OPM Disability Retirement: The daunting process

Many Federal and Postal employees call an attorney for an initial legal consultation because of the “daunting process” involved in filing for Federal Disability Retirement.  And, indeed, the complex administrative process involved in preparing, formulating and filing a Federal Disability Retirement application is a confounding, confusing and complicated process.

From the “how” of responding to the multiple questions on SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability, to the quantity, volume and substance of “what” to include; to the issues surrounding what constitutes a viable and legal “accommodation” that may determine the truthfulness of a Supervisor’s Statement (SF 3112B) and Agency’s Efforts for Reassignment and Accommodation (SF 3112D); as well as peripheral issues that often intersect but may not necessarily impact or influence a Federal Disability Retirement application, to include (but not be limited to) EEO filings, a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) implementation, “Fitness for Duty” evaluations, OWCP/Department of Labor filings that may be concurrently initiated, as well as the reason, rationale and impact of a Social Security Disability filing, etc. — they are all relevant, significant and consequential issues that, in their aggregate compendium of concerns involved, both ancillary and some central to the primary concern of Federal Disability Retirement, should be analyzed, evaluated and considered carefully.

For any Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who is considering preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted (ultimately) to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the question of what to do with this “daunting process” can be allayed by first consulting with an attorney who is experienced in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and allowing the “daunting” part of the process to become nothing more than the squeaky mouse hidden in the corner that, before discovering the facts, once sounded like a burglar attempting to break in.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The mediocre medical report

One can, of course, obtain an “excellent” medical report — i.e., one that has full, unequivocal support in providing a clear diagnosis, description of symptoms, impact upon specific job functions, etc., with an unequivocal conclusion of disability beyond the specific elements of one’s job functions, etc. — and yet get denied by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

On the other hand, one can submit with a Federal Disability Retirement application a “mediocre” medical report — e.g., one that is generalized and non-specific, and shows scant reference to specific job functions, and provides barely a conclusion of disability, and yet get an approval at the First Stage of a Federal Disability Retirement application.

So, one may ask, where is the consistency shown by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management?  Is it all a matter of perspective — of a crap shoot as to who reviews a Federal Disability Retirement application at OPM?  The fact is, there is no “perfect” methodology that will guarantee that a well-prepared Federal Disability Retirement application will be approved at the First Stage of the OPM Disability Retirement process.

However, there are certainly “chance-enhancers” — those preparatory actions that exponentially increase the probability of success at each stage of a Federal Disability Retirement process — that will help to ensure that, more likely than not (sort of like the legal standard itself — of a “preponderance of the evidence” — that is applied to a Federal Disability Retirement case), your Federal Disability Retirement application, whether you are under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, will have a successful outcome with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

First and foremost, understand the critical structure of a Federal Disability Retirement application:  The foundation of every Federal Disability Retirement application is the medical report.  It is the foundation of a Federal Disability Retirement application (otherwise referred to as an “FDR”); from it, the legal arguments arise and the justifying Applicant’s Statement of Disability are together formulated.

Thus, just as a shaky building’s foundation will likely fail to withstand even a minor earthquake or a minimal subterranean tremor, so a mediocre medical report will often decrease the chances of a First Stage FDR approval.

Are there ways to counter such mediocrity?  Yes — by pointing out other critical elements of the case. And, of course, sometimes the choices are limited, where it is better to proceed even with a mediocre medical report than not at all, and to put the best case forward regardless of the insufficiency of a mediocre medical report.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Disability: When reality exceeds the nightmare

At what point do we describe a dream as merely a dream, and not a nightmare, and does the contrast between the two as set in comparative standing against one’s daily reality change the equation at all? Are some people more able to tolerate greater tumult of images ensconced within the framework of the “inner eye” that receives the moving reels of dreams, nightmares and memories? Is there a connection between reality and dreams, reality and nightmares, and dreams and nightmares?

If one can maneuver with greater functionality in the reality of the objective world, does it manifest an indicator of greater capacity to withstand and travel through the detours of subjective consciousness depicting dreams and nightmares? Does the ability to remember dreams or nightmares make a difference, as well? Is rumination, obsessive recollection, screaming nights from images perpetrated by past experiences – i.e., war-time images diagnosed as PTSD or other traumatic events that cannot be compartmentalized or otherwise set aside – a symptom of a fragile ego too sensitive to tolerate for some?

Is a nightmare an expiation of the unworkable problems of daily life, such that the subconscious mind is attempting to sort and sift so that greater survivability can be achieved upon awakening from the slumber of sleepless sleep? Is a person who experiences constant and relentless nightmares, who wakes up just as exhausted because of the reliving of the experiences of prior trauma, actually asleep, or does the conceptual paradigm of “being asleep” necessarily include attaining a restorative plateau of rest?

It is, indeed, a complex interaction between the tripartite components of our daily experiences, both subjective and objective.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a reality which exceeds the nightmare, but more importantly, that dashes the dreams – both in the real sense of a dream while asleep, as well as the figurative dream in the sense of hope for the future – that paves the pathway for future anticipation, it is always important to balance the spectrum and pendulum between the deteriorating medical condition one suffers from, against the dreams one experiences, and contrast them against the nightmare of daily agony and the sleepless nightmares that awaken one with sweats and pools of angst.

Preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted and waited upon with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, can sometimes appear to be in the “nightmare” category; but for those Federal and Postal employees who have to file such an animal, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the objective reality is that the medical conditions themselves already constitute a tumultuous reality that exceeds any nightmare conceived, and that is precisely why it becomes time for the Federal or Postal employee to prepare, formulate and file an effective OPM Disability Retirement application because, when reality exceeds the nightmare, it is time to wake up and tackle the monster of reality in order to be able to return to a restful slumber where dreams bring a smile upon the grimacing lips that shy away from nightmares.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Disability Retirement for Federal Workers: The lost ball in the field

We come upon it, and it sits gleaming with partial concealment in the tall grass beyond the river’s edge.  Whose was it?  Was it a child who threw it, or a parent, grandparent, or maybe even a sibling?  Did the child search for it, or was it forgotten soon after a futile search in directions otherwise unaccounted for?

Was there a party gathered, a picnic prepared and a blanket covered upon the grassy knoll; and were gloves included in the melee?  Was there laughter rumbling through the forest beyond, slowly dissipating in voices joyfully warmth in the sunlight of mumblings incomprehensible and lost among the groves of wildlife hidden behind and beyond?  Was the chatter of children full in the morning air, or lost in the heat of a midsummer’s dream?  From a lost ball in the field, can reality be reconstructed, or are the imaginations of dreams forgotten and hopes still hinting of a future unfulfilled, forever to be a wistful memory of what could have been, was, or even might have been?

Perhaps, some over-exuberant father threw the ball and it sailed over the head of the child; the child, watching as it travels overhead, then behind, then beyond where the periphery of limits placed in a universe that has been foretold of dangers and mysteries, watches as it bounces a few times, then disappears.  Perhaps there is a shout – something like, “Sorry, Tommy…let’s go find it!”  Then, a rush and rustling of footsteps, and a made-up race to the finish line: “First one that finds it is the winner!”

Gleeful shouts and joyful shivers, even in the sunlight of warmth and happiness, because for this moment, in this slice of time, a lost ball is bound to yet be discovered, and it is merely a temporary delay in yet an incomplete day’s fun.  But the search reveals nothing; the world conceals and refuses to cough up and unravel the mysteries of hidden meanings; and after a time, further voices calling for the consumption of picnics prepared and sandwiches to be unwrapped, and the sagging shoulders of a disappointed child must needs be the focal point of a universe otherwise uncaring and impervious.

Is this what happened, or did an old codger have a ball in his back pocket, was taking a walk with his dog, and it dropped silently out and rolled into the field, leaving behind any such creative imaginings to another page, an unfinished chapter, or a novel unpublished?

Things can be created out of whole cloth, or not at all.  What we include in the narrative of our meanderings is a choice, of sorts.  The child that walked away that mid-summer day’s loss – of what sorrow did he carry, and what tales did he tell tomorrow to his friends at school?  We all carry around narratives; what we choose to relate is up to us.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are preparing SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability, in formulating a Federal Disability Retirement application to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management – remember that, like the boy’s experience of the lost ball, the content of the narrative is important, and the delineation of the tonal quality of the facts is significant; choose with discretion the substance of the responses, lest the lost ball becomes found again, and it turns out that it was the old codger, after all, and not by the wonderment of a child’s unbelieving eyes.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement: The attic where useless things are kept

As a metaphor, it refers to the mind, whether because of similar spatial location or by analogy of clutter and vacuity (concepts which are not mutually exclusive, for the former does not imply knowledge, whereas the latter is a negation of it).  The common adage, “Out of sight, out of mind”, applies aptly, as it is the last refuge before it becomes refuse, but somehow is kept because a pause, an indentation, a comma extended the effort of a terminal decision.

Perhaps sentimentality pulled the strings of childhood memories, where the deep recesses of warmth and traipsing through cold streams on summer days and laughter in rolling through careless days of yore attached itself to an item too old to value but not useless enough to discard.

Memories have value, too, you know; they just don’t trumpet the monetary gains in a world devoid of feelings beyond the pocketbook.  The childhood delight of walking up into granddad’s attic, where treasures untold would unfold to the limitless imaginations of a time when entertainment knew not the computer screen nor the smartphone, but carved simplicity of flutes, toy soldiers and great battles where valor and victory filled the silent air.

Houses no longer have stairs to reach the heights of that place of refuge, where sadness would find solace in the quietude amongst dusty suitcases and wedding dresses out-of-fashion but for the beaming bride in photographs fading in crinkled corners of brown discoloration.  Now, we merely have a square entrance cut into the ceiling of the top floor.

Somehow, when stairways were erased from the architect’s mind, the disappearance of the physical means to reach that remaining refuge where loneliness entered and the quiet pitter-patter of mice and old men wandered, the timeless period of pause, peace and calm of perpetuity ceased to exist.  The pencil which erases is more than a negation of thought; it is the end of an era which valued time, relationships and the conversation muted beyond the crackling of a winter’s fire.  The attic where useless things are kept; is that why we treat each other so abominably?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, where the medical condition no longer allows for the great extent of productivity previously enjoyed — suddenly, the Federal agency and the Postal Service treats you like the refuse thrown into the attic, but with no stairway to come back down.  No accommodations are found; you are treated like the pause before the trash bin and the comma before the flush of the toilet.

That is why the option exists for the Federal or U.S. Postal employee to prepare, formulate and file for 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.

For, in the end, while the attic is indeed the place where useless things are often kept, it is up to the Federal or Postal employee to begin constructing the staircase which was erased by the thoughtless architect who knew not the future plans for a greater tomorrow; and that is precisely why, for all of those bygone years, you kept that old wooden toboggan — to slide down that next hill where childhood memories still enliven.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: Beyond the Pablum of Life

Once a cereal brand, a glob of mush whose nutritional content was suspect at best, and the bland taste of which represented the monotony of modernity; now, it is mere pap, where the lack of substantive content belies the true nature of harm, insipid and incremental, creeping daily and slowly deteriorating.

Isn’t that how a medical condition destroys?  Yes, there are traumatic events — where loss of limb and even of life suddenly cuts short the vibrancy of a human narrative; but, mostly, it is that chronic, slow deterioration which eats away and the luster of living loses its sheen where being free of pain or anguish is the highlight of one’s linear form.  That is when life becomes a daily pablum of concocted innuendoes, where euphemisms prevail and the hidden struggle of daily toil results in the blandness of hourly refuting the refrain, “So, how is life?”

When trepidation and hesitation rules the day the ruing the day becomes the pablum of living, like the tablet and chalkboard which has been overused and the residue of erasures remains no matter how hard we try and scuff them out, then it is time to consider a change of venue, of volatility, and of value.

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 one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal positional duties, it may be time to try and get beyond the pablum of life’s misgivings.

Yes, preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may be a difficult path to take, especially in light of leaving behind a list of accomplishments, awards and accolades; but if the choice of staying and being harassed, intimidated, constantly put down and shoved aside are no longer clear indicators of a future unwelcome and unwelcoming, then there can be no better alternative to embrace.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM can be an administrative and bureaucratic nightmare; but where the flashpoint of one’s Federal or Postal career has long passed, it is time to consider getting beyond the pablum of life, and to formulate a strategy where the vibrancy of a once-promising future takes on the sheen now lost, the energy long depleted, and the recovery of which guides one towards a better tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire