OPM Disability Attorney: Playgrounds and the Collective Institution of Fair Play

We learn it early on; the unstated rules, the lines which may not be crossed, and to be weary of those whose reputation precedes them for the blatant disregard of both.  How they are learned; what they are; whether explicitly stated or impliedly conveyed; few, if any, have a memory where the Head Mistress of the Universe of Playgrounds sat us all down and said, “Now young ladies and gentlemen, here are the 10 rules of fair play.”  Regardless, we all somehow came to recognized and apply them.

Wittgenstein provides some valuable insight into the way we learn the language games involved in game-playing; much of it is through sheer doing, an ad hoc manner of practical reasoning and applied rationality.  And then, of course, we become adults (yes, at least most of us do; some, left behind on the playgrounds of life, remain as infantile cherubim, clueless and naive to the cynical ways of the world); and it always seems as if the same ones who violated the rules of the playground are the ones who flaunt the normative constraints of the greater universe.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are formulating a strategy for filing a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether one falls under the general aegis of FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the question often must be confronted as to the Supervisor, Manager, or even a fellow coworker who is pining for a confrontation and direct disregard of the collective institutional enforcement of what everyone else knows as “fair play”.

This, despite the fact that there are multiple Federal laws governing treatment of individuals with known medical disabilities.  But the Federal “system” of retaining workers with medical conditions and disabilities, and the perfunctory requirement of accommodations and the search to provide adequate accommodations, undermines any compelling force to restrain the playground bully.

OPM Disability Retirement benefits, filed either through one’s own agency if one is still on the rolls of the agency; or if separated, but less than 31 days since the official date of separation, in either case must be filed through the Human Resource Department of one’s own agency, or through H.R. Shared Services for Postal Workers (located in Greensboro, North Carolina); or, if separated for more than 31 days, then directly to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Boyers, PA.

In the end, things rarely change much, if at all.  Those collective institutional enforcement mechanisms learned on the playground — tattling to the playground monitor or to one’s teacher; talking to one’s parents, etc. — end up with a snicker and a sneer.

Yes, society has become well aware of bullies and mean people, but they have been around longer than the oldest profession in the world, and the collective institution of fair play and the playgrounds upon which they played out, will continue to witness backstabbing and surreptitious violations, transferred universally to the places where adults play, and where the most vulnerable in need of the greatest protection, still must do things the old fashioned way:  reliance on sheer luck, or to seek the best legal advice possible.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Peripheral Vision

Something catches one’s notice; perhaps an odd movement, a dotted color scheme of minute origins and insignificant except in contrast to the toneless surroundings; or, because of a survival instinct still active from a forgotten history of evolutionary need, a signal of caution that danger may be lurking.  The eyes shift; the attempt to focus upon that which was noticed through one’s peripheral vision, is suddenly lost forever.

No matter how hard you try and focus upon that which seemed perceptually evident, but somewhat indistinct, where one’s peripheral vision caught a moment of certainty, but now the direct visual assault is unable to locate that which existed outside of the parameters of the obvious.  As much in life is an anomaly which can only be adequately cloaked in metaphors and analogies in order to reach a semblance of understanding and comprehension, so the loss of that which existed on the edge of perception can never be understood, where directness fails to hit the target, but indirectness does.

Much of life is like that; we think we have it all solved, or under control, when suddenly chaos and the abyss of timeless disruption overtakes us.  Medical conditions have a tendency to do that.  It is, to a great extent, a reminder that our souls are not the property of our own selves, but only on borrowed time, to be preserved and valued through a course of time within a boxed eternity of complex circumstances.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers, when a medical condition hits upon the very soul of one’s being, and begins to prevent one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s ability to perform the positional duties of the Federal or Postal job, consideration should be given to filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether one is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

The beauty of life can be missed entirely if the focus is always upon the directness of existence; sometimes, we lose sight of the obvious when we fail to prioritize and organize the conceptual constructs given to us in a world of color, light and blazing conundrums of caricatures.  A medical condition is a trauma upon the body, mind and soul; continuing in the same directed assault upon life, without pausing to change course, is the worst path one can take.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is an option which allows for reduced stress, potential future security, and time acquired in order to attain a plateau of rehabilitative peace.  It is a benefit offered to all Federal and Postal employees who have met the minimum requirements of Federal Service. That once forgotten art of perceiving beauty in a world of concrete and ugly structures of septic silliness; it is often the peripheral vision which catches a glimpse of life, and not the monotony of mindless work forging ahead in a blind alley of repetition.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire