Perhaps, no one will notice. Or, more likely, there will be a continuum of embarrassing moments, where everyone will merely look the other way and act as if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. Truth be told, the loss of social cues has, over time, become palpable; beyond noticeable; more than a sidebar; it is now at a crisis point where normalcy has given way to eccentricity of behavior.
Look at all of the kids entering the school building; surrounded by others, yet lost with heads bent down to take a last look at their smartphones. Watch as school ends, and what are they all doing — exiting and at the first inkling, the initial inclination? Out with the smartphones. Screens are merely paginated snapshots of information; they do not present the human complexities of expressions, grimaces, winces or smiles — all of the compendium of social cues which are picked up in the animal world through real encounters with others.
They are learned over time; imperceptibly; of recognizing tension in the air, of silence so heavy that it feels stuffy.
How do we learn to pick up social cues? By engaging with other human beings, caring about them, showing some interest and empathy. Instead, we choose to stare at screens filled with flashing lights; and though the dopamine in our bodies may accelerate and give us an addictive “high”, the loss of social cues is what disintegrates the already-weakened fabric of a clueless society.
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, have you picked up on the social cues of your supervisor or coworkers? Do they look at you as if you carry the Black Plague? Are you all of a sudden disinvited from closed-door meetings?
Having a medical condition, trying to hide it, attempting to push through despite your deteriorating health; these are all part and parcel of indicators that a change is needed, and you may want to initiate the change before your agency begins the process of separating you from Federal Service. Contact a FERS Disability lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and don’t let the social cues unrecognized lead you to a surprise proposal to remove you from Federal Service.
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.
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Federal Disability Retirement: The Ledger of Life
The Ledger was once that oversized binder which recorded the economic transactions for various purposes — of maintaining income and outlays; of keeping an accounting of various details in one’s life, whether of activities in business or even of one’s habits and patterns of existence. Somehow, it doesn’t seem the same as typing such information into a computer, or of buying a software that categorizes and makes everything neat and simple.
That old Ledger that had to be lugged from one place to another reflected the weight of seriousness just in the act of lifting it; and when you opened the front cover and turned the pages where the latest entry still emitted the scent of ink still drying, one sensed the permanency of recordation as a trait of relevance that could never be erased.
And what of the metaphor — of one’s “Ledger of Life” — a recordation of the transactions that one has engaged; of the weightiness of that placed on one side of the ledger as compared to the negative notations appearing on the opposite side; of the image of St. Peter as the gatekeeper reviewing the annotated columns to determine if you “made it” — all because “The Ledger” reflects the value of your actions during the course of a lifetime?
Do we even think in those terms, anymore? Or, while the dusty old books that used to be kept beneath the wooden grains of counters in dark and dank workshops were left behind when first the technology of modernity made for obsolescence of such anachronistic record keeping, did we then just revert to making mental notes for the things we did or did not do?
Most of us, if asked if we are “eligible” to pass through St. Peter’s exclusive club, would respond thus: “Oh, all in all, I have been a pretty good person and so, Yes, I believe I would qualify.” And so we approach most things in a similar vein: We give ourselves a “pass” and believe that the Ledger of Life would favor our eligibility status.
And so it is with Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer form a medical condition and need to file for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Because you suffer from the medical condition and believe that the medical condition cannot but be proof of eligibility, so you believe OPM cannot but see what you see. But filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a paper-presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
It is very rare that any Federal Disability Retirement application is a “slam-dunk” case, or even an “easy” one; and like the Ledger of Life that we have left behind in the dusty heaps of bookshelves long forgotten, preparing an effective FERS Disability Retirement application is not just a simple transaction to be annotated into columns of neat book keeping, but a bureaucratic process that must be proven and argued for — somewhat like the Ledger of Life that must be submitted to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
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