OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Before Smartphones

What did we do?  Today, it is as if the obsessive is inescapable; but yes, there actually was a time before Smartphones; we merely are unable to remember, or refuse to recall, those days “before”.

We have all become obsessive.  We have to check to see if an email has come in; we eat at the table with it right next to the plate; it accompanies us in the car; at night, if we do not turn the volume down, it haunts and reminds us; the wiring in our brains has literally gone haywire.

“Grandpa, what was life like before Smartphones?”  Well — books read; a quiet evening before the crackling fire; time for conversations to develop; of recollections and reminiscences — and of memories confronted and challenged without someone taking out that Smartphone, googling the question and ruining the fun of simply trying to remember the name of an actor, the title of a book or the precise date of a historical event.

Before Smartphones, there was a life to be lived, a reality without surrealism, and a sense of belonging in a community where no one had his or her head bent down to be sucked into a device which no one asked for, and no one ever stopped to ask:  Do we really want to live this way?

For Federal Government employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who suffer from a medical condition, consider this:  The Smartphone which controls your life can never replace the need to prioritize that which is foundational and most significant — of your health.  Consider filing for FERS Disability Retirement benefits; for, even before Smartphones, there was life, health and the precious time spent before the debilitating medical conditions began to dominate.

Contact a FERS Retirement Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and take the time to consider that there was actually a life before Smartphones, as there can still be a life beyond the Federal Government job you occupy.

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 Application: Worth in Our Day

Worth has become a meaningless concept; inflation, the valueless dollar, the expansion from millionaire to billionaire, and now to the next level — the first “trillionaire” — who will it be?

There was a time not long ago when aspiring to make or save a million dollars was within sight; that, once achieved, it was a level of monetary achievement which would allow for a fairly comfortable living.  These days, purchasing a home in a relatively middle class neighborhood ranges in the $600,000 – $700,000 range and beyond, rendering a million dollars to be viewed as somewhat of a pittance.

And what of human worth?  As money becomes meaningless because the decimal point continues to move to the right, leaving unfathomable zeros multiplying to the left, do we treat workers with any greater dignity, with any greater value in parallel conjunction with the exponential multiplication of those zeros?  Doubtful.

At least, however, the Federal Government does recognize that a person who is disabled from performing his or job elements should be eligible and entitled to disability retirement benefits.  To that extent, worth in our day has improved from the middle ages where the disabled were merely discarded as beggars on the streets of London and Paris, as well as in middle America.

Contact an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider the option of going out early with a Federal Disability Retirement benefit.

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 Door Ajar

It might be the security entrance to an apartment complex, but for some reason the door had failed to swing back completely, leaving it slightly ajar; or you pass by a door where voices are heard, of warm music soothing to the soul, perhaps some distant laughter, and you look upon the door ajar and pause, thinking, “In life, how often do you hear such pleasantries; should I just open the door and look inside to see from whence the happiness emanates?”

Or the teenage child’s bedroom door left ajar — it is at a critical point in the growth of a person; does the door left ajar indicate an invitation for the parent to come in and say hello, or is it mostly closed in order to deny entrance, exhibiting the rebelliousness and defiant independence of the age of such youth — or, perhaps a little of both?

The door ajar is the anomaly of life — of half closed and half opened; of an invitation or a denial of entrance; of a midway point indicating contradictory messages.

For the Federal employee and U.S. Postal Worker who suffers 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, the career one has chosen is akin to a door left ajar — you are caught in between and left standing, isolated and unable to determine what to do next.

You can’t do your job but your agency or the Postal Service is just keeping you in limbo.

Open that door ajar wide, and contact an OPM Disability Retirement Attorney who specializes in obtaining from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) this work benefit called “Federal Disability Retirement”, that is, allow the lawyer who specializes in that area of law to guide you through the morass of a complex bureaucratic process where the door is never left ajar, but opened with greater information.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: The Presumptuous Act

What would we say about a person who, having bought a lottery ticket, goes out and spends lavishly, quits his job and becomes indebted far beyond his means — all prior to the day when the “winning numbers” are declared?  We would consider that he or she is: Crazy; irresponsible; or, perhaps, has some “insider knowledge” that we are not privy to.

Most acts lack a presumptuous intent; many, merely of thoughtless motivations; and rarely but some, of such egregiously bold-faced assault upon common decency that we disbelieve and attempt to substitute some rationally-based justification to explain away the presumptuousness of such an act.  Would our opinion of such a person — the one who buys a lottery ticket, then quits his or her job and proceeds to spend lavishly while abandoning all “reasonable” displays of conventional wisdom — change if additional facts were to be posited?

How about: The doctor has given him 30 days to live, and when we ask the person about the lottery ticket, the response is: “Oh, I don’t expect to win; it is just a metaphor for my life’s prognosis”.  Would such a response change our opinion; for, no longer is the person “crazy”; perhaps somewhat “irresponsible” in that the debts left behind will still have to be paid by someone; but yes, we would likely lean towards the third option in our thought processes: that the “insider knowledge” was the very private knowledge held close to his or her heart: Mortality suddenly betrays careful living, and abandonment of conventional lifestyles is a natural consequence of having nothing left to lose.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer a similar (but perhaps not quite as devastating a scenario) situation like that of the hypothetical individual noted above, the “presumptuous act” that others may deem so may not be so outlandish as one may first assume.

Filing a Federal Disability Retirement application for the Federal or Postal employee under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset is not quite like the example above, but often, some see it as such; for, to “give up” a well-paying job, a reliable career or a secure position in the Federal System is certainly a drastic situation; and the alternative may not allow for much of a choice: To remain and suffer, and continue to deteriorate until one’s body or emotional state has been so damaged as to suffer through life for the rest of one’s allotted time on earth; to ignore that is indeed the height of presumptuousness — of taking things for granted.

Health should be a priority, and preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is not a presumptuous act; rather, its opposite is what presumes too much — that your health will continue to withstand the deteriorating condition that you have all along experienced for these many years.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The regularity of life

Metaphors abound, of course; of the stream of life, its cadence, likened to a steady march and the cyclical nature wrapped in the repetition of the growing dawn followed by the setting sun.  The regularity of life represents a rhythm and monotony that provides a blanket of comfort (there goes the metaphor, again) that can be extracted from the lack of chaos.

Most of us thrive best within the regularity of life’s monotony; it is the very few who seek and relish the chaos of life.  Some few seek the opposite precisely because they grew up hating the former; and other, the very antonym of life’s challenges, searching always for new adventures and challenges and upending everything in sight because of boredom experienced in some prior stage of life.

Whatever the causes, whatsoever the sought-out means for expression and self-satisfaction, one cannot exist without the other.  It is from chaos that one creates an order (hint: this is not a new notion; one might consult the first book of an otherwise unnamed book that “believers” often refer to); and it is only in the midst of the regularity of life that one can have spurts of its opposite; otherwise, the world of chaotic living could not be identified as such unless there is a contrasting opposite by which to compare.

Medical conditions “need” its very opposite.  Doctors often talk about “reducing stress” as an important element in maintaining one’s health; it is another way of saying that the chaos of life needs to be contained, and the regularity of life needs to be attained.  Medical conditions themselves interrupt and impede the regularity of life; as pain, it increases stress; as cognitive dysfunctioning, it interrupts calm.

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, the very fact of the medical condition itself can be the impeding force that disrupts and interrupts the regularity of life; and the chaos that ensues often necessitates an action that returns one back to the regularity of life.

Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is often the first and necessary step in bringing order back into an otherwise chaotic-seeming mess.

It is, in the words of some “other” source, to attain the regularity of life from that which had become without form and void.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal Disability Retirement Attorney

 

OPM Medical Retirement under FERS & CSRS: Admission

It is a noun of peculiar variability, perhaps all interconnected upon reflection.  It can refer to the permission to enter, whether by right, payment or removal of obstacles; or, denoting the price of such entrance; or even yet, a confession or acknowledgment of a point taken; and in other contexts, of being accepted into a fraternity of sorts, as in “admission to a university” or “to the legal bar” – meaning, not an actual, physical movement through gates now open, but a conceptual membership into a community of selective individuals.

Is there a linguistic relationship between that sequestered sense of the word – of an acknowledgment or confession – in contradistinction to the other forms, all of the remainder of which encompasses an entrance, movement or acceptance to a desired destination upon the removal of an obstruction, whether by a physical gate or a nod of consent?

How about this:  An admission denoting a confessional standard or conceding a point of conflict can be likened as a release, where pent-up resistance is suddenly or finally torn down, and the voluntary pouring out of one’s previously-withheld desire to “tell all” has been replaced with the emptying sensation of a satisfied conscience.  You are now allowed into the community of guiltless souls, or at least of having the feeling of being released from the cage of deception in falsehood.

Admission in this sense is a freeing of one’s inner soul, and it is normally insufficient to bring that narrative of expiation in a silent soliloquy to one’s self; thus, there are confessionals and penitent individuals, bowing with genuflective subservience and unmasking one’s soul to someone cloaked in authoritative garments, and somehow the externalization of one’s guilty conscience has an antiseptic, cleansing effect.

Admission into a fraternity of brotherhood is always a welcoming act; admission of one’s mistakes, wrongs committed and sins adorned, has never been an easy undertaking, and less so in this day and age where moral equivalency is the prevailing rule of life.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are considering filing a Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the issue of admission is always twofold:  First, the entire purpose of preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application is to gain admission into the class of former Federal and Postal employees who are now Federal Disability Retirement annuitants; and, secondly, it is important to allow for the difficult admission that the entire administrative and bureaucratic process is a complicated one, and therefore may require the assistance of legal counsel in order to successfully maneuver one’s way through the maze of complexities.

An admission in the first sense is thus the goal; an admission in the latter sense is merely a reflection of wisdom in progress for the Federal or Postal employee who, by necessity of a medical condition, needs to file a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: Of words and deeds

Does a personal pronoun necessarily attach itself to a deed?  If an opinion is expressed as a formal, generic pronoun, and not in the first person, nominative case, is it still the declaration of the author?  If, following upon the words written or spoken, the individual expressing the viewpoint follows it up with a deed or act, does the one follow from the other?  Is there a causal connection between the two?  Does it matter who says the utterance, as opposed to the content of the pronouncement?

Take the following hypothetical:  say a known liar — one who has been convicted of perjury and has a widespread reputation for spreading falsehoods, gives a speech about the importance of telling the truth, and the content, substance and every which manner of what he says cannot be disputed — do we say we “believe him”, or merely the speech given?

Take the same example, but exchange the individual for a saintly person whom everyone agrees is incapable of lying — but in the course of giving his expressed remarks on the subject at hand, misspeaks.  Does the “lying” suddenly attach itself to the individual, and does the misdeed forever mark the reputation of he who speaks with a badge of dishonor, like unwanted barnacles upon the underside of a boat?

The test of sincerity following upon words, is not more words, but an act which validates the declarative utterance spoken.  It is precisely because of the chasm which exists between words and deeds, that the necessary connection (that elusive element which Hume so brilliantly batted away in destroying the certainty of causation) which brings the two together must be in the retroactive affirmation of the latter to the former; otherwise, hypocrisy would abound (as it does) and words would remain meaningless (as they are).

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who intend to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the added burden of the medical condition itself allows for procrastination to extend the widening chasm between words, intentions and deeds.  Life is a daily struggle where the complexities inure to the aggregation of confusion in prioritizing.  That which is important, may not seem so today, when the stark realities which impact and impede in the immediacy of time can turn theory into distant conjugations, left within the turmoil of thoughts and silent words unspoken.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM requires an affirmative act following upon an intention growing within an expanse of needs. Thus, of words and deeds — the former merely initiates the latter, but may never attach itself unless the actual steps are taken in the preparation of an effective OPM Disability Retirement application, remaining hidden and obscured by the quietude of thoughts and the hidden screams of pain.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The furrowed face

Does the palm reader tell from lines deepened and extended by time, or in the creases of birth and predetermined fate?  Do the ruts and chasms criss-crossing like doodling designs created by a madman mixing a cauldron of witch’s brew depend upon fate already set, or can the future be altered by choices one foresees?  And what of the face — the creases around one’s mouth, the ruts above the furrowed brow, or the fine filaments of timeless cuts around the eyes; do they tell a story of joy and promise, or of sadness and sorrow?

The furrowed face is but a moment’s expression; it is rather the corrugated painting, forever captured in the stitch of life’s experiences, which lasts in timeless bottles of floating memories, like butterflies caught in a web of deception where promises of boundless expectations and revelations of hope as sung from the loving tongues of mothers dreaming of tomorrow’s future for children yet unborn.

Time, experience, and confrontations of life tend to deepen the furrowed face of age.  As do medical conditions.  It is when the tripartite combination coalesces, that decisions need to be made, lest extinguishment of life become the goal of sorrow.  For, when a medical condition comes to the fore, it impacts one’s capacity and ability; when capacity and ability become impacted, then one’s work suffers; and when one’s work begins to suffer, the notice of employers, coworkers, and the Federal agency or the U.S. Postal Service begins to turn on its engine of harassment and adversarial modalities of meddlesome trickery.

Federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service care not whether the ruts and grooves of the furrowed face deepen by the actions of an uncaring bureaucracy.

As Americans spend billions each year on health care and cosmetic products to enhance beauty and delay the inevitable lines of age, so it is often the best medicine to alter the predetermined fate of time by considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, when the furrowed face of life requires such a step.  Adulthood rarely spares any of us from the deep ruts of facial scars; and when there is a “baby face” in middle age, it often reflects deeper chasms and valleys within the psyche, where hidden traumas are screaming to be let out.

Federal and Postal employees who face the problems of work because of a medical condition have the option of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM, and begin planning for another stage of one’s life in the private sector.  Not everyone has such an option or an opportunity in the face of a medical condition which robs the Federal or Postal worker from continuing in one’s chosen career, but OPM Disability Retirement is that rare benefit which allows for further employment while receiving an annuity.

In that sense, the furrowed face need not be the last and frozen picture of a person’s future, and the palm reader may yet be tentative in predicting the final chapter of one’s life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Life’s wisdoms

The term, “decapitalization” often refers to the deliberate and systematic process of imposing harsh government policies in order to alter the private sector’s hold upon society’s commercial entanglement and mercantile involvement.

In some grammatical contexts, however, it can denote the reduction of capitalized lettering into “small” letters, and thereby change its appearance, import, and even “meaning”.  e.e. cummings is a fine example of this.  Or, on a “title page”, one would expect that the concept of “Life’s Wisdoms” would be capitalized, for essentially two main reasons:  The first word, “Life”, is too great a theme not to ascribe the signification of it, as well as being the beginning part of the title; and the second, well, if it was good enough for Solomon, then we should certainly designate and captivate with a position of priority.

So, why has it been “reduced” in the heading of this short blog, you ask?  Because most of life’s wisdoms are not provided at the time of birth on a silver tray packaged in a unitary compendium; rather, they are “dished out” in small increments, over time, through encounters both expected and unasked for; and always when we least desire it.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact one’s ability and capacity to perform all of the essential elements of one’s positional duties in the Federal Sector and the U.S. Postal Service, seeking out “information” in order to begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management may take on many and variegated forms:  Internet Research; contact with the Human Resource Office; call to an attorney; discussions with others who have gone through the administrative and bureaucratic process; unloading upon family and friends, etc.

Always remember, however, that there is a vast chasm of differences between “information” and “wisdom”, and the mere fact that much of information provided “out there” is capitalized with blaring trumpets of fanfare and glitter, ascribing signification by making something into an “upper case” designation, or otherwise in priority of sequence, does not transform the “it” into anything more than what first the skeleton of the entity originated.  Saying it doesn’t make it so; dressing it up does not complete a substantive metamorphosis begun in nascent shivers of intended good.

For the Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker who must make wise decisions concerning one’s future course of actions because filing for OPM Disability Retirement has become a necessity, the conversion from aggregating mere information to obtaining life’s wisdoms must come about first through a decision to decipher and sift through the vast and irrelevant information “out there”, and then to implement a course of action which sounds right, considers the differing interests at hand, and then to emulate the experiential factors we have accumulated over these many years of trials and turmoil.

Just remember that Solomon made his share of mistakes, as well.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: Noh & Other Masks

Every culture has some element of representative theatre of art, and Nogaku is the classical Japanese form which tells the narrative of human suffering, trials and challenges encompassing masks, elaborate costumes, and traditional music reflective of the times and periods of tragic and comic proportions throughout history.

Why are masks used?  What is it about the frozen caricature, that moment in time when a look, a grimace, a smile or an unconcealed filament of emotion that encapsulates human suffering, tragedy or a breeze of joy?  Masks frozen reveal but a singular moment — or so one assumes, until you look at it from a different angle, a changed light, or perhaps when one’s own emotions alter and bring to the stage the experiences and baggage accumulated throughout a lifetime.

Masks fascinate — look at the glee, fear and awe on a child’s face, and those memories frozen in time as the child claps, stares, puts the tiny involuntary hand to his or her mouth, as the play before unfolds, whether in life or on the stage.  We all wear masks; some to conceal, others to gloss over.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers suffering from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties, the daily mask in order to conceal the progressive deterioration of one’s health, is no different from the theatre of plays performed.

Only, for the Federal and Postal worker who must consider 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, the “play” never ends, as real life is ongoing; and the mask worn changes not in response to the altering angle of light, but rather, because of the unremitting articles of life which slowly chip away at the brave face of time, like the dust of age which fades the painted Noh mask, whether on stage or in the arena of daily living.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire