Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: Life’s Satire

There is a subtle distinction between satire and comedy; as the latter is intended directly to evoke laughter, in whatever manner possible (though, of course, there are comedies which provoke guffaws of loud, unconstrained and boisterous mirth, as opposed to the delicious chuckle, and a spectrum of multiple layers in between), the former can be dead serious, in leveling commentaries and sharp criticism upon political or social misfortunes.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who have contended with the bureaucracy of their own agency, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management can be more akin to a satire, than a comedic episode of a tumultuous interlude.  Medical conditions are no laughing matter; but the process of coming to the realization that one’s own agency or the U.S. Postal Service will not do anything to accommodate one’s medical condition, despite a history of years and decades of dedicated service, is but a satire of sorts.

Then, the administrative headaches inherent in filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether one is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is like a running commentary upon the satirical process which began when first we became a Federal or Postal worker.

Viewing a satire while seated as an observing audience, can be a pleasant experience. Identifying one’s self as one of the actors in the play, is what is most disturbing. But when the Federal or Postal employee who is filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, becomes both the spectator as well as the player, the scene itself takes on aspects of another turn: for, as dreams allow for the dreamer to sometimes recognize that one is dreaming, so the elevation of a dream into a nightmare can be identified as short-lived and merely to be endured until one is awakened from the slumber of a tragedy, yet unfolding, still to be determined as to the outcome of the satire of life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: Of Monsters and Magicians

Childhood is characterized both by fraughts and fantasies; of imagined universes filled with the realities of the unknown, tempered by admonishments balanced by a world of adults who reassure, mixed with warnings and counsel of what could be. This is a complex, complicated world; to maneuver throughout it all is to first survive successfully the caricature as depicted in one’s imagination, and to match that against the objective world replete with dangers beyond mere bumps in the night.

Monsters are creations of fictive activities, and the child is told they are make-believe; yet, at the same time and almost in the same breath, warnings ensue about the world of bad people who may offer candy and toys to lure the unwary; and of magicians, what can we say? With computer-generated imagery complete with trolls and tyrannosauruses, where cuts evoke merely a wince and levitation occurs by mere whim of fancy, can the mermaid with golden braids be far behind?

To “grow up” is to leave behind both monsters and mermaids; but what we are often left untold, is that while the linguistic designations may change, the reality of the harshness of the world beyond the mountains filled with trolls and ogres, still remains filled with adversity, evil, harm and harrowing harbingers of hopeless encounters.

Medical conditions are real. Whether spoken of as monsters within, it may provide for a more simplistic paradigm of understanding, but is just as effective as viruses, virulent infections and bacteriological encounters.  Or of trolls and ogres?  Do we not know of Supervisors and Managers who put on masks of societal acceptance when others are around, but show their fangs and claws of flea-bitten gnarls when alone with you?

Federal and Postal workers who must confront a medical condition, where the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, encounter by necessity of circumstances a world once left behind in childhood dreams; but the reality of the situation, however designated and whichever way described, often reveals a universe of unreal reality just as trolls and mermaids are; but it is still a battle which must be fought, fraught with monsters and millipedes of myriapodous anthropods crawling in the night.

Federal Disability Retirement benefits, filed through one’s own agency but ultimately with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is an avenue revealed through necessity, of reaching a plateau of existence in order to rehabilitate one’s self from the world of adversity. The benefit is available for Federal and Postal workers who have the minimum time in-service requirements within the Federal Sector.  It is a benefit which must be fought for, proven, and protected, just as Sir Galahad did as the brave son of Lancelot.

Whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS-Offset, the world of medical conditions and debilitating diagnoses can only be successfully countered by securing a semblance of a present need, as well as a future hope for continuation in order to rehabilitate the devastating effects of the medical condition.  It is similar to the battle in childhood, only more real than the reality of monsters and magicians.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire