OPM Medical Disability Pensions: The Life We Lead

The life we lead may not be the one we chose; or, more likely, the life we “now” choose to lead — if we even have a choice.  One might argue that we always have a choice; the only real question is:  Are we willing to pay the price for the choices we make?

Often, we fall into things.  Human beings are complex creatures; the person we were years ago rarely is identical to the “now” of that individual.  Perhaps that explains the divorce rate in this country; of commitments encompassing “till death do us part” are rarely embraced, anymore.

And the choices which are out there make for compounding effects when it comes to the life we lead.  Decades ago, society imposed greater structural restrictions:  School teachers who were found to possess any tinge of moral turpitude would be dismissed and disgraced; heads of companies who divorced were summarily terminated; and those thought to hold rather unconventional opinions were shunned and often isolated.  Is this a good thing?

The perfection of a median — a point “in between” the two ends of a spectrum of excesses, or often referred to as the Aristotelian view of a good life — is often the balance to be sought.  The life we lead is, too often, solidified by the youthful indiscretions of excesses embraced in youthful vigor; whereas, in later years, regret tends to soften our extravagant early years.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who have come to a point in later life, where the Civil Service job which once required extreme energy, daily commitment and a stark challenge to even the healthiest of individuals, but now, in later life, medical conditions have reached a critical juncture where they are no longer compatible with continuation in that job — it is perhaps time to consider preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under FERS.

Contact a FERS Medical Retirement expert, that is, a U.S.-licensed attorney who specializes in the practice area of Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider the life you lead and want to lead — now.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Law: Life Without

Some learn early on to live with the “without”; others, perhaps those few who were born with that metaphorical “silver spoon” in one’s mouth, never learn the lesson; and whether living life without “things”, or loving parents, or a dog, or some such other tangible or intangible whatever is a valid question.

Is it better to have possessed X, then lost it, in order to appreciate X?  Or, if you never knew of life with-X, is life without it something you never missed, anyway?  Yet, we can certainly extrapolate from watching others “with” X, and thus experience various emotions, whether of jealousies, regret, self-pity or angered arrogance.

Life without can form better character, or so they say.  Then, perhaps, life with-X and the subsequent loss of X may also form greater character.  It all often depends upon the malleability of the individual, and not whether or not a person grew up with or without.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition necessitates preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, two issues of life without will be of immediate concern: Life without the same career you once had; and more importantly, life without the health you once enjoyed.

As for the latter, that is part of the point of filing for Federal Disability Retirement — so that you can focus more of your attention upon regaining that which you once had, and which you have partially lost.  As to the former — there is actually life beyond the Federal Government or the Postal service, and you may find that the future is yet bright, and life without your Federal or Postal job is not as important as life without health.

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.

 

FERS Disability Retirement Help: A Worthy Life

Should such a question, or answer, even be entertained?  Or, should one always revert to the normative ethos — albeit, safe and uncontroversial — that by definition, any and all lives constitute a worthy life, merely because life itself is precious and therefore undeniably and incontrovertibly worthwhile?

Yet, surely we engage in such debates, if not directly, then circuitously and sometimes by engaging in linguistic euphemisms which betray our most sacred belief systems.

Are proponents of the death penalty those who have answered the question, already?  For, have you not made a judgment of “unworthiness” if you believe that the death penalty is an acceptable penalty?  Or, of a lesser offense — say, a homeless person who begs for food; should they all be shuttered in some part of the world where we don’t have to deal with them?

How do we define “worth”?  Is it by economic success, or are there other factors which determine fulfillment of a definition rarely complete and barely understood?

Is “worth” tantamount to “indispensable”?  If that is the standard, then none of us would qualify; for, looking back into the history of mankind, is there anyone from yesterday whom we consider indispensable today?  They are all deep in the ground where moss, grass and ivy have overgrown the cemeteries where once the worth was thought to be indispensable, but now are merely forgotten remnants of unrepentant memories.  Here is a thought: At a minimum, a worthy life is when a person provides a mangy dog a life of comfort and happiness.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal Service 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 question of a worthy life often begins to creep in, where the Federal agency or Postal facility is doing everything to question your worth with the Federal Agency or the Postal Service.

Don’t buy into that line of thinking.

You know your own worth; don’t begin to doubt it.  Instead, contact a disability lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and thus begin the process of ascertaining the unquestionable worthiness of a life which has many miles to go, if merely to have the opportunity to give a mangy dog a life of comfort and joy.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Application: Worth in Our Day

Worth has become a meaningless concept; inflation, the valueless dollar, the expansion from millionaire to billionaire, and now to the next level — the first “trillionaire” — who will it be?

There was a time not long ago when aspiring to make or save a million dollars was within sight; that, once achieved, it was a level of monetary achievement which would allow for a fairly comfortable living.  These days, purchasing a home in a relatively middle class neighborhood ranges in the $600,000 – $700,000 range and beyond, rendering a million dollars to be viewed as somewhat of a pittance.

And what of human worth?  As money becomes meaningless because the decimal point continues to move to the right, leaving unfathomable zeros multiplying to the left, do we treat workers with any greater dignity, with any greater value in parallel conjunction with the exponential multiplication of those zeros?  Doubtful.

At least, however, the Federal Government does recognize that a person who is disabled from performing his or job elements should be eligible and entitled to disability retirement benefits.  To that extent, worth in our day has improved from the middle ages where the disabled were merely discarded as beggars on the streets of London and Paris, as well as in middle America.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and consider the option of going out early with a Federal Disability Retirement benefit.

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.

 

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Disability Retirement Benefits: Preservation

The pendulum of history swings between the two concepts — the other being one of replacement, embracing that which is new and discarding the old.

Preservation involves the decision and act of keeping and maintaining the old.  Most of what is old are replaced and discarded; for, that which is old is often in a state of disrepair, dilapidated and not worthy of upkeep or preservation.

Sentimentality, of course, is often involved — of keeping something merely because it has remained with us for quite a bit of time, or refusing to let go of a past even when that past embraced ugliness and embarrassing antiquities of outdated conceptual constructs.

Preservation can, too, involve human beings — of wanting to safeguard relationships, mementoes, memories, etc., and even careers.  Can a career be “preserved”?  How about employee benefits?

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 all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, preservation of one’s rights, benefits and future security is a crucial necessity going forward with one’s life involving the debilitating medical condition incurred and suffered.

Contact a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer who specializes in OPM Disability Law and consider the benefit of preserving the salvageable benefits you have worked so hard for, and deserve to preserve.

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.

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: The Plan for Tomorrow

It is often the single most important remedy for a sense of hopelessness; for, with it, one is armed with a map, a guide, a sense of direction.  Perhaps there is not one for the day after, or a year hence, and maybe not even for the next hour; but the plan for tomorrow is what motivates us, gives us a perspective and a context, and a measure of whether there is hope for the future.

It can be something insignificant as viewed by others, and perhaps even irrelevant by most; of doing X or going to Y; perhaps, of accomplishing something relatively unimportant or visiting someone or someplace; yet, without it, life becomes an empty void, a chasm of meaninglessness and a hole in one’s heart measured not by surface diameter but by the depth of an unreachable goal.

The plan for tomorrow takes care of the anxiety of today; it paints over the marred wall and the unvarnished surface; and it provides a glimmer of light in an otherwise darkened and terror-filled universe.

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 all of the essential elements of one’s Federal job, the plan for tomorrow is to remain healthy, stay upon the road towards recuperation and limit the stresses of the day.

It should likely include consulting with an OPM Retirement Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law.  Now, that is the true plan for tomorrow — to get the advice of an attorney who will prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Medical Retirement Benefits: Forever and a Day

The concept itself is a conundrum; it is to emphasize the extension beyond eternity when eternity itself cannot be extended by self-definition.  The “add-on” of the extra day provokes the idea that it goes just a little further than that which we can comprehend; and yet, we can barely, if at all, comprehend the concept of “forever” itself.

For certain ideas, can we “feel” concepts better than we can “understand” them?  That, in and of itself, of course, is a puzzling concept; for, words, ideas and concepts are posited to intellectually comprehend as opposed to applying an emotive conceptualization of it.  To “feel” that you understand a word or a concept is quite different from comprehending it intellectually.  Yet, doesn’t the idea of “pain” fit into that category?

A person who experiences a great deal of pain may not be able to understand it, and yet he or she “feels” it, and in the very existential experiencing of the phenomena, comprehends it better than the person who merely reads about it but never experiences it.  Furthermore, the person who “understands” pain has a greater comprehension of the phrase, “forever and a day” — for the two are similar in experiences; the one is a medical condition that can barely be described; the other, a concept of existence that is similar to unendurable pain.

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, the feeling that life has become “forever and a day” is a familiar one, precisely because of the unendurable stresses inherent in trying to balance work, home, the medical condition and the growing stresses of it all.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement under FERS is a step towards realizing that days do not need to become lost in weeks, weeks into months and months into years, where the pain or other medical condition, physical or psychiatric, must by necessity be an unendurable conflagration of existence.

FERS Disability Retirement is a means to an end — the end being, having the time and energy to focus upon one’s health; the means, to retire medically from a situation that has become untenable; all, in order to recognize that “forever and a day” begins with a day that can be differentiated from the “forever” that never seems to end.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Representation: The problem perspective

Does “positive thinking” actually work?  Or, is it one of those pithy approaches to life, where the “throwaway” line is used to dismiss unpleasantries and negative influences that might otherwise disprove the obvious — that life is difficult enough without listening to the difficulties of others?  Then, there is the “problem perspective” — of seeing everything as a problem as opposed to a solution or opportunity, and to see the world as a glass half-empty in contradistinction to a half-full universe.

Objectively, of course, both descriptions reflect the same objective reality; the contention is that “how” we view the world (i.e., our subjective perspective upon the world around us) influences the manner in which we approach the objective world in deliberating, solving, resolving, tackling problems, embracing situations, etc.

The “problem perspective” describes a person who sees everything from the vantage point of a problem.  It is all well and good, of course, to speak about having a “positive” frame of mind when things are going well; it is when actual, objective problems and difficulties arise in one’s life, that the “real test” of whether “positive thinking” works comes into question.

Objectively, of course, one could argue that, whether one possesses a “positive” mindset, a “negative” perspective, or a somewhat neutral approach, the outside world (that “noumenal” universe that Kant referred to) cares not a twit about what we “think” (i.e., the phenomenal universe that Kant distinguished — the one that we actually have access to) about it — for, it still exists whether we have a positive, negative or neutral perspective, anyway.

It is when the objective world impinges upon the subjective perspective with an undeniable negation of the positive — as in, a medical condition that debilitates and makes for a painful existence, whether physically or cognitively — that the test of whether a “positive” outlook works, or whether a “negative” perspective makes a difference, tests our daily lives.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the approach one takes may indeed make a difference with a real distinction.  Yes, the end of one’s Federal or Postal career may be coming; and, yet, the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service may well move to terminate you based upon your growing inability to perform one or more of the essential elements of your Federal or Postal job.

In the end, such a “problem perspective” is a very real one, and becomes a problem precisely because there is a combination of both the “objective” world (the medical condition itself) and the “subjective” one (what to do about it; the next steps to be taken; the decision to be made, etc.).

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may not only be the best “next step” to take — it may be the “only” one in the sense that all other options are undesirable: to stay and suffer; to resign and walk away without doing anything; or to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In the end, all “problem perspectives” need a positive solution, and preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application is the best and positive solution for a Federal or Postal employee needing to resolve the problem perspective where one’s medical condition no longer allows for the fulfillment of all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal position.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire