order to engage in the ultimate self-immolation, but without honor or quietude, and thus left with the emptiness of seppuku without meditative resilience.

You see people like this all around; of venom and unpredictable vicissitudes of hate; they spew their wares on the Internet; always the first to comment, the last to leave well enough alone, and forever stalking the weary and witless in a universe of those seeking friendship.  Perhaps it is merely a show of frustration seeping from a life of powerlessness; or madmen crying desperately for help in a world devoid of empathy or compassion.

Whatever the cause, it is always the effect which is felt by all; and never merely a sidebar where forgiveness can be sought or shown, but only the moonlit loneliness of ineffectual calm where the wisp of rising smoke from the dying embers of passion unrequited remains alive, if only to survive another day.  It is seen and witnessed in the workplace, as well.  Is it the Napoleonic complex? Does the show of weakness only provide a further impetus for greater cruelty?  A quiet word of free advice: Unless there is a compelling reason to tell, don’t.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are in the process of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, it is often a false sense of loyalty and misguided honor that compels the Federal or Postal employee to “tell all” before the appropriate and necessary moment. But that is where reality often clashes with one’s own conscience; for, always remember that people are more complex than first thought, or more likely, of greater simpleton than mere deception can achieve.

The “crazies” are out there; never underestimate that your own Supervisor, Manager or co-worker is “one of them”, and may be that unidentified stalker who lurks in the shadows of midnight owls who stare with unblinking eyes in the veil of anonymity; for, in the end, the insular world of anger remains like the hidden embers kept warm under the concealment of ashes left unspoiled, waiting to singe the fingers which reach unknowingly to begin anew the raging turmoil of a vengeful heart.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement from Federal Government Employment: Of Karl Popper’s ‘World 3’

Karl Popper’s division of the world into three clean segments of definable universes was, on the one hand, quite controversial — especially as the esoteric world of philosophy had been steadily ‘progressing‘ towards pure materialism and scientism; and yet, on the other, self-evident to almost a simplistic, tautological fault.  Perhaps that is the very implication of profundity: it is that which appears so basic and elementary as to presuppose idiocy, but containing such inherent complexity as to remain beyond the reach of most.

In simple terms, the division of the world followed the classic lines of human history and linear development of evolutionary concordance: ‘World 1’ referred to the physical universe surrounding us; ‘World 2’, the purely psychological make-up of human beings, with a special concern to Popper concerning the internal pain and anguish which we feel; and of ‘World 3’ — that universe which is the subject of this short blog, the aggregate of human products and man’s creative injection into the world, comprised of art, literature, cars, buildings, customs and normative behavior, including dress, style, fashion, etc.

There is, of course, inevitable interaction and intersecting between the bifurcated ‘worlds’ — for example, a book of literature (say, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye) would be both an object existing in ‘World 1’ as well as a product of human creativity from ‘World 3’. But note the peculiarity of the overlap, which makes for a unique phenomenological observation: Say you had 2 copies of the book, but one which was published in January, 2015, and another with the stated date of July, 1951.  Consider further the added element that in the latter edition, a scribble appears, which happens to be the autograph of the author.

From the perspective of Popper’s ‘World 1’, both objects would appear to be essentially identical — with the former intact, and the latter somewhat damaged because of the graffiti defiling a clean page.  However, from the vantage point of the person who possesses and ‘owns’ (a concept which would clearly belong to Popper’s ‘World 3’, as well) the autographed object, a sudden recognition of value, wealth and uniqueness would immediately attach — leaving aside intersecting points with ‘World 2’ involving envy, jealousy, awe and disbelief (which would be shared by the undersigned writer).  Thus do the various and variegated ‘worlds’ of Karl Popper posit for our study, agreement/disagreement, and further reflection.

Such division and segmentation of worlds and universes are often proposed merely for esoteric and pedantic purposes; of ivory tower conceptual constructs which have little to do with the day-to-day lives of ordinary human beings who struggle to make a living, maneuver through the complexity of the world, and attempt to survive the manipulative machinations of a society governed by microcosms of powerful but unnamed sources of evil and collusion.  But there is a recognizable worth and value to some of us, for pointing out the existence and demarcation of artifice as opposed to the natural environment from whence we came.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, such a bifurcation of the universe into clean segments of definable compartments, is to recognize that the complexity of the administrative and bureaucratic process encapsulating the entirety and aggregation of the process cumulatively entitled, “Federal Disability Retirement under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset”, is ultimately a product of Popper’s ‘World 3’, and not merely a nightmare emanating from the deep recesses of our troubled psychosis self-contained in ‘World 2’, but of an intersection between the universe of madness created by our own desire to further separate ourselves from the simplicity of ‘World 1’, from whence we came.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The measure of sincerity

How do you measure a concept?  By application of, or comparison with, another?  Or, does it require a meta-application — an algorithm from a different dimension?  We measure linear horizontal distances by coordinated precision of segmentation, and vertical sedimentary deposits by arc designs manifested and revealed in nature; so, what of conceptual distances and chasms of thoughts?

Can more words validate the sincerity of previously spoken words merely uttered in an informal setting of pleasantry and conversational discourse?  Does a track record of broken promises undermine the sincerity of future intentions conveyed by more words?  Does volume, either in the form of numerical countenance or in terms of decibels emitted, change the validity, tone or tonal significance of a person’s overt meaning?  Can a person state one belief at one moment, in a slice of time of historical irrelevance, where only private ears can confirm the spoken words; then, in the very next instance, make a public declaration affirming the very opposite of what was previously made known to a microcosm of friends and associates, and still cling to a claim of consistency, logical and rational thought processing, ignorance of any hypocritical intent, and sincerity as well?  How many chances does a person have, before words become meaningless by means of consistent refutation and reversal of one’s stated intent overturned by further disputation?

In the world of practical living, of course, each individual applies a threshold of judgment and determination.  The test and measure of sincerity is not to merely pile on more words upon previously-uttered communication; rather, it is actions which follow upon declared intent which confirms the validity of a meaningful statement.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who state that he or she is no longer able to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties, action must follow upon words of medical significance.  If a medical provider advises that continuation in a certain profession or duties required by a position in the Federal sector or the U.S. Postal Service is prevented because of a medical condition, then thoughts, words, conceptual daydreaming and wishful thinking are no longer enough.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S.Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is the next logical step subsequent to, and in post-sequence, following upon words which have significance and import.  Ignoring words is one thing; denying truth is quite another.  For, in the end, how we measure sincerity is quite easy; we take the sum of the words spoken, divide it by the number of actions taken, and multiply that by the dividends previously accounted for in prior instances of similar motives stated.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire