Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Disability Retirement: Leaving Chunks Out

Sometimes, if done carefully, the abbreviated story “works” better — if the punch line makes sense despite leaving the chunks out.

For many years, I had been under the impression that I had read the full text of a major novel of stupendous length (you can guess which one it is — yes, of the Russian sort).  I later realized that it was an “abridged” version.  When I then read the unabridged version, my conclusions were: the editors of the abridged edition did a better job; the chunks left out did not add to the story, and should likely have been edited out to begin with, leaving a shorter abridged edition without identifying it as an abridged edition.  And finally: The Russian author was clearly too impressed with his own verbosity.

“Leaving chunks out” is often done in other contexts, as well — as in, responding to a spouse’s question, “What took you so long to come home?” — you leave out the fact that you had stopped off at a local bar and sat and drank for a couple hours.  Of course, the next obvious question in that context is: “How come you smell of alcohol”?

Leaving chunks out when the motive and intent is underlined by a nefarious paradigm is where the problem resides.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management does this all of the time in their denial letters:  They extrapolate only the selective portions of the medical record which will support a denial; they will ignore “the law” and the application of the law; they will make statements which “imply” certain consequences, and multiple other actions (or inactions) which leave chunks of information out.

Contact an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and make sure and force OPM to do what they are supposed to do: Of being an objective and uninterested party in the determination of your Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

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.

Federal Disability Retirement Claims: Between Commas, Clauses and Quotations

Between the grammatical constructs appear the sentence which contains the meaning intended.  Many see such normative standards as necessary for the orderly creation of cogent writing; others, as constraining devices which are unnecessary and debilitating to the creative process of unfettered communication.

Do we even teach “grammar” anymore, especially given the technological tools and software devices of corrective enhancements, beginning with ‘spell check’?

Commas prevent run-on sentences; clauses constrain the wandering tangent; quotations indicate the dialogue, a title or magnification of a singular word, etc.  Our thought processes are better organized within the confines of social constructs, and when we have a commonality of grammatical rules, it constrains the anarchy which language is susceptible to befalling.

Society in large requires that similar constraint — by laws and regulations which constrain arbitrary authoritarianism.

Think about it — for Federal and Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that a Federal or Postal employee needs to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits: Would you want the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to be able to act unfettered and unconstrained?

Or, are we relieved that there exists Federal Disability Retirement laws and case-law precedents which constrain the arbitrariness of the bureaucratic process?  For, between commas, clauses and quotations exist the constraints of thought, just as laws direct and constrain a governmental entity like OPM.

Contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and make sure that the commas, clauses and quotations are applied in their proper context, as well as the laws which govern Federal Disability Retirement benefits from OPM.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: Getting Started

That is often the crucial question, is it not?  How does one get started?

In other areas of our lives, we know the procedures: In starting a car, we get in, put a foot on the break pedal, then either turn the key or (as in the more recent, technologically advanced vehicles) push a button; then, put on our seatbelt (unless that was done first), release the brake and push down on the accelerator.  Or, in the ordered scheduling at work: Review calendar; complete any leftover tasks from the previous day; return phone calls, etc.

The very concept of “getting started” presumes a certain set of knowledge which enables and empowers one to initiate the actions required.  But how do you even contemplate “getting started” when the “it” is completely foreign, alien, and unknown?

Federal Disability Retirement is one such animal; and in getting started, the best way is to follow the age-old adage of a Chinese proverb: The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step — and that step should be to consult with an Federal Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law.

Contact an OPM Medical Retirement Lawyer who has the knowledge to begin the process of Federal Disability Retirement, as the initiating “first step” in getting started.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The Steps Themselves

When you hear a scream, witness an assault, observe the smoke or visually ascertain the flames spewing from the upper floor of a building, do you respond by trying to scale the face of the building?  Or, is the more effective — and intelligent — approach in the rescue attempt, to call the fire department, get a ladder, ascend the fire escape, locate the stairwell, etc.?

The steps themselves are in important component of a building’s structure; for, they were built and installed as part of the architectural formulation with a specific purpose in mind — so that people can come and go, enter and exit, use for regular, exigent and emergency reasons, etc.

Similarly, when an administrative process is engaged in, should one simply go “full hog” and begin attacking the paperwork, filling out furiously the forms which need completion, and not worry about the “steps” which should be taken?

