FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement for Federal and USPS Workers: The Old Barn

It sits like an eyesore and can be seen from the main road; dilapidated to some, while bringing warm remembrances of bygone days from real or imagined childhoods.  The edges of the roof have curled upwards, revealing rotting slats and welcoming sunlight, rain and birds to nest where previously it provided shelter for domesticated animals and field mice who took refuge on cold winter nights.

It needs refurbishing.

Strangers who pass by daily on their commute to important jobs, who carry impressive leather briefcases and wear finely knit suits adorned with cufflinks and driving in vehicles which speak in crisp, electronic voices of modernity and technology betraying the rural setting of that aggregate of rotting lumber, sometimes dreamily suggest that perhaps purchasing that tract of land and putting money into fixing up that old barn would be worthwhile.  But such thoughts are fleeting and become quickly overwhelmed by the busyness of the day.

But old barns reflect a metaphor for people who, like the deteriorating structure, need a pause in the middle of the day to consider specialized attention.  And people with medical conditions, especially, require that segregated time and peace.

For Federal and Postal Workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition impacts one from being able to fully perform all of the essential elements of one’s job, the feeling that one has merely become an old and dilapidated barn becomes a daily sensation.  Perhaps it is just a new coat of paint, or a more expensive tin roof.  Whatever the needs, people barely give a second glance, except perhaps in moments of guilt-filled but short-lived days.  The old barn always stands alone.  For the Federal or Postal Worker, waiting on others to “refurbish” the old barn is to procrastinate the inevitable.

One must take charge of one’s own destiny.

Filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits, whether under FERS or CSRS, is often the only and pragmatically viable option for the Federal and Postal Worker.  Like the old barn that sits out in the harsh sun surrounded by imposing structures of modern life, that lonely feeling of being isolated will only grow more poignantly with time, until one day the developers come to tear down the old structure, leaving only a memory of bygone days.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement for Federal and USPS Workers: The Body

It is a mechanically extraordinary creation, whether by means of transcendental creation or evolutionary process — the bipedaling human body. The ability and capacity of balance and coordination; the acuity of the human mind and its quickness in information processing; the amazing functionality of dexterous hands and adaptability to quickly changing environments.

It is perhaps because of the success of that which is given, that we take for granted what we possess, and in the very taking for granted of something, allowing for the abuse of that which we never earned, has been one of the greatest calamities for human beings.  To test the extent of endurance, strength and limitation of capacity is one thing; to abuse beyond what a thing was meant for, is quite another.

For the Federal and Postal employee who is suffering from a medical condition, where the medical condition has arrived at a crisis point of deterioration, incapacity and intractability, it is time to consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether one is under FERS or CSRS, precisely because one does not wish to cross the line into “abuse” of one’s body.

It is all well and good to come to the point of testing the extent of one’s human capacity; but once the limit is met, the need for restorative recuperation must be embraced.

Federal and Postal workers have a reputation for hard work and endurance, including patience beyond being a virtue; but there is another component beyond the human body which one is gifted with — that of one’s brain.  It is a functional component which should be used in consonance with the body, but it requires thoughtful quiescence.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

CSRS & FERS Medical Disability Retirement: Negation within an Insular Universe

Real ghosts exist in the minds of those who remember.  It is the negation within a man’s mind; the presence of someone or some entity which is retained in memory, which is negated in the objective, physical world, but whose image continues to haunt us precisely because of the ability to remember, which allows us to perceive ghosts in a universe which otherwise fails to recognize them.

When the last Civil War veteran died, the ghosts of that event disappeared.  When the final WWII veteran departs in peace, the screams at Normandy will have quieted.  For the rest of us in the physical universe, it is only the momentary manifestation through a tear drop making its way down the subtle canals of aging creases on a person’s face, which allows for us to make contact within that insular world of memories.

For the Federal or Postal Worker who suffers from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents him or her from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, it is often a hidden pain deliberately concealed; or a psychiatric condition which manifests itself in emotional immobility; but it is merely through performance and other indicia by which we gauge whether something is amiss or not.

Whether one’s coworkers or supervisors believe in the ghosts haunting the Federal or Postal Worker is besides the point; taking care of one’s medical condition is and should be foremost, and filing for FERS Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is a step which often must be taken in order to pursue a rehabilitative path for one’s future.

The negation which one experiences — of that which no longer is — because of one’s medical condition, is real enough; concealing it will only further harm and haunt, and preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is often the first positive step in expunging the ghosts which haunt one’s life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Disability Retirement for Federal Workers: The Dripping Sensation

The slow, methodical tap-tap-tap of a dripping faucet; what does it portend?  Metaphors abound, and one wonders whether this new generation, attuned only to a digital age of technological quietude, as opposed to the churning smokestacks of the industrial age, can even comprehend the commonplace analogies which were once taken for granted within the community — such mundane descriptions as, “The marching of time” — for, without the mechanical ticking of the clock or watch, can one understand what one has never experienced?  But it is the dripping faucet which still remains with us — of an indicator that there is a crack, an invisible hairline imperfection, a weakening over time, and one which we all know can only progressively get worse.

It is a preface, a predication, an object-to-the-subject; it tells us that we must attend to it.

Like time and the inevitable progression of age, wrinkles, sagging eyes and the dying spirit, the sound of a dripping faucet reveals to us that the simplicity of a warning sign portends of an underlying complication which, once dismantled, may manifest the ill-winds of the future. It is like a medical condition; perhaps it began as a mere nagging sensation, one which could be ignored, or at least mentally set aside.  But then, one day the nagging sensation became just “slightly more”, and from then on it stayed with us, like a whipping dog whose loyalty cannot be shaken.

The dripping sensation — for Federal and Postal employees, it may be the first chapter in the lengthy novel which must ultimately embrace the theme of Federal Disability Retirement — an option which is viable only  because, fortunately, it is available; and in the end, that nagging sensation almost always needs tending to; and for the Federal or Postal employee who has that option of considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, while the faucet in one’s house may require the services of a plumber, at least the alternative to attain a level of recuperative periods of relief from one’s medical condition can be attained through an approval of a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

CSRS & FERS Medical Disability Retirement: The Consequence of Complexity

The level of complexity of an issue often has a direct relationship to the consequences involving initiation, action, quality of work and completion of task.  Many have a general rule concerning work, where the most complex of cases will be “taken on” first thing in the morning, when one’s energy is at its peak and a good night’s sleep has resulted in clarity of mind and acuity of concentration; more often than not, however, the greater the level of complexity, the more likely that procrastination and delay will dictate the timing of the task.

The consequences of delay, especially in a Federal Disability Retirement application, whether under FERS or CSRS, is that the problems which are at the core of the medical issue begin to slowly and progressively, exponentially expand, with reverberating ripples of irreparable impact — at work, in one’s personal life, with family relationships, etc.

In preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, one of the first things which many Federal and Postal Workers recognize about the entire administrative process, is the complexity of the procedural and substantive laws governing Federal Disability Retirement issues.  It is not merely a matter of “filling out the forms“; how one says things matters; what one includes in a Federal Disability Retirement case may determine the outcome of the application; when one acts upon certain specific issues may have serious consequences, etc.  But complexity alone should not be the determinative factor as to procrastination or an unwillingness to move forward on the process.

Delay merely exacerbates a condition, and temporarily sets aside for a day the inevitable roar of a consequence which must be revisited the next day, or the day after.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire