Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Disability Retirement: Off on a Tangent

It can be done inadvertently, without malice, and often unintentionally — and so long as one remains within the insular world of language, no harm occurs in most instances, in most circumstances.

Of course, to literally go off on a tangent — if you are walking in the wilderness without a compass; out in the deep sea in a small skiff; wandering about in a neighborhood known for drive-by shootings — can be quite another thing.

But for the most part, when we say that “So-and-so often goes off on a tangent” or “Sally has a tendency to go off on tangents”, we merely mean that the focus of the conversation, the content of the primary narrative, the point of the lecture being given, etc., the central idea, theme or point of someone’s statement, discussion “talk”, etc. is being waylaid by some divergent, often irrelevant side-show.

It is like a movie badly edited — you know, those scenes which often are “extras” which were taken out because of time-constraints or creative doubt as to their relevance to the story.  Or, sometimes people go off on tangents for a reason — deliberately and with intent — as when you want to divert the focus of the narrative away from the main point, precisely because the main point is not a very strong one to begin with.

In a Federal Disability Retirement case, this can happen on both sides — from OPM’s side, going off on a tangent can mean that they do not want to focus upon the medical reports and records, but instead want to deny you based upon tangential issues of performance ratings, conducts issues, accommodation offers, etc., as opposed to focusing upon the main point of a Federal Disability Retirement application: Your medical conditions.  Or, from the perspective of the applicant — the Federal or Postal employee filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits — of irrelevant background, or on issues which may actually weaken and harm a case.

Contact an OPM Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and make sure that you remain focused on the centrality of the multi-faceted issues presented in a Federal Disability Retirement case, and not on irrelevant issues by going off on a tangent.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer specializing exclusively on Federal Disability Retirement Law

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement Process: The Extrapolated You

You have a whole life, an entire story — a “novel” of sorts, with chapters beginning with your birth, paragraphs describing your accomplishments and sentences denoting your character.  A friend, neighbor or acquaintance comes along and picks up this novel, opens it to a random page and reads one sentence.  Perhaps that sentence, or partial-sentence, reads as follows: “…and people thought that his behavior was unacceptable.”

That person walks away with this single facet, not having read the rest of the novel, or perhaps not caring, or even worse — of wanting to hold onto that singular, “out-of-context” extrapolation of an impression wrongly held.  For, in the very next sentence, the paragraph reads: “It turns out that his behavior was entirely appropriate, and everyone who had thought otherwise had to admit to this basic fact.”

Such is a parallel scenario with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in reviewing a FERS applicant for Federal Disability Retirement benefits — for, not only does OPM only see the extrapolated you based upon your FERS Disability Retirement application, but moreover, they are looking to selectively take extrapolated portions of your narrative as a disabled person, and are glad to take things out of context and deny your claim.

How to counter this?  By arguing and applying the Law.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin at the outset to rebut and preemptively reply by citing the relevant law in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal or Postal Employee Disability Retirement application and present the “you” as more than the extrapolated you.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal & Postal Worker Disability Retirement: Consequences

They exist and occur, for every act we engage, for every decision we make.  Some, inconsequential; others, of some limited impact; still others, of greater reverberations; and of a limited few — of impact both felt and ones by which we must live with.  Regrets result from the greater consequences we believe we could have prevented, altered, precluded or changed; those are the ones which nag and trail, follow us in haunting residue of forever regrets.

What could have changed things?  How could I have done things differently?  Why didn’t I do something at the time?

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, consider the consequences — then consult with an experienced attorney who will be able to guide you throughout the process.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, lest the consequences of proceeding without specialized advice could result in regret and remorse.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
OPM Disability Attorney

 

Federal and Postal Medical Retirement: Destiny of Inevitability

There are those who exhale a sigh of inevitability and say, “Well, what does it matter? We are all going to die, anyway.”  But that misses the point, doesn’t it?

One’s destiny of inevitability is one and the same with everyone else in the universe — but it is the “getting there” (i.e., the journey itself), which makes all of the difference.  The intermediate steps between A to Z are comprised of B, C, D … X, Y, etc.  Yes, it is inevitable that the ultimate destiny is “Z”, but how one gets to it, the quality of one’s life encapsulated by the multiple steps and processes in order to arrive at that destiny of inevitability — that is what makes the difference.

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 form performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, getting from Point A to Point Z is all the more important.  Perhaps Federal Disability Retirement makes up Point E; and getting a job in the private sector constitutes to Point L; the point is, there is still much of life to live, and Federal Disability Retirement benefits are merely another point in the process before the destiny of inevitability must be contemplated.

Consult with a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider some of the intermediate points of your life before resigning yourself to the destiny of inevitability.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement from OPM: Worries

We all have them.  For some, they become so overwhelming as to destroy a life, prevent a career, block any advancement and contain any progress.  It is the capacity of human beings to project into the future, to expect events yet to happen and to become anxious about circumstances beyond one’s control.  It is what makes human beings unique.

Perhaps it is the outgrowth from evolutionary origins which allows for the success of our species — for, to worry is to have an imagination, and it is the human imagination stemming from fear for the future that has allowed for human innovation and solutions to problems which might have otherwise ended in disaster.  But as every positive force has its negative opposite, so the worries we carry can also cancel out the positive impact that worries may incur.

We may worry about our future, and our actions may resolve such worries; we may worry about our parents or grandparents, and a solution may resolve such concerns; or we may worry about our past, and yet such worries may be unfounded.  Worries alone are not enough; they must follow with a plan, an action, an implementation of a goal derived.

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 worry for tomorrow may be a real concern, and not just your imagination taking you into flights of fearful chaos.

Consult with an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and allow your worries about tomorrow be allayed with facts about the Law and expertise in the field of Federal Disability Retirement benefits for the future which is hidden, yet hopeful.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement Attorney

 

OPM Federal Disability Retirement under FERS: Not as Before

Before what?  That is the natural response.  We tend to bifurcate our lives into segments which are palatable and comprehensible; of a time before X happened, and then our present existence after X; before we had children, and after; before we became married, and after; before some traumatic incident, and sometime thereafter, etc.  The present “I” is never the same as “before”, and one could even say that truthfully about every minute, every hour and every millisecond of a distinction between the “I” in the current state and the “I” of a past state of being.

Whether on a physical, cellular level where genetic structures alter and decay even by the minute; or on a cognitive level where new information, additional data is being processed by our brains every moment of our lives.  We are not as before; we are constantly changing; and like the river which Heraclitus identified an analogy for human existence, so the vicissitudes of the world surrounding impacts us daily such that we are not as before.

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 likely bifurcating event is the medical condition itself.  No, you may not be the same as before, and it is that identifiable change which forms the basis for eligibility of a Federal Disability Retirement benefit under FERS.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider applying for Federal Disability Retirement benefits; for, not only are you not as before, but likewise, your Federal Agency or the Postal facility are viewing your work and future not as before, as well.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Benefits: Philosophy of Life

Is it necessary to have one?  Does one ever begin this process of organic expansion with a conceptual paradigm which encapsulated the activities, movements, thought-processes and decision-making judgments that, in their aggregate, define a person’s “Philosophy of Life”?  And if we all have one, when did we subscribe to it, create it or “own” it?  Or is it all just some pithy mandate which we follow — you know, some line here or there that we picked up, either from a book, a movie, some T.V. serial, or even from some bartender who likes to mete out wisps of wisdom to those half drunk?

“Joe’s philosophy of life is to never trust anyone.”  Or: “Kim — she just believes that you should finish whatever you began.”

Of course, if you went to college and took that “Introductory Philosophy” course, you received a Reader’s Digest version of various philosophers, and perhaps came upon Seneca, the Roman Stoic, whose attempt to bifurcate the physical world from one’s inner soul has become popularized in modernity; and perhaps there are those who have grasped upon a coherent or systematic philosophical paradigm such that one actually possesses a “philosophy of life” —but few of us are organized enough to have that and, even if we did, how many of us actually follow our own philosophy of life?

Most of us just struggle through and meander, responding from one mini-crisis of life’s travails to the next.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, where that medical condition begins to prevent one’s ability and capacity to perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal job, it is not a “philosophy of life” that will help you survive the bureaucratic process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, but rather, correct knowledge, helpful information and a plan of attack.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law before initiating the process.  And, after obtaining your FERS Disability Retirement benefits, perhaps that will be the time to begin to formulate your Philosophy of Life — that is, the life beyond Federal employment.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire