OPM Disability Retirement: The Walking Anomaly

The identity of a person is represented by a composite of memories held, present activities engaged, and future endeavors planned, thus bringing into a complex presence the times of past, present and anticipated future.  It is because of this walking anomaly — of not just an entity living in the present, but of someone who possesses the retentive capacity of memories past, and plans made and being generated for future actions — that the complexity of the human condition can never be fully grasped.

For the individual, therefore, who begins to suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition or disability interferes with the delicate balance of the tripartite composite, the fear of destruction of present circumstances, and diminished ability for future progress, is what complicates matters, in addition to the capacity to remember how things were, which only exacerbates one’s anxiety and angst, in addition to the medical condition itself. It is like being caught eternally in the middle of a three-day weekend: one is saddened by the day already passed; one anticipates an additional day, but the knowledge of the diminishing present makes for realization that the future is merely a bending willow in the winds of change, inevitably able to be swept aside.

For the Federal employee or the Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, it is that recognition of past performances and accolades, of accomplishments and successes, combined with present potentialities yet unfulfilled, which makes for a tragedy of intersecting circumstances.  Filing for Federal Disability benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the Postal worker is under FERS or CSRS, should not, however, diminish the hope for the future.

Federal Disability Retirement benefits allows for the impacted Federal or Postal worker to receive an annuity, and continue to remain productive and plan for the future. It is the solution for many Federal employees and Postal workers who are too young to retire, and have invested too much to simply “walk away” with nothing to show for the time of Federal service already measured.

In the end, Federal Disability Retirement may not be the best option, but the only viable option available, and for the walking anomaly known as man, OPM Disability benefits may be the methodology to complete that unfulfilled potentiality yet to be achieved.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Early Medical Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: Joy of the Mundane, Though We Knew It Not

The very concepts of “joy” and “mundane”, placed within the same breath, the same sentence, creates what is tantamount to an anomaly, a self-contradiction, an oxymoron, or at the very least a questionable positing of an invalid proposition.

For we tend to consider joy in terms of momentary elation, an extended period of satisfaction, or a sense of quietude wrapped in layers of giggling quivers.  Conversely, the mundane evokes boredom, monotony, a time devoid of elevated emotional responses; a time of negation, where the chasm between desire and duty floats apart from one another like drifting icebergs in the cold North Atlantic seas.

Until a medical condition intervenes.  Until the chronicity of a progressively deteriorating and debilitating disease or injury eats away at our body, mind and/or soul.

In a crisis, the monotony of the mundane becomes preferable; and in a protracted life of chronic ailments, that momentary period of quietude when life was merely the ordinary and the boredom of everyday existence prevailed upon a life questioned as to value, purpose, character and the eternal “why?”; it is then that one comes to realize the ultimate Zen character of enlightenment, and recognizes the living distinction between joy and the mundane.

For the Federal and Postal worker who suffers daily, Federal Disability Retirement is a viable alternative to the daily divide which has grown disproportionately magnified, between joy and the mundane.

Federal Disability Retirement benefits are part of one’s bundle of employment benefits.  It is a benefit filed through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, for those under either FERS or CSRS, and allows for early medical retirement, while tending to one’s health conditions.

We all once knew the joy of the mundane; but such knowledge quickly gets erased when a medical condition creates a crisis.  Federal Disability Retirement allows the Federal and Postal employee to relive that joy — of the mundane, the monotonous, of the everyday existence of the ordinary which we all seek and desire.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Disability Retirement for Federal Workers: The Will to Proceed

Human will is a peculiar element of the entirety one’s being; it is influenced by desire, often forced by the intellect, and goaded and persuaded by one’s perspective of the world.  How one perceives one’s condition; how the world is perceived; how the treatment of one by those around us — can all play a significant role in the will to proceed, how to proceed, when to proceed, etc.  

In preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS, it is often the clash of influences upon the human will which determines the course of action which the Federal or Postal employee may decide to take.  

Thus, the accurate and proper perception of one’s medical conditions, based upon information gathered from the medical community; the ability to prognosticate the present impact, and future potential limitations, of that information concerning one’s medical condition, upon one’s ability to continue to perform all of the essential elements of one’s job in the Federal sector, or with the U.S. Postal Service; and further, the perception, whether real, skewed or imagined, of the Agency, including one’s supervisor and coworkers, in determining the value, contribution, and capability to perform and accomplish the goals of the department or agency; all of these combined provide the foundation to determine the will to proceed, in what direction, and whether the will — often at a point of fatigue from the constant fight against the medical condition, depleted in energy and diminished in power — should be forced in order to continue to perform in a job clearly impacted by one’s medical conditions, or to will to proceed to prepare, formulate, and file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS.  Yes, it is merely a matter of “willing” — but willing to do what?

Proper perception, based upon good advice and counsel, will determine the will to proceed, in what direction, for what cause, and for what purpose.  It may be time to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS, and to continue to expend one’s reserve of energy is a price which may not be worth taking, at the expense of one’s health.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire