Fridays constitute the day of victory for the Federal or Postal worker (unless, of course, the Postal Worker is scheduled for Saturday, or the Federal Worker is taking his or her work home) who is struggling to survive another week.
It is the end of the work cycle, and the beginning of the recuperative cycle in order to muster, gather and preserve enough energy over the coming weekend, in order to begin anew another week of the work cycle. It is the “Friday Syndrome” — suffered by thousands of Federal and Postal employees who have a medical condition which prevents them from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, but because of family obligations, financial considerations and a sheer sense of self-worth, the enduring struggle of the human narrative to continue to work perseveres.
Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS or CSRS — sometimes identified as “OPM Medical Retirement”, “Federal Disability Retirement”, or “Federal Medical Retirement” — is a benefit which constitutes one leg of the entirety of the compensation package for every Federal or Postal worker who is suffering from a medical condition which has, or will, last for at least 12 months, and impacts one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job.
It is there precisely to attend to the growing problem of the Friday Syndrome — of the enduring pain and debilitating nature of the medical condition; the sick leave restrictions which have been placed on the Federal or Postal employee; the potential for being placed on a PIP; the threat of termination; the suspicion that the Supervisor and co-workers are whispering conspiratorially behind your back; the constant nit-picking of everything that the Federal or Postal worker is doing; the stresses of work and workplace harassment with little or no empathy for the struggle to maintain a life and to endure through the exacerbating medical conditions — these are the characteristics of the Friday Syndrome.
It may be time to consider tapping into the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement, in order to put a stop to the Friday Syndrome.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: attorney representing federal workers for disability throughout the united states, federal disability retirement is a life-impacting issue, federal employment: differently abled people viewing weekends differently, FERS disability retirement, friday's night reflection over opm disability issues, getting better during the weekend and owcp disability, legal services for federal and postal workers all across america, life and health for federal workers with severe illnesses, medical condition must last one year, medical condition(s), OPM disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, postal worker's struggle to maintain a life with disabilities, recuperating from a federal on-the-job injury, recuperating your injured body from postal work, the disabled federal worker and the weekend, the federal worker and recuperating from a permanent injury, The Friday syndrome, the light-duty postal employee and his life outside the usps, the medical condition in fers disability retirement, the the threat of termination with an illness during federal disablity retirement, using excessive sick leave while in federal employment, USPS disability retirement, when an illness gets serious enough in the life of a federal worker, working a federal job with a disability and getting better during the weekend | Leave a comment »