Federal & Postal Medical Retirement: Imagining a Life Beyond

Daylight dreaming about medical recuperation and pain relief with Federal or Postal Medical Retirement

The known quantity provides a semblance of comfort; the unknown, a stirring of unease.  That which has been repetitively engaged, through monotony of routine and familiarity of choice, is preferable to the haphazard disorientation of the disrupted interlude.  As one grows older, entrenchment to routine and the known universe becomes the comfort zone of defaulted alternatives, and the youthful vigor or happenstance and unplanned rendezvous with destiny is merely a silliness to be avoided.

Though we often know that which is good for us, the Need versus Necessity which burns or heals; and though the foretelling of circumstances and the clairvoyance of wisdom accumulated by quiet commentary upon those who preceded us may all sound alarms which direct us otherwise, we often still choose the path of least resistance.  That is what often holds back Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers from filing for Federal or Postal Medical Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

One knows better.  The proverbial “writing on the wall” shouts with shrill warnings of the impending actions by the agency; or the sheer cumulative shrinking of Sick Leave and into the red of LWOP reveals the passing of that other proverbial quip:  the “fork in the road”.  But knowing what portends, and acting upon that knowledge, constitutes the difference between wisdom and being wise; the former is merely unused knowledge; the latter, the application of advantage.

There is, of course, the other factor amongst Federal and Postal employees that of dedication and a sense of commitment to a mission.  But at what price?  Lack of imagination beyond one’s life in the Federal sector and the U.S. Postal Service is often the qualitative difference in failing to move forward.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal or Postal Medical Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is not just a necessity for the Federal or Postal worker who is no longer able to perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal Service job; rather, it is an ability to imagine life beyond the present circumstances, and that is indeed the mark of wisdom for instructive living within a universe of mirrors reflecting images of unmarked graves of futility.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
OPM Disability Lawyer

 

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Revisiting the Concept of “Accommodations”

“Accommodation” is a legal term of art.  At least, in preparing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is a specific term, with specific definitions, with underlying meanings that need to be fully understood in preparing a viable and successful disability retirement application.  In very loose, non-legal terms, there is never anything wrong with an Agency Supervisor “accommodating” a good and loyal Federal employee — by allowing the person to take LWOP; of instituting liberal leave policies; of lessening the workload; of allowing for temporary light duties; of minimizing travel, restricting certain physical requirements, or reassigning certain complex projects to other employees of the Agency.  Every good supervisor does this; and, indeed, sometimes everything works out for the best, and the temporary measures undertaken by the supervisor may allow for the employee to sufficiently recover and later reaffirm all of the essential elements of the position.  But the remaining question is:  Were those measures considered an “accommodation“?  The answer is:  No.  Why not?  Because such measures do not constitute and meet the definition of “accommodation” under the laws governing Federal Disability Retirement.  They may be “good” for the Agency, but they do not preclude one from filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

CSRS & FERS Disability Disability Retirement: OWCP & the Postal Service

For many years, being on Worker’s Comp when injured while working for the Postal Service, worked fairly well. The Postal Service, in conjunction with, and in coordination, would offer an acceptable “modified position”, delineating the physical restrictions and medical limitations based upon the treating doctor’s clinical assessment, or in accordance with the OWCP-appointed doctor. The Postal employee would then work in that “modified position”, and so long as the Postal Supervisor or Postmaster was reasonable (which was not and is not always the case), the coordinated efforts between OWCP, the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal employee would result in years of “quiet truce”, with the tug and pull occurring in some of the details of what “intermittent” means, or whether “2 hours of standing” meant two hours continuously, or something else – and multiple other issues to be fought for, against, and somehow resolved. 

The rules of the game, however, have radically changed with the aggressive National Reassessment Program, instituted in the last few years in incremental stages, nationwide. Now, people are summarily sent home and told that “no work is available”. Postal Workers are systematically told that the previously-designated modified positions are no longer available — that a worker must be fully able to perform all of the essential elements of his or her job. This last point, of course, is what I have been arguing for many, many years — that the so-called “modified job” was and is not a permanent position, and is therefore not a legal accommodation under the laws governing Federal Disability Retirement for FERS & CSRS employees. After so many years of having the Post Office and the Office of Personnel Management argue that such a “modified job” is an accommodation, it is good to see that the truth has finally come out.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire