FERS Early Medical Retirement: Integrity

What is it?  One definition states: A. The adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty, and B. The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.  Yes, the first one is what one expects; it is the second definition, however, which is the more relevant, and perhaps needs to be fleshed out.  For, isn’t that the true basis for the meaning of the word?

That there is a “wholeness” between the words one speaks and the actions one takes.

Take the following hypothetical: A former president (who will remain unidentified) who was almost kicked out of office for an indiscretion committed in the oval office (yes, yes, it is hard to guess who that might be, these days — but here is another hint: There were, in the salacious context of the entire affair [sic], multiple “Speakers of the House” who took the post, then subsequently resigned because they, too, were outed in retaliation by the White House) goes around the country lecturing at high schools and colleges on the following subject: “The importance of Fidelity in a marriage.”

Would you go to such a lecture?  Would you allow your son or daughter to listen to the ex-president?  Why, or why not?  Does it matter who the speaker is?  Why does it matter?  Isn’t the truth of what he says, true — regardless of who delivers the lecture?  Would it make a difference if someone else gave the lecture — say, some old geezer who has been married to his wife for 75 years?  If so, why?

Perhaps because the penumbras of integrity still haunt our society, where words and actions still require “wholeness”.

Certainly, that is the case (allegedly) in a Federal Disability Retirement case, where your Statement of Disability (SF 3112A) should match the Physician’s Statement (SF 3112C), where the coordination and connection results in a “wholeness” which will then turn into an approval from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, when a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application is put together in the effective manner in which it should — based upon the concept of integrity.

Contact a Federal Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and make sure that the entire packet is prepared, formulated and filed with the concept of “integrity” — “wholeness” — in mind.

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 Employee Medical Retirement: Choices

The anomaly: If we don’t know of them, we have none.  In the objective universe of a perfect world, we would know of each and every one, and moreover, the consequences of each were we to choose them.  As defined, wisdom is the capacity to take current experiences and project them for future application; but if a person is without knowledge of the availability of choices to be made, where can wisdom be applied?

One’s choices are limited by the lack of knowledge one possesses, or has access to.  That is why “insider trading” provides an unfair advantage of choices — of trading certain stocks and gaining wealth, precisely because one has obtained knowledge which others do not have access to, which allows for accumulation of greater wealth based upon the information obtained.

Once a person has access to relevant knowledge, then the avenue of choices opens up for that individual, and then the choices to be made determine whether or not such knowledge is put to good use.  “Good use”, of course, is the key in determining whether or not a wise choice has been made; for, even with relevant knowledge, a person is still able to act unwisely by making a bad choice.

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 choice to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, should be based upon relevant knowledge — of the laws, regulations and statutes pertaining to Federal Disability Retirement Law.

That being said, the choice of “going it alone” or of consulting and retaining a Federal Disability Attorney is entirely up to each individual.  However, the choice of wisdom should always listen to the small voice which begins with the path of wisdom: A person who represents himself has a fool for a client.

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 Disability Retirement Law: Self-Doubt

We all go through such periods.  Whether real or imagined — and, often, the latter is of greater exponential magnification than the former — our sense of worth; our confidence of competence; our capacity to “get things done”, begins to wane.  Perhaps it is merely a period of lesser productivity; or, of intervening personal difficulties or tragedies others cannot penetrate.

We engage in self-doubt, perhaps without even being aware of it.  It is often helpful to have a “significant other” or some close friend to be blunt and honest, and to provide an objective, unbiased perspective.  Sometimes, it just takes an unequivocal statement: “Joe, you’re being too hard on yourself. You are still the same person as before”.  Or: “Susan, maybe you made a mistake here and there.  Don’t let it get you down; everyone makes mistakes.”  But of a medical condition, the devastation can be, not only of reduced physical or cognitive capacities, but often the greater problem of self-doubt.

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 all of the essential elements of his or her Federal or Postal job, self-doubt can be a devastating residual aftershock resulting from the diminished capacity as a consequence of the medical condition itself.  It may be time to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Contact a Federal Disability Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law, lest self-doubt not only follows upon the medical condition itself but, moreover, turns upon itself into self-loathing.

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 under FERS: The Value of Advice

If we could travel back in time with the knowledge we possess now, we would all be wealthy.  But then, if everyone were to travel back in time, all at the same time, the knowledge we possess would lead to acts which would alter the future from the perspective of the past.

Think about it: We all know that certain “tech” companies have soared in stock valuations.  With that knowledge, if we were to travel back in time, wouldn’t we all buy up all of the stocks, knowing that when we returned “back to the future”, we would have applied that knowledge pre-possessed?

But if everyone did that, it would diminish and de-value the worth of such stocks, and the course of human history would then have become altered. It is a conundrum without an answer. And, as human beings do not possess such retrospective wisdom, it is often a good idea to turn to those who can advise, guide and counsel as best they can.

In the field of Federal Disability Retirement Law, what would be the value of advice, counsel and experienced wisdom from an attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law?

In considering the option of filing and fighting for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, make sure that you are hiring and paying for the advice of the attorney him/herself, and not just some law clerk or so-called “legal specialist” who purports to know about a field of expertise that only the Federal Disability Lawyer knows.

In other words, when you hire an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer to guide you through the complex administrative process of Federal Disability Retirement Law, get the full value of advice by hiring the lawyer himself, and not the office staff.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement: When Snow Becomes a Nuisance

Remember when it was all just fun and laughter?  When waking up and looking out at the furious flakes wind-blown and swirling about, the blanket of pure whiteness just waiting to be gathered, felt, rolled into balls and danced upon with cackles of laughter and uproariously unfettered shivers of joy?

There was a time in all of our childhoods when snow was anticipated, enjoyed, savored and embraced — unless, of course, you grew up in Hawaii or some other tropical paradise where only the imagination, books or some other medium of distantly-experienced phenomena could be viewed.

Then, one day, it became a nuisance.  We know not when, and how, or even the precise moment when the childish delight became a chore; when the fun and chatter became merely a din of distraction; or why the joy of a snowy day became a dreaded day of darkness.  Innocence cannot last forever, and mortality and vulnerability must rear their ugly heads at some point in everyone’s lives.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the medical condition and its impact upon one’s life is akin to the day when snow became a nuisance: Health is often taken for granted, but when it is lost, then everything else becomes a dreaded chore and a daily struggle.

Consult with a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Employee Disability Retirement application under FERS, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, so that the things which you have lost — like your health and sense of optimism for the future — can be regained, and perhaps even that the snow can be somewhat more than a mere nuisance.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Lawyer Representation for OPM Disability Retirement: The time watcher

How many times (stated in the numerical sense) do we watch the time (in the alternative sense)?  Do we waste time by keeping an eye on time, or is it prudent because it forces us to maintain a “schedule” or mandate a strict adherence to a regimen of activities to be performed, chores to have accomplished and work to be completed?  Does watching time save time or merely waste it?

Say a person keeps looking at his watch (or is this in and of itself an anachronism, now, as everyone merely lights up the smart phone which has made wrist watches outmoded?), and you notice that he does so systematically — say, every 5 – 10 minutes.  Then, at precisely 5 o’clock, he gets up from his desk, puts on his coat and leaves the office.  You realize that for the past hour, all that this person had been doing was to check the time in anticipation of leaving at a certain time.  Whether any actual work was completed; whether the watching of time contributed to any productivity, etc., is of relevance, are they not?

For, the time watcher watches the time pass, and it matters as to the reason underlying the very watching of time.  It one watches the time in order to meet a deadline, say, or pace one’s self in a race, etc., then does it make it more productive than if one simply waits for the last hour to pass in order to go on to something else?

Time watching is certainly something which we all do, but as to its usefulness will often depend upon the reason why it is engaged — as in, for “negative” purposes, like “passing the time” in order for a specific moment to arrive, or for “positive” reasons, as in monitoring the passing of time while engaging in a certain type of activity, etc.  The harmless activity of time watching becomes magnified in exaggerated form when the very “watching” itself becomes the central activity — sort of like the notion of “we live with the expectation of dying”.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who realize that one’s times are “numbered” (both in the numerical sense as well as in a metaphorical usage) because of one’s medical condition that 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 consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal Service worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the watchful time watcher who watches as others whittle away the time wondering whether the next harassing initiation of an administrative sanction will be imposed by the agency, or of the watchful waiting to see if you fail to meet the standards of an imposed PIP — watching the time pass to see if you can make it to retirement age or time-in-service computation is no way to live.

If a medical condition is impacting your ability to perform the essential elements of your job, it is time to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  It is time — or past the time — to merely think about it; rather, it is now time to act, and not remain as a passive time watcher, but to take the reigns of time and become the time watcher with a purpose.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: On a tenuous ridge

How do you know whether to proceed; whether it is safe to proceed; whether the roads or pathways are safe enough? What constitutes success? Is it known before it is anticipated, or is it just a self-delusional sense of confidence that sometimes deceives and at others, proves us wrong?

To be on a tenuous ridge combines the two negative aspects of objectivity and subjectivity: Of a physical place that is sharp and often dangerous (the “objective” world) and the mental determination that encompasses a sense of weakness and lack of confidence (the “subjective” perception of a situation); and the combination of the two provides a compounding of a conceptual negation that places one is a precarious state of being.

To be on a tenuous ridge can be a metaphor for proceeding in life, in whatever endeavor or misadventure, without the benefit of experience, hindsight, wisdom or knowledge.  That is the sense and feeling that the Federal or Postal employee possesses when a medical condition begins to impact one’s ability and capacity to continue in one’s chosen Federal or Postal career — to be walking on a tenuous ridge.

For Federal employees or U.S. Postal workers who are considering preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the approach that must be taken should be to get off of the proverbial ridge of tenuousness, and instead to walk upon firm ground with a sense of confidence entering into a future.

Although the future may remain somewhat uncertain during the complex process of maneuvering through a Federal Disability Retirement application, nevertheless, the knowledge that one’s case is the best one that has been put together, goes a long way in avoiding the pitfalls of a tenuous ridge.  Consult with an experienced attorney who specializes in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application; for, there is another adage similar to “being on a tenuous ridge” that you also might want to avoid — of “jumping from the frying pan into the fire”.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Avoiding the repetitive in a narrative

Why do we believe that adding the repetition of words, especially adverbs, will create a compelling narrative?  If you ascribe an adjective to an object, then ad an adverb – say, “very” – does repeating and inserting another magnify the significance of the narrative itself, or detract by placing a grammatical marker by bringing attention that the very necessity of the addition undermines the efficacy of the noun to which all of the additions point to, in the first place?  May not the noun itself stand on its own two feet, so to speak; or, at least with the supportive crutches of an adjective?

If a person posits that things are “very bad”, does the person responding who adds, “No, things are very, very bad” contribute to the discourse in that singular addition?  And what of the third in the discussion, who says, “Yes, I must agree, things are very, very, very bad”?  And what if a fourth person – unassuming and generally unemotional, who puts a sense of finality to the entire conversation by declaring:  “No, you are all right.  Things are bad.”  Did the last statement without the adverb and the repetition of additional tautological ringers, say anything less in the utterance, and conversely, did the third contributor add anything more to the discourse?

Often enough in life, that which we believe we are enhancing, we are merely detracting from in the very repetition of discourse.  It is like a signal or a marker; the red flag that arises suspicion is sometimes waved through the unintentional attempt to bring about attention through repetitive enhancement, and it is often the noun with the singular adjective that evinces the quietude of force in grammatical parlay.  Pain, anguish and medical conditions often seek to descriptively reveal through unnecessary repetition.

For the Federal employee and U.S. Postal worker who is working on preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted through one’s own agency or the H.R. Shared Services Center (for Postal employees) in Greensboro, N.C. (if the Federal or Postal employee is still with the Federal Agency, or not yet separated for more than 31 days), preparing adequate and sufficient responses on SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability, must be embraced with care, fortitude, forthrightness and deliberation of factual, medical, legal and personal weaving of a compelling narrative.

Inclusion of too many adverbs may be a distraction; meanderings of thought and unnecessary information will undermine the entirety of the construct; and while the linguistic tool of repetition can be effective and compelling, too much of a “good thing” may undermine the singularity of a narrative’s natural soul.

In the end, the Statement of Disability prepared by a Federal or Postal Disability Retirement applicant should be a compelling narrative delineating a discourse of bridging the nexus between medical condition and one’s positional duties.  It should be descriptive.  It should be very descriptive.  It should be very, very descriptive.  It should also include the descriptive, the legal and the personal, just not very, very, very so.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

 

Federal Disability Retirements: This cold and impervious universe

Of course, the title is more akin to Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover, as opposed to an interventionist deity of a personal nature.  Yet, even of the latter, the question of whether any real influence can be gotten, or whether fate had already predetermined the course of future actions, is certainly debatable.  If one ‘appeals’ to the guidance of a personal idol, but hears nothing, is there any distinguishable distinction to be made from that of a prime move, unperturbed by cries of tragic consequences?

Aside from the metaphysical queries, the view that we live in a cold and impervious universe is one of unaccountable ‘feelings’; and while one’s emotional response may not correlate with the firmer foundation of logical analysis, there is little basis for undermining the validity of such conclusions any more than arriving at it from a systematic rejection of a metaphysical argument.  Both approaches are equally valid, and the former may be more so, given the experiential reinforcements by most through anecdotal evidence.

That wars in foreign lands devastating entire communities, decimating whole cities and making refugees of innocent children and bystanders who merely want to live a quiet life, cannot be denied.

Closer to home, of antiseptic neighborhoods in classical suburbia – that quintessential cauldron of “phoniness” rejected by Holden Caulfield in his magnum opus, The Catcher in the Rye.  Here, where communities are defined by fences and self-imposed solitary confinement, the only time we open our doors is when an ambulance or other disturbing intrusions forces us to gawk with concern for another neighbor quietly being transported to an unknown facility of no-return.

And for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition has come to a critical point where performing the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties becomes an incommensurability beyond mere difficulty, but a reality that can no longer be hidden – the conclusion that this is a cold and impervious universe is merely heightened by the uncaring unresponsiveness of the Federal or Postal employee’s agency and its co-conspirators.

The legal terms are always bandied about:  “Accommodations”; “FMLA protection”; “allowance for being on LWOP”; and other such mechanisms; but truth be told, the agency and the U.S. Postal Service merely wants to shed itself, as soon as possible, of any employee who dares to whisper the heretical utterance:  “I am suffering, and need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.”

In the end, it is the law itself that allows for the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement, whether the Federal employee or Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, that gives one pause, for the benefit itself is at least one counterpoint to the question of whether this world we live in is entirely a cold and impervious universe.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement from Federal Government Employment: The locked certainty

It must be nice to walk around this world of insecurity with an intractable sense of locked certainty.  There are those some few who possess such a perspective:  everything is without any shades of grey; “rightness” is defined by one’s power, position and capacity to impose, and those who stand in the way are mere leftovers in the residue of history’s garbage heap; and, whether in the privacy of one’s thoughts (if there remain any) or in that moment of vulnerability when the alcohol allows for an openness not previously manifested, there is revealed a glint or twinkle of a doubt, one normally never finds out, as the opportunity for such fissures upon a locked certainty rarely unravel.

How does one go about “unlocking” such a fortress of beliefs, ideas and faith in self?  Perhaps, never.  How did one arrive at such a point of foundational, unmovable certitude?  Darned, if this writer knows.

Authoritarians; totalitarians; cult figures and other assorted and assertive leaders; is it mere brashness and bravado, or is there some “secret knowledge” they possess where the “rest of us” merely squander?  Is it merely a restatement of that ancient division between Parmenides and Heraclitus?  Where, seeing the world as a singular whole and unchanging, in contrast to a perspective where everything is in a constant state of perpetual flux?  Is the psychological emanation that distinguishes and differentiates the two derive from that foundational belief-system that is proposed, or is the duality of such teleological posits merely offering a false choice of two extremes?

There are people like that – both in fiefdoms of past ages where the Medieval colonies restricted and constricted both in thought and in cultural diversity; and, today, in Federal agencies and U.S. Postal facilities, where all Federal and Postal workers who have a medical condition are viewed as “suspect” and unproductive workers who are merely shirking their duties out of sheer laziness.

Can you change their minds?  Probably not.  Is there a key to unlocking that locked certainty of belief?  Unlikely.  So, what is the “solution” to such a problem?  Fortunately, for Federal and Postal employees who can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement is “out there” to be accessed.

In order to successfully maneuver through the bureaucratic maze and administrative obstacles, however, one must shatter one’s own “locked certainty”, and try to view the process as a means to an end, and realize that a successful endeavor such as filing a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, begins with the realization that there never was a guarantee of security from life’s lottery of hope, but that the benefit of a Federal Disability Retirement annuity allows for a second chance at an apple already ravaged by those who surround you with that locked certainty of suspicion.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire