Federal Disability Retirement: The Human Prerogative

There are other prerogatives connected to other species, like swiftness of predatory hunting for a Cheetah; the sheer power of a Grizzly Bear; or, perhaps of an NBA star who no one even attempts to defend against because, outside of the 3-point circle, there is no point in even trying.

The definition is clear: a “prerogative” is the right or privilege exclusive to a particular individual or class, and so, like an eagle which soars with the power of such privilege, there is no denying that which is the right of that individual, of whatever species we are referring to.

For the Federal employees or U.S. Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition, where the medical condition itself impacts upon the ability and capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s job, it is the prerogative — the human prerogative — to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, under FERS.

Because you are a Federal Government employee or Postal Service worker, it is the exclusive right and privilege to assert your eligibility for Federal Disability Retirement; and indeed, this is the Human Prerogative, as a Federal or Postal employee.

It is the exclusive right — not merely because you are a human being, but because of your privileged status as a Civilian Federal employee or U.S. Postal Service worker — to assert that limited prerogative when the need arises, and if the time comes such that it becomes necessary.

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 Employees Medical Retirement from the OPM: The Insatiable Appetite

This is a world which possesses it; each species is driven by it; the human experience confirms it.  The insatiable appetite is one which wants more, craves more, and is never satisfied.  Technology hints at it; and when Plato discusses the need for a balanced soul, whereby the rational part must govern the appetitive, he understood the nature of the extreme.

We may give lip service to our desire to live a more contemplative, laid-back life, but the plain fact is that the combination of unfettered capitalism and loss of societal boundaries naturally results in the insatiable appetite — of greater stimulation in video formats; of wealth beyond what a single person can consume; of a national debt which cannot have a ceiling; of brutality in war that has no humanity, etc.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition “slows down” the pace of life — by necessity, because there is a natural limit as to what the human body and mind can take — filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS is an acknowledgment that there is a cost to the insatiable appetite.

We cannot go on forever at the frenetic pace which life attempts to force upon us, and instead, we are left with making certain critical decisions: Is the cost of my health worth the job I have?

Contact a disability attorney to discuss the possibility of filing an effective OPM Disability Retirement application under FERS, and begin considering whether the insatiable appetite can at least be confined to the cages of medieval moats and dungeons of the past.

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 and Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Progressive Deterioration

We witness it in others — in our parents; in ourselves, we “feel” it more than see it, as we don’t visually view ourselves in the mirror or observe our own reflections as a third party; and in a community, sometimes we are witness to either ends of the spectrum — of the slow crumbling and abandonment or the “gentrification” of a neighborhood; and in the greater society, the progressive deterioration, of a loss of commonality and retraction of civil behavior, etc.

Progressive deterioration is also how a medical condition “works” — of an incremental, almost imperceptible loss of function, lessening of efficacy, regression of capacity.  Then, there comes a point where such loss no longer allows a person to perform in the same manner as he or she once was capable of.  People compensate in various ways to overcome such deterioration, almost always, however, at a further cost to one’s body or mind.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition has reached a point where the progressive deterioration no longer allows you to perform one or more of the essential functions of your position, contact a disability attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement and consider the option of leaving that phase of your career behind, and moving forward to apply those other functions in a different capacity.

Progressive deterioration is rarely one of complete devastation; not of totality, but of partial loss and lessening.

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.

 

Disability Retirement from the USPS and other Federal Gov. Agencies: Loyalty in Our Time

As a member of The Band, Levon Helm was a fiercely loyal member who was extremely critical of his fellow musician, Robbie Robertson.  The issue which centered upon the bitter feud involved royalties (as all feuds throughout time immemorial involve money) — of who should receive it; what constitutes “writing” a song; who should get credit for it, etc.

There are many adages which our grandparents used to offer — of sayings beginning with, “There are two types of people in the world”, etc.  One such saying might begin with: “There are two types of people in the world — the Levon Helm type, and the Robbie Robertson type…”

The controversy involved the bifurcation of the following: How is a song written: by the origin of the idea, or by the end product involving a collaborative effort?  Levon Helm believed in the latter approach; Robbie Robertson, in the former.  In the end, what was considered as one of the greatest rock bands in the history of music — a group merely called, “The Band” — disintegrated into a bitter end because of a feud over money and loyalty.

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, the question of loyalty in our time will test the Federal Agency and the Postal Service.

Should you inform them immediately about your intention to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits?  How will your past loyalty to your Federal Agency or the Postal Service be “repaid” when they find out that you are filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management?  Will the Federal Agency or the Postal Service act like Levon Helm — fiercely loyal — or like Robbie Robertson?

To protect yourself and learn the lesson of loyalty in our time, contact a disability attorney who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law.

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.

 

Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Workers: The approximation

How do we learn to approximate?  Or, more approximately, how do we learn when it is appropriate (or inappropriate) to approximate?

When and how did we learn that there is a distinction with a difference between an engineer constructing a tall building and a chef adding a few more spices than what the recipe calls for — that consequences derived from the difference between approximation and precision make a world of difference?  Or even the amateur chef in mistaking a sprinkle of salt for a cupful, or of a judge in the Olympics who shrugs his or her shoulders and says, “close enough”, when the difference between a fraction of a second or an approximation thereof means the awarding of a gold, silver or bronze medal?

How close is the enemy?  Approximately a mile or so away, give or take a few hundred yards…could mean the difference between victory or defeat.

How old is the earth?  Multi-billions of years, give or take a few, or count the genealogy of religious texts and multiply them accordingly.  Any consequences for believing one paradigm over another, and aren’t both merely approximations, anyway?  How precise can a science be when the claim is made that X is 500 billions years old?  Could it not be 499 or 498 billion years old, instead?  In terms of percentages of being “off”, it is minor; but in gross numbers, a billion here or a billion there could mean quite a difference; just look at the investors of Facebook who recently lost a good portion of their portfolio.

Approximations are fine, but they need to be tempered by conditions and circumstances, and for Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition where the medical condition begins to prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, to “approximate” where precision is required may not be the best approach in putting together one’s Federal Disability Retirement application.

Of course, “the law” is never a precise endeavor, and cannot come close to requiring an engineer’s reliance upon mathematical calculations nor even of an architect’s blueprint for constructing an archway.

However, precision of legal argumentation; proper wording of medical narratives; careful positing of legal citations — these are all approximations which, in their aggregate, accord a greater precision in preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in enhancing the greater chance of an approval for each stage of the process, as it is precisely the greater approximation of precision that allows for lessening the imprecision of that which comes closest to the approximation of a science in a non-scientific discipline.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Today (pause), and Tomorrow

The parenthetical insertion creates a “real-time” interlude, and the addendum of the grammatical mandate, the unnecessary comma, extends the strained quietude of wanting to engage the sequential utterance.  There is the reality of “now”, which we occupy, fill and exist within, and the expectation of a tomorrow which never exists as a wholeness contained within a specified time period, but merely in anticipated form within the imagination of our cognitive universe.  To this, we can always add “yesterday”, as well, but that is merely of memories passed, reflected in the neurocognitive cellars of stored images.

It is of today and tomorrow which matters for the survival of a species, with yesterday reserved for learned experiences allowing for avoidance of mistakes in order to enhance one’s probability for remaining today and advancing into tomorrow.

Of yesterday, there is nothing that we can do, other than to learn from it and squeeze out the corners of lessons presented.

Of today, there are the problems known, the concerns we have to deal with and the stresses we are forced to tolerate.

And of tomorrow, we have to place into bifurcated boxes of manageable sizes, lest the overwhelming contents spill over to make us all go mad.

For, without the ability and capacity to filter, store and set aside, the extent of problems encountered, stresses envisioned or the troubles tormenting, would be of such quantitative overload as to leave us paralyzed daily.  Of chores left undone, relationships needing tethering, obligations still remaining and work much wanting; where will it all end except in the tombstones of unfinished business?

We are thus stuck in the rut of negation; some, in memories reflected over time enhancing in magnitude and perfection as duration allows for the fissures, wrinkles and ugliness of that once “today” to disappear, such that the retrospective life becomes the paradigm of lost souls.  Or, of those tomorrows yet to come, where we ruminate over troubles that have not yet occurred but we imagine them to become, and crisis that have yet to rear its horrific head, or so the expectations grounded in fear and loathing would have us believe.  Of the before and after, we spend so much time worrying about, and lose sight of the ambiance of today.

Today is what matters; today is the time to plan for tomorrow; today is the moment of applying principles failed by yesterday’s lack of discernment.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the focus upon “today” is the parachute that will catch the wind stream for tomorrow’s security. And of the past?  Let it remain with memories foretold of positive thoughts and lessons learned for tomorrow, and not of haunting nightmares forgotten but for awakenings in the middle of the night.

Prepare well a Federal Disability Retirement application, and formulate it effectively, and file it today – not tomorrow, and certainly do not ruminate upon yesterday’s failings, as that has already passed without fruition of a future left unseen.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Analogies

It is the greater concept often developed through metaphors and similes; but to the extent they are now of use depends largely upon the shared cultural context within which we live.  If Classical literature is no longer the common thread of meaningful discourse, can references to them in creating analogies work?  To share that a person’s tragedy is more Shakespeare than Milton, or that the individual’s circumstances remind one more akin to The Road to Wigan Pier than Brideshead Revisited, can such conversations take on a relevant pathway if the intellectual divide fails to be crossed?

You can, of course, always Google and quickly get the quick rundown of the literary reference through electronic Spark Notes, or some other venue of shortcutting the arduous endeavor reserved in former times; but even that may reveal an inadequacy that cannot be overcome.  For, of what part of the book or author is being referred to?  Is it any particular play or poem, or the entirety of the work itself?  Is it any specific character or scene?

Some philosophers have posited that, by and large, we comprehend and make sense of the objective world through the use of analogies, built upon by metaphors and similes; for, language itself is a conglomerate of such literary devices.  To face the universe purely for survival’s sake is to forego the need for imposing the ordering through language; animals do not require it, but in the most rudimentary of mechanisms that advance warning signs and preemptive communications; it is only in the arena of human constructs where categorical imperatives need to be assigned in order to filter the world into more palatable and circumscribed entities for processing the complexities we have created.

Analogies thus communicate through the medium of shared conceptual constructs, where we draw in the recipient and spectator, the audience of our targeted comparisons, by relating a shared, known and familiar encapsulation of linguistic constructs.  It is only when the strangeness of the metaphor, the unfamiliarity of the reference, creates further puzzlement and loss of connection, that problems occur and relationships become fissures of language games gone awry.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal employees 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 positional duties, the applicability of providing a foundational construct of relating one’s story to an “administrative specialist” at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will often involve – and require – analogies by default.

Use them sparingly; utilize discretion; and, in writing up one’s narrative in response to the questions posed on SF 3112A (Applicant’s Statement of Disability), remember that this is not the time, the context or the best place to try out radical, untested metaphors, similes or analogies.

Thus, while those who have read Orwell’s work, The Road to Wigan Pier, as well as Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, may find a clever and appropriate place in one’s Applicant’s Statement of Disability to make some brilliant literary reference, it may be more prudent to stick to the medical facts and incorporate those supportive documents in dealing with analogies of life, health, and the nexus between the latter and one’s Federal or Postal job duties.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire