How does one deal with adversity? When the adversary is a faceless entity, a bureaucracy which acts as a behemoth of epic proportions, one must take care in choosing the proper battle to engage. For, ultimately, the victory or loss of a battle is often determined by logistical considerations — of where and when it is fought.
Further, it is important to identify who the “enemy” is against whom one wages a battle. Is it a separate entity, or is the real enemy one’s self? When an individual is suffering from a medical condition such that one is weakened, others will often begin to smell the scent of such weakness, and begin to prey upon the deteriorated state if is “worth the while” to fight against the agency, the system, and the entirety of the Federal Bureaucracy.
It is well and good to say, “I’m not giving up” and to fight for one’s rights, but at what cost? At the cost of one’s health?
More often than not, it is a smart strategic move to leave the battle s of being. That is the law of the runt; it is the rule of the world. For Federal and Postal employees who find themselves in a position where one’s medical conditions have deteriorated to a point where he/she can no longer perform one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, it is important to consider whether to recede, and go into the quietude of the morning sun, in order to find the space of recuperative peace, in order to come back to battle another day.
Federal Disability Retirement through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is just such a safety hatch; and whether you are under FERS or CSRS, it is a consideration worth noting, and taking, in order to regain one’s strength, to come back for another day — next time, from atop the vantage point of a hill, instead of looking up from the valley of death and destruction.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement, Et Cetera… 