A French film (The Hedgehog) loosely following upon the novel (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), focuses upon the hidden life of an unnoticed individual, and through her providing a platform of unraveling the fears, aspirations, class differences and how we treat (or mistreat, as the case may be) each other based upon appearances and social constraints. It is always the character of the child who uncovers the secret, as in the story of the emperor without clothes, and in this story, as youth has not yet been scarred by the juggernaut of societal preconceptions.
It is in the secret (and secretive) life of a janitor (for the French, the more refined title of a “concierge”), who hides her intelligence and love of literature for fear of appearing pretentious and thus facing the potential and threat of loss of her job attending to wealthy tenants — where the authenticity of a life’s worth reveals itself. How the greater society reacts to an aberration of an entrenched social order disrupts the conventional manner in which people get along in a community.
The story presents lessons far-reaching beyond the obvious; and reaches into depths untraveled, including for Federal and Postal Workers who suffer from a medical condition and must contend with supervisors and agencies which view with suspicion workers who are “different” and do not follow the traditional routine of work and productivity. For it is precisely the Federal and Postal Worker, whether under FERS or CSRS, who must often walk with hesitancy and fear when they are suffering from a medical condition, such that the medical condition has begun to impact one’s ability to perform all of the essential elements of one’s job.
Like the main character in The Hedgehog, revelation of the “secret” of one’s true being — of the medical condition, whether physical or psychiatric — would mean the potential adverse reaction of the agency. Instead of providing for an accommodation of such a revealed “secret”, Federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service will instead counter the situation with predictable aplomb, and begin the systematic harassment and intimidation to further complicate matters.
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS or CSRS, is quite often the best option for the Federal or Postal employee suffering from a medical condition. Like the character in the Hedgehog, the fear of retaliation for revelation of a “secret” which others believe to be disruptive to the social order, forces one to conceal that which proves to be the essence of humanity — that vulnerability is the true test of who we are.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tagged: adverse action for sick leave "misconduct", applying for federal disability, civil service disability retirement, discrimination against disabled federal workers and eeoc, does it make sense to hide your disability from uncle sam?, federal disability lawyer, fighting isolation feelings during the fers disability retirement process, hiding a disability at work may only work for a while, hiding a medical condition in the federal government workplace, how come when a federal worker gets incapacitated there is an environment of fear and suspicion?, is there any advantage in hiding your medical condition while working for the postal service?, it's good to laugh but not to pretend to be happy if you have a medical condition, legal representation for injured federal workers, living a life of inauthenticity in modern times for ego reason and for survival in the federal workplace, no reason to hide medical conditions while working for a federal or government agency, owcp disability retirement, pretending that your medical condition won't affect your job performance, retaliation against the injured ill federal employee worker, social isolation and fers disability retirement, stress and isolation before filing for opm disability retirement, suspicions of magnified proportions against our disabled federal employees, the fact is that many agencies will retaliate against the disable workers, the happy face of health in the postal service will only work for a while -- we can’t hide our disabilities for ever, the most complete blog on federal disability retirement, the often compelling need to hide a medical disability out of fear of discrimination, the postal service and the supervisor's use of awol to retaliate against injured employees, the reason why some federal employees will pretend to be totally healthy is for fear that their medical conditions will prevent them from continuing employment, the underlying motivation of an agency's adverse actions against the disabled employee, the way the owcp operates: suspicion of fraud always assumed, those federal employees who try to hide their pain and suffering with an "everything is fine" mask will only succeed for a while, when the application is viewed with suspicion, when the postal worker cannot longer pretend everything is fine with him, why disabled federal employees often feel isolated, why some federal employees hide their disabilities at work, why some federal workers feel compelled to hide their medical conditions for career advancement, why some fellow federal workers look with suspicion other workers with disabilities | Leave a comment »