In the administrative process entitled, “Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits”, there exists a coherent, logical, systematic procedure which will heighten and enhance the chances of an approval from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  In order to access those steps themselves, contact an OPM Disability Retirement Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and use them to effectively file a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement from the OPM: Coordination and Focus

Two elements which are required for many activities engaged in: Coordination and focus — although, often, because we do it without deliberative intent, we barely even recognize the importance of their interplay in daily activities.  Walking; running; working on a project; sitting down; remaining on the computer either generating or reading documents; cooking breakfast, lunch or dinner; taking a dog out for a walk.

Muscular hand-eye coordination; the ability to focus, be attentive, have the sustained mental acuity and judgment in making micro-decisions in a consistent manner (i.e., where to put your foot as you take your next step; does X come after Y?; do I pick up the frying pan with my left hand or right?).  It is only when you have lost your dexterity in muscular coordination, or lack the focus and concentration because of a cognitive difficulty — then, all of a sudden, the combination of focus and coordination reveal their prominence in daily life.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS becomes a necessity, the loss of coordination and focus becomes impactful when preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.

Consult with an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of coordinating the multi-factorial elements of an effective Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application, including preparing the Applicant’s Statement of Disability, advancing the relevant legal arguments, compiling the necessary medical documentation, etc.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement: What to Do

It can be a statement or a question; in either event, it is inextricably entangled with a concept of inquiry — of next steps; of solutions; of advice and guidance.  For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, or who have felt the impact of an injury or some traumatic medical event, the question of “what to do” is a natural next step.

Have accommodations been requested?  Is reassignment possible?  Can you continue to perform your job at a satisfactory level?  Or, has the medical condition or injury impacted you such that you should consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, and perhaps seek another kind of work in the private sector — or even in local or state government?

Contact an OPM Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider the next steps in the natural questions of what to do.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement for FERS Employees: Presumption of Orderliness

It is a peculiar presumption; for, in most other contexts, we presume the very opposite.  Yet, for whatever psychological basis of need or desire, we presume that there is orderliness in the lives of everyone else despite the chaos in our own lives.

We hide well for appearance sake, and perhaps that is the key: Everyone else seems to live an orderly, planned, well-managed life, and so the appearance itself is what maintains the sanity of society’s apparent orderliness.  Yet, when we hear about the chaos erupting in another’s person life — of a break-up between couples; of a life ruined for this or that incident; or even of a sudden medical condition that traumatizes a family member — are we really surprised?

In public we maintain a passive face; despite internal turmoil and private lives of hellish circumstances, we do our best to put forth a calm demeanor.  That is the unspoken rule, is it not?  Once out the door, the “deal” is that we leave the chaos behind and act “as if”.  To that extent, we are all great actors on the stage of public discourse; we just don’t get paid like the megastars in Hollywood, but nevertheless take on the lead role of the greatest movie series ever made: Life.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition which prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the time to stop “covering up” and “acting as if” has likely come to a crisis point.  The chaos of trying to hide the medical condition and acting “as if” everything is fine has now come to a point where life and acting coalesce: You must acknowledge the reality of the medical condition and stop trying to hide it because, in the end, your health is of greater importance than the appearance of orderliness.

Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the discussion of bringing back not only a presumption of orderliness, but a reality based upon an earned annuity of financial security.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: The Routine of Life

We live mostly on automatic pilot; whether by insidious lack of awareness or some evolutionary mechanism that blocks out and limits the stimuli that bombards, so much of life is lived as a routine — without thought or even consciousness (do we equate the two or recognize the distinction?), but like the automaton working deliberatively in jerking movements of mechanized stridency, we may grumble but carry on with the routine of life.

And even when we are unaware that we do so, we are reminded of how predictable our actions have become: the garbage is emptied on certain days because the manner in which we live takes on a quantifiable aspect of regularity; the times we walk the dog; the leisure activities; and even our responses to questions posed. Is it ever possible, or even desirous, to live a life without routine? But then, wouldn’t an unpredictable life become a predictable one precisely because the routine of life becomes one of unpredictable predictability? Or is it the other way around — of predictable unpredictability?

Yet, those who moan and groan about the routine of life — its inherent monotony; the loss of excitement in failing to engage in the arbitrariness of the path less traveled (doesn’t that poetic description itself become predictable in the course of everyday conversations?); the comfort we find in the very commonplace “sameness” of daily living — we miss it only when we lose it.  It is like two old people who have shared a lifetime together, but for some ungodly reason decide to divorce, thinking that excitement and fulfillment are achieved by destroying the routine of life; and only afterwards do we appreciate the monotony of that routine.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the Routine of Life is that which one wants to regain.  For, it is the interruptive medical condition that destroys the comfort of such a routine.

Preparing an effective OPM Disability Retirement application is the pathway towards attaining some semblance of the Routine of Life, and of getting back some semblance of monotony which we all complain about but unknowingly desire.  Consult with an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of re-ordering the chaos that has beset a life of medical issues, and begin to work towards reaffirming the Routine of Life which we all crave and desire, once lost but want to regain, and constantly yearn for the one thing that we all complain about.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement Benefits: Out of Love

There can be a duality of meanings, of course — of doing X “out of love” or “being” out of love.  The two are opposites, or of conceptual antonyms.  What does it mean to act “out of love” — in the first sense of the phrase?  Does being compensated for doing something necessarily and immediately cancel any notion that one is doing it with the pure motive “out of love”?

Take the following hypothetical: A man foregoes a career and all advancement opportunities to take care of his sick uncle.  He does this without complaining, always with tenderness and care.  The neighbors are full of empathetic praise, saying things like, “Oh, what a wonderful and caring young man,” and “He is so devoted to him!”

Later, in the gossip columns of life’s entreaties, there is a footnoted notation that the young man inherited a large sum of money, and that the source from which the inheritance came had a contingency of requirements: In order for the young man to receive the money, he “had to” take care of his uncle and never complain about it. Do such revelations extinguish the previous praise showered?

And of the “other” conceptual bundle: How does one fall “out of love” — as if love is something we mistakenly fall into, to begin with, like a cavernous hole in the middle of our paths that we accidentally stumble into and, still later in the relationship, we similarly “fall out of” in the same manner?  Do conceptual confusions as applied to individuals have any meaning when universalized?

For instance, can a greater society do things “out of love” for its citizenry, and retract them just as quickly because it has later fallen “out of love”?  Politics aside, the wide pendulum of policymakers tinkering with an employee’s benefits can make a difference for the individuals impacted.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that it becomes necessary to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether “out of love” in the first sense, or from the perspective of the Federal Agency or the Postal Service who once thought of the Disability Retirement applicant as the paragon of the great worker but has now fallen “out of love” in the second sense — the necessity of filing for FERS Disability Retirement is a reality that must be faced.

We all have to contend with misapprehensions of motives and intentions; of gossip and people talking about the personal affairs of others whom they barely know. Supervisors, coworkers, and all of those who make judgments in an offhanded way — that is not what should be the primary concern of the Federal or Postal employee who files for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

Instead, whatever the motivation — of a system which allows for an early medical retirement “out of love” or of a Federal Agency or Postal Service which has fallen “out of love” with an employee — the primary focus should be upon one’s own health, and to take care of one’s self “out of love”.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Future looking

Young men and women should always be looking to the future.  It is the past which haunts and makes one stuck, unable to move forward; of memories and past hauntings that paralyze with fear and anxiety; and yet, so many of youth in modernity are stuck in the mudslides of the past that they know not the brightness of a future yet unachieved.

Do we reflect too much upon the past?  Are past hurts and slights — or worse yet, of abusive homes and horrors implicated by memories that will not go away — what freezes a person from moving beyond?

The general maxim for life should be: When young, look to the future; of middle-age, to reflect somewhat for lessons to be learned; and it is only for the old and decrepit in corners where rocking chairs rhythmically sound the memories of to and fro when reflections upon a past life should be embraced.  Future-looking is what is meant for the young and hopeful; past-looking, for the wrinkles of age and timeless eternity.

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, anymore, the future is not in lamenting about one’s past accomplishments, but in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, so that one may attend to one’s health and begin to move forward, to become once again future-looking — beyond one’s medical conditions and beyond one’s Federal or Postal career.

That must all begin by securing a FERS Disability Retirement so that one can move beyond the paralysis of the present and step into the future-looking state beyond.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Federal Disability Attorney