Last Updated on January 18, 2012
Much of what constitutes a “proper” and “complete” Federal Disability Retirement application from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether under FERS or CSRS, is discretionary in nature, and based upon experience in what has worked in the past, and what presently works.
The law itself is never constant, precisely because the individual case-workers at the Office of Personnel Management are systematically replaced. There are certain case-workers who tend to approach each Federal Disability Retirement application from a particularly narrow perspective, and view each case through that specific set of lens. But for the individual Federal or Postal employee who has prepared, formulated and filed for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, he or she would never recognize any pattern of behavior from a case-worker at the Office of Personnel Management, precisely because this would be the singular, isolated event of encountering a particular case worker at OPM.
One problem which Federal and Postal applicants for Federal Disability Retirement benefits have, is a tendency to over-explain a particular situation or issue. Explanations are meant to be given for one central purpose — to clarify. If an explanation further complicates and muddles an issue, then the explanation has failed. Or, conversely, if the explanation brings up more questions than answers, then further explanations will not normally satisfy the OPM Case Worker. Explaining an X should be condensed into simple components of y and z; otherwise, if an explanation further complicates the issue, perhaps it should be left alone until and unless there is a question which arises from the issue itself.
Sometimes, discretion requires one to “let sleeping dogs alone”. Don’t complicate an issue by over-explaining; better yet, keep it simple, and not offer an explanation unless called for.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire