OPM Disability Actors

Federal and Postal Disability Retirement: Choosing Battles

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney2 Comments

Human Resources departments within agencies are set up in order to perform a multitude of services for the employees who comprise the agency itself, and to that extent, the originating idea which constitutes the founding purpose is a noble one. For whatever reason, however, the foundational principles in the course of an evolving department will often get muddled and lost; the driving principle behind a concept merely gets in the way of a paycheck; the employees for whom the department was founded become the “problem” and an adversarial relationship between the H.R. Department and its employees arises.
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OPM Disability Retirement: The Problematic Loss of Confidence

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

Confidence is an ethereal character trait; in some ways, it is self-perpetuating, as success relies upon it, and feeds it, which in turn reinforces any lack thereof. At once fleeting but full, the loss of it can be devastating. For some, a mere look of doubt or suspicion from others can undermine the fullness of possession one may have had of it just a moment before; for others, whether lack of competence or never having had any reason for possession of it appears to matter not, and like self-esteem in the generation of modernity and “me”, a complete void of accomplishments seems not to overturn those who accumulate an abundance of it. […] Read More …

Federal & Postal Medical Retirement: Agencies and the Opium Den of Yore

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

They were dark caverns of gatherings; residual consequences of colonialism; and though denied in polite society, the lure of addictive aroma wafting ever pervasively brought men and women repeatedly to the doors which opened for the pleasurable moment of escape. It was like going back, and staying, despite knowing the harm it did, would do, and could wrought, even with the knowledge of the harm portending. But the residue of the sweet scent would remain, like an invisible thread tugging at the weakest corners of the soul, to return, return, return. […] Read More …

FERS & CSRS Medical Retirement: The Question of Worth

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney3 Comments

Whether animals consider the question or not, they certainly make judgments based upon prudence, calculation and quantification of effort involved; but perhaps not in some conceptually systematic approach. “Worth” can involve multiple meanings: of time expended; monetized value; quality; but always involving the evaluative process of comparative analysis. It is this latter process which is important for the Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker in determining whether to proceed with preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset. […] Read More …

OPM Disability Benefits: The Eyes Which Betray the Laughter

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney4 Comments

Plato noted the significance of the eyes; as windows of the soul, they reveal the depth of emotion, character, empathy, interest, boredom, meanness, etc.; and just as true, the lack thereof. Laughter provides the concordance of mirth to context; cacophony occurs when the harmony between the two somehow fails to connect. The pinnacle of sadness is represented when one looks upon an individual, hears the laughter, and sees the revelatory sadness deep within the eyes of the soul. […] Read More …

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Devaluation

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney2 Comments

Countries engage it deliberately; economic circumstances force it based upon fluctuating market volatility; and the basic principles in capitalism of supply and demand will often expect it. Currencies are never stable indexes despite the best attempts by countries to manage and control their economies; the fact is, in this interconnected world of global economic entanglement, devaluation of worth can occur overnight, just after the soft breathing of nightfall overtakes, but before the dawn of first light when the halls of stock markets in faraway colonnades lined in symmetrical facades open their doors for the business of commodity markets. […] Read More …

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: An Expectation of Disaster

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

Most lives are lived with an expectation of unease; if things are going smoothly, we look with suspicion at what will come from around the corner; if calm and quietude prevails, we consider it merely a precursor to a major storm; and if good fortune comes our way, there is a leeriness as to the strings attached. Perhaps distrust is based upon justifiable historical events; or, as news is merely the compilation of tragic events gathered into a compendium of daily interests, so our skewed perspective of the world merely reinforces what our childhoods entertained. […] Read More …

Disability Retirement for the Federal or Postal Employee: Character Questions

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney2 Comments

Questioning one’s character occurs in multiple guises, by subtle and overt means, through self-reflection and conspiracies of consorts; one can question through self-reflection, when an intended result falls short of expectations; one can do it to others, when that which was promised was unfulfilled; or, we can do it out of sheer meanness, when rumors and unverifiable gossip can eat away at the fabric of one’s unprotected persona and self-image. The offense of questioning one’s character is grave, indeed, and the responsiveness of reactionary rectitude is often tied to the sensitivity of one’s self-image, the reputation one holds within a given community, and the sense that one must maintain and control the opinions of others. […]

 
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The Self-Image of a Postal or Federal Employee after a Disabling Injury or Other Medical Condition

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney5 Comments

Thurber’s Walter Mitty is not an anomaly; each of us carries a fiction within our insular souls, of lives extended into a world of fantasy, trespassing between daydreams and thoughts of heroic deeds beyond the mundane routines of daily living.  Perhaps there are those in the world whose lives are so adventure-filled that such retinues of alternative parallelism […] Read More …

Epistemological Privilege and Federal Medical Retirement

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement AttorneyLeave a comment

The unique position of the individual in the greater world of objectivity — where the “I” dominates the subjective world but with a recognition that such a peculiar feature of the ego represents an almost insignificant, singular entity in a greater world of objects and other subjects — often results in a duality of opposing and contending, irreconcilable […] Read More …