FERS Disability Retirement: The Chaos of Lives

Is it merely a skewed perspective, or are lives lived in greater chaos than in past times?

One tends to see the “present” within a vacuum of historicity; and, not possessing a particularized knowledge of historical context (other than sporadic readings here and there and reliance upon grade-school memories of important dates memorized, events dramatized, etc.), it is difficult to make comparisons within a vacuum of ignorance.

The chaos of lives is evident — of stressful jobs, violence erupting, families disintegrating, depression abounding, a sense of social isolation untold — did the pandemic reveal in exponential form, the cracks in the dam which held back the torrent of underlying malaise?

Yet, reading about previous historical times — of famines and pestilences; of world wars destroying entire countries and wreaking havoc upon continents afar; is this time any different than past epochs?

Of course, in the end, what matters is not the greater geopolitical divides and conflicts, but of individual lives; for, it is all well and good to speak in generalizations, but in the end, it is the neighbor next door to whom we owe our allegiance, and not to dustbins of historical periods.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition where the chaos of lives appears with force and individual reality through the inability to continue to perform in one’s chosen career — the “way out” of such chaos is to consider preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, under FERS.

Contact a FERS Retirement Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider the pathway out of the chaos of lives — your own.

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 Attorney Representation: Just…

We, all of us, are never “just”, as pigeonholed by nameless and countless others.  “Oh, he’s just…”.  “Oh, her?  She just….”

We fight against such restrictive categories; for, to be “just” is to be minimized, cast into perpetual irrelevancies, and forever “just” that which we just cannot be relegated to.  To just be the doorman, the janitor, the Project Manager, the Civil Engineer, the top-ranked Electrical Engineer — it is the narrowing designation of the “just” which underlines the injustice of it all.

There are, of course, exceptions — as when your son or daughter is overhead to say, “Oh, he’s just Dad” or “Nah, she’s just Mom”.  Then, of course, the “just” can bring a smile and the warmth of love; for, to be “just” a parent to one’s child is the rare time in life when reduction strips away all complications of life and reveals the straightforward, unfettered nature of a special relationship.  But in all other contexts, the “just” of reduction fails to encapsulate the greater complexities of the uniqueness of an individual.

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 position, the “just” label has likely become somewhat akin to: “He’s (or She’s) just someone who constantly fails to…”.

Such a reduction doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of who you are.

Contact a Federal Disability Attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, so that you can move on to the next productive phase of your life and leave behind those who reduce you to the “just” category.

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.

 

Postal & Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Aimless Wanderings

“Aimless”, of course, points to the lack of an aim — as in a target or a specific destination point.  “Wanderings” can refer to either a mental state or a physical experience of moving from Point A to “somewhere else”.  As a mental state, we all daydream and meander about in a thoughtless fashion; of traveling within our inner consciousness from one conceptual bubble to the next; and sometimes — or often — these thought processes are “aimless” insofar as the creative mind does not necessarily involve a strict, logical sequence of thought.

Aimless wanderings are considered, generally speaking, in a negative sense inasmuch as any action which lacks a purpose is often judged to be pointless.  However, not all aimless wanderings, whether of a physical nature or of a mental state, are intentional.  Sometimes, being lost is a phenomena where fault cannot be ascribed, and so we aimlessly wander about in an attempt to find our bearings.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition itself makes a person feel as if he or she is aimlessly wandering about concerning one’s future, career goals, etc., you may want to consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and consider the options available for your future.

Aimlessly wandering about in the morass of a bureaucratic process — that of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS — will not necessarily point you in the right direction.  Rather, get the advice of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer and have your aimless wanderings become more focused and purpose-driven; for, the future is not some fuzzy destination out in the wilderness — it is an aim just around the corner.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Other Places, Other Times

People study history for various reasons: the interest of other times, the peculiarity of other places — and yet the similarity of people no matter what the historical context.  Other places, other times, reveal to us the pattern of behaviors engaged in across time, cultures, historical contexts and prevailing dogmas which dominated a particular society, civilization or epoch of noted influence.  It gives us a perspective and, often for the good, a sense of knowledge that other places, other times are not too dissimilar from the one we are currently experiencing.

Do we repetitively make the same mistakes as generations past?  Likely.  Are we wont to repeat them in the future?  Yes.  Do we ever learn from our mistakes?  Unlikely.  Human beings, for the most part, do what they want to do, and then scramble to gather the justifying reasons for having done them.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition necessitates preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, know that in other places and at other times, Federal and Postal employees have successful fought with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and have won their Federal Disability Retirement benefits despite the unfair advantage which OPM holds over you.

Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer and know that an experienced Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer has the experience that in many other places, at multiple other times, success has been achieved in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: Loss of Continuum

How does a child know where the neatly-packaged meat displayed on a store’s shelf come from?  Or the clothes which hang on a mannequin displayed behind a plate of glass; or even of the glass itself?  And what about the old man who shuffles by with a cane and a bent back?

The child walks by and the old man staggers, and what question does the little girl ask or does the old man disappear after the two pass by — poof!  Like magic.  Yet, the old man — and the little girl — each have a life beyond the mere passing; of a childhood one has and the childhood the other will yet have; of a home, a hearth, a heart full of memories harkening from here to there, or perhaps to nowhere.

In a village of yesteryear, the continuum of each life is known because everyone shares in the life of each other as a community of interconnected lives.  In modernity, we give lip-service to “caring” and the continuum of life, but the reality is that we have no relationship with the person who stitched our clothes; nor do we know which animal from whence the meat came; or the farmer who grew the tomato in the produce section, let alone the life and problems of the person who stacked the Nestle cookies on the shelf so neatly.

The loss of continuum is how we live, and that is true of the Federal or Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition and goes into work — more often than not, none of the coworkers know the circumstances of the individual except that he or she is a “shirker” because he or she fails to “carry his own weight”, anymore.

Filing for Federal OPM Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is often a step towards regaining the continuum previously lost — at least for the individual whose career in the Federal Service is no longer appreciated in a community which has been dispersed with the loss of empathy and loss of continuum.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Lawyers Strategy: What If My OPM Disability Claim Is Denied?

Doubting can become infectious.  Once the confidence wanes, the seeds of doubt have been planted; once the seeds begin to sprout, further fears of shaken self-confidence begin to appear, and the shattering of a once-certain sense of calm begins to pervade insidiously within the soul of a questioning mind.

A denial from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in a Federal Disability Retirement case is intended to do exactly that: Doubt the strength of your case.  It may quote directly from the office notes of your medical providers, and even selectively extrapolate statements that you once thought were “supportive” of your case, and the OPM “Medical Specialist” will yet conclude: “This does not meet the eligibility standards for Federal Disability Retirement, and it is insufficient and lacks objective and subjective evidence.  Therefore, you have not proven your case.”

Perhaps you believe you have given your “best shot”, and even with that, OPM has stated in rendering its denial that you do not meet the criteria to be eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.  You have started down the pathway of “doubts”, and your confidence has been shaken.

The natural reaction?  Why even request reconsideration?

Of course, that is precisely what OPM wants you to think — that your Federal Disability Retirement case is so “weak” and unsubstantiated that you might as well give up and not pursue this, anymore.  Do NOT get trapped and deceived by the denial letter of OPM; the intent is to sow the seeds of doubt, so that a certain percentage of cases will simply give up without filing for Reconsideration of the OPM Denial Letter.

Time is of the essence in filing a Request for Reconsideration in every denial issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and while the selective extrapolation of evidence submitted is intended to sow those seeds of doubt, one must forge forward with confidence in the same manner that originally prompted the Federal or Postal employee into preparing and submitting the OPM Disability Retirement application in the first place: that one’s medical condition prevents one from continuing in the line of one’s chosen career, and thus does one become eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

It is simply a matter of proving it, and consulting with an attorney who specializes in preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS is the next step in reinstating that self-confidence and setting aside the seeds of doubt that OPM has so deviously sown.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: The chaos of life

The Biblical reality depicted in the very first verses reflects a reality more real than most would suppose, and for those who dismiss the ancient Books as merely relics of a superstitious past and thus irrelevant for modernity’s wake of technological sophistication, perhaps a redux and revisitation is in order.

Most of life is chaos; or, to put it more starkly, the chaotic lives we lead are the rule, and not the exception.  How else to account for the constant need for quietude, of a short respite by leaning back into one’s chair and inviting the soft darkness of a needed nap; a renouncing and resignation away from the constant din of noisiness; of the rush to find time, just a sliver of sanity, within the vast chaos of a feckless universe.

The soft-lined trees that lead us back into our neighborhoods; of the structured redundancy where sidewalks circle into ever-repetitions leading to nowhere; of bedrooms lined like secluded rooms within insane asylums just to get a moment’s peace from the busy-ness of life; and then the alarm clock awakens, the rush is on, into traffic mazes that pound the heart, create migraines from a calm just experienced a mere hour before, and the addiction to craziness begins anew as the dawn of hope becomes mired in the hopelessness of today’s grinding schedule.

The earth is no longer without form, or void, and yet the chaos of formlessness and void-ness remains and surrounds; and the light that we declare is the recreation we so desperately seek, only to be interrupted by the survival instincts that remind us that what we live for cannot possibly be attained, but somehow the darkness from which we escaped so long ago is a vestige of hopes yet rekindling, and if we can only make it through this day, perhaps tomorrow will bring to us a sacrifice of our better selves.

The chaos of life is real; it is with us each and every day.

And 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 reality of such chaos begins to dawn upon the need to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, lest the chaos of life become life’s chaotic life everlasting, never to be rescued from the formless void of ancients long since remaining.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: Truth and Falsity

There is much discussion about the nature of truth and falsity in our world — if, indeed, shouting and counter-shouting constitutes discourse rising to the level of a “discussion”.  Whether there is Truth with a capital “T”; or are there various versions of multiple “truths”, where my truth is just as valid as your truth, and falsity as merely the negation of yours at the sacrificial behest of mine?

There are apparently “truths”, “alternative truths” and “parallel truths”, and perhaps all of them can “get along” and vie for the vaunted position of the lofty “Truth” with the capital “T”, so long as we all don’t roll upon the carpet with laughter within our bellies demeaning the statements made by various politicians claiming a corner of their truth as opposed to the truths that we all know to be true.

The truth is, Truth can take various forms, and it is the subtle distinctions that are lost in the inane discourse of modernity where relativism, lies, inaccuracies and the capacity to conflate and confuse have made it all “bosh”.

To begin with, there is a presumption of a truthful statement — otherwise, the entire concept of a “lie” would become meaningless.  Then, of course, there are statements of truth that are contextually relevant, as in the statement, “I am staying home today with my sick child.”  If such a statement were to be declared on another day, it may be an untruthful statement.  Furthermore, personal experiences attached to statements undermine the objectivity and universality of the utterance, as in the simple declarative, “I feel good today”.

The very concept of truth and falsity is much more complex than the simple and inane discussion that has developed from the recent discourse of truths, alternative truths and what constitutes factual statements, inaccurate ones or outright lies; but suffice it to say that most people can recognize the difference between truth and falsity, just as people know the difference between day and night even if there are shades of twilight and dawn.

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 his or her Federal or Postal job, the distinction between truth and falsity is represented by the stark reality of the medical condition itself, and may often determine the course of future actions yet to be contemplated.

The truth:  The medical condition is beginning to impact my ability to perform my job duties at work.  The falsity:  If I just ignore everything, it will all just go away and I will wake up from a bad dream.  And the subtle distinctions like the dawn of light or the quietude of twilight: Federal Disability Retirement is not something that I want to choose, but it is the best option available for my situation.

Sometimes, it is not the stark choice between Truth and Falsity that matters, but the option taken must take into account the contextual reality of what is —that is, if you can even know these days what the definition of “is” is.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Employees: The jolt that alters

Second chances are hard to come by; they rarely release the powers constrained and tentatively restrained for future redemptive actions taking those steps back, words erased from regrettable and thoughtless splices of life; and even when the opportunity is provided, it is precisely for the same reason that the One who visited and descended within the historicity of this world refused to restate that which had already been taught once; for, no matter how many times it is stated, reiterated and disseminated, the power of forgetfulness and deliberate self-justification to not do something is so ingrained in the humanity of man’s imperfection that one wonders whether any jolt that alters has an impact for very long.

There is, of course, the story of Saul of Tarsus, who on that famous road had such a shock of conversion that no amount of persuasive argumentation would alter the alteration consumed, and from that time, others have attempted to tell a narrative of similar power, conversional trauma and cataclysmic vicissitude; but they all miss the point.  It is not the narrative itself as told by one’s subjective experience, but of the experiential phenomena itself.  Trying to copycat the original is like the forgery of a masterpiece; somehow, whether it is the tone, the quality or the vibrancy of lack, there is an imperceptible difference that makes all the distinction in the world.

Medical conditions often provide the jolt that alters; suddenly mortality becomes a reality, the end seems nearer than in those youthful days when invincibility was the cornerstone of dare and foolhardiness, and fractures bones were mere brushes with defying the gods of fate, and we laughed in the face of weaklings who dared not advance.  Age has a way of bottling and distributing the laughter of gods that once seemed immortal, and it is the weakness of our essence that tends to bubble upward into the heavens of forgotten mythologies.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition becomes the jolt that alters, it may well be time to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.  For, in the end, it is not so much the jolt that makes the difference, but the alteration that compels movement forward into a future that may be obscured by fear and loathing, but a necessity that nonetheless must be faced; for, the jolt that is disregarded and ignored is that very one that will force the alteration, whether by choice or by freedom of will.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Medical Retirement for Federal Government Employees: Latent dignity

There are people who, by their very carriage, command respect and deference; it is like the royal crest without intimate knowledge of lives or spoilage in whispers behind shuttered windows – it is just presumed.  Does man possess a latent dignity beyond the carrion of an eagle’s flight?  Are we, indeed, just below the angels, and above the fray of predatory delights?

Ah, but lest we forget the devastation wrought upon the concept of man, history and the inheritance of lineage, when materialism became the birthright of man and the genetic predisposition as espoused by the paradigm proffered by Darwinism became the penultimate penumbra of the image we carry forth of ourselves; and when we discarded faith in angels, affinity to the noble character of man, and association in the exclusive club of rationality as the essence of being – once these were ignored, dismissed and derided, then we refused the rightful inheritance of our rich ancestry.

Of what dignity, latent or expedient, may we claim, now?  How, and with what birth right, can we stake the soul of a mere mortal who reaches as the epitome of being nothing more than the cadaver upon which vultures feed?  Once discarded, the metaphysical lineage of man disappears, and any transcendence of being – whether of the three parts of the soul or even the road to Mecca – they have been forsaken for the eternal gluttony of human appetite.

Once, when wars were fought not for oil nor the glory of mercenary satisfaction, but words of honor and fidelity, for family, country and salvation of souls; and not of mere seedlings left for others to starve upon, but for things we once believed in, had faith of, and sought the worth of sacrifice in a universe otherwise left to others and countless ineptitude of bureaucratic morass.

There was, once upon a time, a story for mythology to fill; for giants to slay, dragons to conquer, and pathways to forge without fear of retribution.  But, somewhere along the way, something strange happened; we lost faith, left behind tradition, and allowed the foolishness of youth to prevail and rule upon the rationality of man’s heritage.  Beauty was accepted as the glamour of a television show; substance was interpreted as a funny one-liner on a late-night comedic episode; and instead of Western Civilization’s tradition of gratitude, humility and love of neighbor, we were suddenly left with nothing more than the emptiness of materialism and the promise of nothing more than death, decay and an unmarked tombstone with etched markings which merely revealed the beginning of life and the end of living.

In what promise, then, do we knock upon the door for that latent dignity we define as man?

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 engaging in that most meaningful of projects – one’s career, work and vocation of choice – because of the very medical condition itself, there comes a time when the harassment, intimidation and demeaning conduct perpetrated by the Federal Agency or the U.S. Postal Service must be stopped.  Sometimes – and often enough – that plan of stoppage can only be sought and embraced through the effective preparation, formulation and filing of a Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

Only by moving beyond the arena of demeaning venues of life can we attain a status and stature of latent dignity; for, it becomes clear in this age of modernity, that such dignity is no longer latent, but remains for the individual to assert and declare, and not allow the silence of the lambs to drown out the pureness of one’s soul.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire