OPM Disability Retirement: The Age of Folly

The Age of Folly is in contrast to the Age of Reason, the Age of Discontent, the Age of Serious Wonder, the Age of ….  But of modernity: We live in the Age of Folly.

A recent Wall Street Journal article spoke about ways to try and interest a child who is a “gamer” to read books — an endeavor which, in former times, would have been a “given”.  Entice him with books of action!  Try and find books which cater to his interests!  Really?  How about: Books represent the richness of our culture; they open the pathway to a successful life; they expose us to a world beyond, and educate us about the world in which we abide.  Perhaps, restricting “game time” and saying “No” to the child’s every want is the better first step.

Time was, not so long ago, that we had a shared set of values — through the common reading of great works.  Can a city kid have empathy for farmers who struggle?  Yes, because we all read Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath.  Does a Midwestern Farmer have any knowledge about fishermen?  Yes, because we all read Hemingway’s, The Old Man and the Sea.  Did the Northerner have any idea about the South?  Yes, because we all read Faulkner.  And did the Southerner know anything about their Northern neighbors?  Yes, because we all read F. Scott Fitzgerald.

But we no longer read.  And so we live in the Age of Folly, lost in our Smartphones, forever brandishing opinions on Facebook, Twitter and Social Media.  That is often how Federal and Postal employees who struggle with a medical condition feel about the lack of empathy by their coworkers and supervisors — an Age of Folly where empathy no longer exists, and the attitude is one of:  So what?

Consider preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, and get away from the Age of Folly where others seem to have absolutely no understanding of your life, your situation or your problems beyond the nose extending 2 inches from the flat surface of their faces.  Contact a retirement attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and perhaps you will be able to escape this cauldron entitled, The Age of Folly.

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.

 

Federal Disability Attorney Help: Loss

The metaphors are replete; the stories of human suffering, of the chasm which develops in one’s “heart”; of the emptiness driven by it; “loss” is the sudden absence of that — or of whom — we took the existence once for granted.  Perhaps it can be an object; or even a place; of a home or town now destroyed and no longer the same.

Displacement can be a form of loss, and indeed, one which can result in misery, disorientation and alienation.  Loss of a friend; of a family member; of years of taking it for granted that existence will continue today as it did yesterday, and the day before.  The irony is that the absence of that very existence is the thing which reminds one of the former presence.  Suddenly, you recall the pervasiveness of that former existence — “She used to always do X” or “He was always right over there”, etc.

Does time buffer the severity of present loss?  Do the memories fade, the daily routines change and adapt to the sudden non-existence such that, over a period of months and years, such absence which is noticeable currently will dissipate with fading memories and getting used to that absence which was so profoundly pronounced?

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, “loss” is a familiar concept: For, to begin with, the loss of one’s health is a profound recognition of an absence of one’s former self; further, the realization that Federal OPM Disability Retirement is a necessary next step is to seek a replacement for the loss of one’s career.

All of those many years, the “job” was a central activity — meaningful, significant, relevant — then, preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under FERS is the next step towards embracing the non-existence of that former self.  The positive side of things, however, is that such a loss can be replaced by a future which prioritizes your health, and where the presence of a better tomorrow can fill that emptiness of yesterday’s loss.

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 Medical Disability for Federal and Postal Employees: Comparisons

Does it help to make them?  Do we take comfort in judging the relative plusses and minuses in making comparisons — as in, X has A, B and C, but I have, in addition, D and E, and therefore I am more fortunate that X is.  Or, is it a comparison of one’s conditions, as in: “Boy, at least I don’t have X like Lisa does”, or “At least I am not in Y’s situation”?

To the extent that comparisons remind us of that which we are blessed with, they allow for a certain level of utilitarian value.  But there is a negative side to it: Of jealousy engendered by comparison, or of discontent resulting from making one.  Rousseau, of course, makes that point throughout his “Social Contract” analysis, of the purity of man’s intentions in that fictional state of “nature” that we were once in, but where society’s accretions of materialism created the artificial emotional response of discontent and jealousy.  But compared to what?

It is important to make the fair and correlative comparisons which are relevant — as in “apples to apples” and not “apples to oranges”.  For, it is the uniqueness of each entity, object or situation to be compared with the singularity of another that makes for a proper comparison.

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, it is inadvisable to compare one’s case to somebody else’s.  For, the proper comparison is not to evaluate one’s medical condition and the severity of one’s medical condition to that of another person’s medical condition; rather, the proper comparison in a Federal Disability Retirement case is to compare one’s medical condition to the essential elements of one’s position.

Thus, comparisons made must always take into account the relevant connections which relate not just in terms of similarities, but as is the case in Federal Disability Retirement Law — in what the law allows for and considers significant.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Treading Life

We don’t often think of it in those terms; but, in fact, that is how most of us live.  Like the meek swimmer who does not want to drown, we merely tread water — sometimes calmly, often with a sense of desperation; and too often, with a fear that results in a frenzied struggle.  We invent euphemisms for that: Keeping out “heads above water”; Not drowning; “Sink or swim”; “Like being on the Titanic”; and other similar statements emanating from water-based fears.

We tread life like we tread water; just to survive, never taking the chance to swim in this direction or that; and when finally fatigue sets in to remind us that going nowhere is tantamount to waiting to be drowned, we are so weary from so much time and effort to keep afloat that we can no longer muster the energy to even swim to the edge of the pool in order to hang on or lift ourselves out.  And when those unexpected tugs, tides and tidal waves suddenly appear, we thrash about and forget the basics of how to even float, allowing the vicissitudes of life’s mishaps to determine the course of our lives, the quality of how we live and the manner of who we are.

Medical conditions have a way of doing that — of making us forget how to even swim.  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 of more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it may be time to consider filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Treading Life is what we are often forced to do; drowning in life’s problems is what we are too often faced with; swimming with a purposeful destination is what we need to do —and that is the purpose of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement for Federal & Postal Employees: Seeking

Isn’t that the condition for life?  That we continually engage in the very human act of seeking, whether for personal growth or professional aptitude; but it is always that constant need to know, to expand, to cross borders and extend beyond the invisible ceiling or barrier that is placed from our birthright to explore and to seek.

Seeking is a hallmark of human behavior; it is the constant seeking that keeps us reinvigorated, alive, instilled with hope and painted with the colors of future dreams. Without seeking, we become staid, unadventurous, static and timid; the world becomes threatening because we have stopped and stunted our own growth potential.  Seeking is always coupled with hope; hope, often seen with future aspirations; and when the seeking stops, it is normally a symptom of a disease which destroys hopes and aspirations.

Medical conditions often undermine the human desire to seek; for, the disease that destroys and disrupts is the same which diminishes one’s hopes and aspirations.

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, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits becomes an important next step in order to regain that human desire for seeking — for one’s future and one’s hopes and aspirations.

Contact an attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law in order to move beyond the morass of struggling daily to maintain a Federal position when it has become clear that one’s future is no longer compatible with the Federal or Postal job one holds.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement under FERS: The Internal Web of Deceit

The quote is often attributed (wrongly) to Shakespeare, when it was Sir Walter Scott in his lengthy poem, Marmion, which conceived it: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.”  It is the internal web caught within the circular insularity of one’s thought-processes which allows for the capacity to deceive — but of or for whom?  Is it ourselves we deceive, or others, or both?

The problem with internalizing one’s thoughts is not that they are necessarily invalid; it is that there is no objective basis upon which to test their viability.  We all engage in private thoughts; carrying on conversations with ourselves, the problem lies not in whether or not we have interesting ones or not, but whether and to what extent the exaggerated absurdity of circular discourses take on a more bizarre aspect.

Fear does this; and when we fail to test our thoughts against the reality of the world, the web we weave becomes more and more tangled, until the practice of self-deception takes on an enhanced and serious result.

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, it is often necessary to consult with an attorney before considering the difficult bureaucratic path of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

Your medical condition is no doubt “real”.  The problem lies not in the medical condition, but upon the administrative procedures which must be passed through in order to present a credible case of eligibility for Federal Disability Retirement benefits.

For that, it becomes necessary to break out of the internal web of deceit — of the cage within one’s insular thought-processes — and to test the strength of the web as against the laws which govern the administrative procedures involved in formulating an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire