FERS Medical Retirement: The Divide Between Self and Reality

Despair often comes when the chasm between consciousness of self (as opposed to self-consciousness) and the reality which, upon even a moment’s pause, one realizes — goes beyond the divide of acceptability.

That is why the whole endeavor of “self-esteem” — which generally began sometime in the second and third generations after WWII’s fighting men came home and married and started families — was a delicate and consequential conundrum.  Yes, kids needed to have a positive self-esteem; however, the question was, how best to instill it?  Was self-esteem the substance for the thing itself, or was it a byproduct of one’s accomplishments?

Modern educators opted for the former; and that is why, today, Americans are first in self-esteem but last in knowledge.  For, when the divide between self and reality grows too expansive, the consequence is that we come to realize that we are empty shells, fabricators, and imposters within a world of reality.

Of course, we all fashion narratives which either leave out some negative history, or add to it in the best light possible.  The truth of a person described to others is mostly a hodgepodge of make-believe, and it is only when the unexpected visit from the cousin or other sibling refutes the historical narrative of fairytales told when that divide between self and reality comes to the fore.

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 job, the divide between self and reality is told thus: “My medical conditions are not that serious; I can just quietly ignore it and continue on.”  But then, the day comes when the divide between the narrative told and the reality foretold grows too expansive.

That is the time to contact a FERS Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and begin to initiate the process of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application under the FERS system, which will hopefully close that chasm of the growing divide between self and reality.

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 Medical Retirement from OPM: The Technical Application

In every system, specialty, sub-specialty, etc., there is a technical application and usage of a term, concept, acronym, etc.  Wittgenstein, the Austrian Philosopher and the author of “Philosophical Investigations” (as well as Tractatus Philosophicus and other works), discusses the concept of “Language Games” involving such unique and technical applications of word usage within different contexts and circumstances.

Thus, there are “computer software language games”, or engineering language games — where specific words have meanings quite narrowly defined, and which often excludes the general population’s understanding unless you become a “member” of that particular group, society, etc.

In Federal Disability Retirement Law, there are numerous technical applications within the language game of “Federal Disability Retirement under FERS” — and one of them is the usage and application of the term, “Accommodations”.  The term itself is widely and loosely used — as in referring to various work-related adjustments and changes.

Thus, a Federal Agency or the Postal Service might, for example, refer to a light duty assignment as an “accommodation” provided, when in fact — in the technical, legal sense — it is not at all an accommodation under Federal Disability Retirement Law.

The problem with a technical application, usage and misapprehension / misunderstanding terms and concepts used in a “general sense” as opposed to the “technical sense”, is that such failure of comprehending the precise meaning of a term can result in failing to apply and obtain Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS.

Contact a lawyer who understands the technical application of all terms under Federal Disability Retirement Law, and don’t let the language game of Federal Disability Retirement Law mislead you into a failure of filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

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 Retirement for Mental or Physical Incapacity: The Process

There is the “process”, and then there is the actual substance of the case.  Often, we are not able to engage ourselves in the substance of the case without having some idea about the process, first.  How it works; where it goes to; how long it takes; who decides it; what happens if it gets denied; what should be done first; “what ifs”; etc.

Not knowing the process often paralyzes us from beginning the process itself, just as not know which came first — the chicken or the egg — if allowed to have actually interfered with the evolution of the universe, would have never produced a single species in nature.

That is why people turn to an “expert” in any given field.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who require filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS because of a medical condition preventing them from continuing in their careers, contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law, for both an understanding of the “process” as well as initiating the substance of the case.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

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 Disability Retirement Benefits: The Resistance

The initial reaction to such a title is the obvious one: To what?  Of course, Newton’s Third Law of Motion comes immediately to mind — of every action having an equal and opposite reaction; thus, when one posits a “resistance”, the natural query must refer to its opposition, as in, “What is it that we are resisting?”

Throughout our “stages of life”, we either comply, conform, “go along with the crowd” — or resist doing so.  There are “middle” ways, of course, and yet to compromise and resist “half-way”, or in a half-hearted manner, often seems to ruin the whole point of any resistance, doesn’t it?

If one is to be a revolutionary, the point is to be one completely, or not at all.  During the Sixties, there was the famous line (often misattributed to Abbie Hoffman, the Beatles and others) which declared that the movement’s participants would “never trust anyone over 30” — spoken by Jack Weinberg in response to a hostile interviewer.  The underlying point of the statement is quite clear: By the age of 30, most people have “sold out”, conformed, lost their youthful vigor to resist; or, put more simply, accepted the status quo and have become cynical.  Yet, isn’t there a natural inclination to “belong”, to not stand apart from the crowd, and to be able to live a quiet, unassuming life?

“Resistance” can thus have a duality of meanings — it can imply that one is part of a movement involving resistance to the status quo or, even its opposite; that one resists change and is integrally a participant of the status quo.  Resistance to change is the greater dominating force.  Change is a fearsome entity where the unknown is to be avoided at all costs.  To be a part of “the resistance” that refuses to conform — well, that is best left to those under 30, unattached and without obligations and responsibilities.

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, resistance to change is often the factor that procrastinates, and keeps a person in a “muddle of the middle” where conditions deteriorate but one stubbornly insists upon maintaining the status quo.

But as medical conditions deteriorate and as the Federal Agency or the Postal Service persists in seeking change — by forcing the issue and initiating adverse actions in order to fill the position with a person who is able to perform all of the essential elements of the position — resistance to change must be replaced with becoming a part of the resistance: By preparing and submitting an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with OPM and forging ahead into a future yet unknown.

Remember —even Jack Weinberg became a class of individuals that he resisted, and went on to become a consultant and an adjunct faculty member; in other words, he was once in the “Resistance”, then became that opposite and equal force to fulfill Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Sincerely,

Robert R.McGill,Esquire

 

Medical Retirement under FERS & CSRS: The “rush” job

There is a difference, of course, between a “rush” job and a “sloppy” one; and while the two can be one and the same, there are circumstances where the former is necessary but does not necessarily have to result in the latter.

Procrastination is often the harbinger of sloppiness, and having to “rush” at the last minute is normally a natural and inevitable consequence of it.  Most events, issues and problems arising in life are never real emergencies; we make of them so because we allow them to fester and grow, like those molds left in petri dishes once reserved for science experiments that become fodder for science fiction novellas.

Medical conditions have a way of adding to complexities and delaying circumstances otherwise traveling on a normal course of events; things just tend to “pile up” like dishes first left in the sink, then another few, until suddenly one realizes that the stack that began with a single unwashed plate is now a tottering semblance of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and another emergency to attend to.

Suddenly, everything needs to be done yesterday; and what was once something that needed to be done sometime in the obscure future, demands attention today, yesterday and the day before that.  What one does not know, or is not aware of, of course, is often ignored, and deliciously cast aside — for ignorance is bliss and not recognizing what is slowly evolving in the dark corners of the unreachable abyss, though harmful, is better left unknown.  Or so we think.  Wrongly, as it turns out.

Like medical conditions left undiagnosed, we go through life happily ignorant; or like actions of a Federal Agency while the Federal or Postal employee is taking too much time off to go to medical appointments or trying to get better — is it better not to know what supervisors and managers are discussing behind one’s back?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who have waited and waited, hoping that one’s medical condition will get better, will somewhat improve, or otherwise disappear altogether, and who have now exhausted all SL, AL and the patience of the Agency or Postal Facility in taking LWOP, perhaps a PIP is in sight, or the “end” is nigh and an adversarial action is “in the works”; or, perhaps none of that is but a faraway matter to be concerned with.

Whatever the circumstances, life brings about emergencies, and maybe even triggers a “rush” job; but always remember that the end-focus is to prepare, formulate and file an effective and persuasive 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, and the “rush” job that is suddenly an emergency needs to be tempered by excellence, lest sloppiness hinders the efficacy of rushing that which is important for one’s future.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Those spaces in between

Between each word; separating being from nothingness; that which allows for something is contingent upon the void that distinguishes, and without the lack there can be no substance.  Time doesn’t exist without space for movement of bodies of mass; such stillness echoes the lack of reverberating sounds, where waves bounce from one object to the next, and where Oneness of universe means that the clock no longer matters.  Of life, we imagine the same: there are interludes, but we tend to skip the pain and sorrow between the covers of hidden privacy.

Thus do we abide by the antiseptic, sterilized version of our scripted thoughts within ourselves:  birth; a relatively uneventful childhood; completion of educational goals; a career; retirement; and, despite a last gasp in attempting to defy the rules of mortality, death and a funeral projected where weeping and wailing echoes through the indignities of relatives uncaring during the days of living, with sweet revenge of the last laugh leaving behind the mystery of the beyond.

But what of those spaces in between?

Of chronic medical conditions; of pain beyond mere superficial groans; of hospitalizations, having tubes inserted into every imaginable orifice and pricked, prodded and pummeled with tests and artificial means for purposes of extending breath, heartbeat and pulse.

Only in recent times have we breached the decorum of unspoken sensitivities, and allowed for scenes in movies to reveal private functions behind bathroom doors beyond brushing one’s teeth or combing the hair over that bald spot – not that the audience necessarily needs to view such scenes, but somehow, such depictions apparently manifest the avant-garde in each of us and reveals the sophistication we all sought, like days of old when smoking cigarettes with those ridiculously long-looking holders was the trend to follow, merely because someone else did it, and we were told that such was the fashion of the day and represented the height of elegance in posture.

It is, at least in movies, those spaces in between that the characters presumably go to the bathroom, end up in the hospital and suffer in quiet agony; we just don’t see much, or any, of it, except in recent times.  And so we are filling those spaces in between; not merely with more punctuations, or hyphenations unnecessary but to bridge the gap between words and concepts, but in real life as well, by recognizing that life rarely follows a clean sequence of uninterrupted successions of advancement and teleological awareness, but often has detours, hiccups and sometimes valleys beyond which no one else would want to venture.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, those spaces in between are already known and recognized.  For, the medical condition itself constitutes the empty pauses between many of life’s successes, and the challenges faced in deciding to end a career otherwise fruitful and productive, to be now replaced with a fight against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to force them to acknowledge eligibility and entitlement to Federal Disability Retirement benefits, is itself the “filling in” of those very spaces we all must face, in between.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire