FERS Disability

Last Updated on January 20, 2015 by FERS Disability Attorney

Rarely do things “just happen“; that is why most of us believe in a purposive, teleological universe, and seek reasons and rational foundations in origins, contexts and logical consistency.  Whether that is how the human mind is structured, and for evolutionary advantage gained for survivability, conferring dominance and favorability weighted towards those who seek explanation and intelligibility, thereby preventing the making of mistakes multiple times; or, perhaps, it is merely a sense of humor bestowed by the gods.  Look at Aristotle’s Metaphysics; the very definition of knowledge is inextricably intertwined with seeking and grasping first principles, causality, and the origin of effects.

Thus do writers become a member of a profession by writing; airplanes fall out of the sky because of mechanical failure or an intervening cause; and economies crumble because market forces respond to human foibles.  But medical conditions which intervene and disrupt a person’s career, future and health, are often viewed as unfair anomalies precisely because there is often no adequate explanation as to their manifestation upon a particular person, at a given time, for a known reason.  They merely disrupt.  There may be “medical” reasons — of why an injury occurred, what the probable origins of genetic proclivity, etc.  But the reasons sought out by the one who suffers — why me? — can never be answered.  It is one of those rare occurrences that “just happens”.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition interrupts and disrupts the linear career path because the medical condition itself prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job — the option of filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is something which must be seriously considered.

Life is often unfair, and the difficulties which are encountered in the tenuous path of those who seek to live by reason and rationality, are fraught with bumps and cavities if disruptive interludes. Medical conditions and the reasons for their onset — not the medical reason of origin and sterile voices of genetic predilection — but the “why me?” question, is often unanswerable.  It is usually just a circumstance which must be dealt with, and filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits is a way of “buying time” in order to maintain a causeway of teleological illusions in order to further avoid those things that just seem to happen.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire