Medical Retirement from Federal Employment: Peripheral Centrality

Last Updated on January 9, 2016 by FERS Disability Attorney

We often think that, by pushing the core importance of those matters out into the periphery, whether in our minds or in the practical application of daily living, by merely touching upon them we have attended to a relative extent in satisfaction for the time being.  Another way to put it is encompassed in the reference of kicking the proverbial can down the road into that distant and obscure future.

Centrality of necessities can only be pushed aside for so long; before you know it, they come back with a roar to crowd out those insignificant interests which are easier to focus upon, become pleasurable distractions, and tend to become magnified as representing greater significance and relevance than what their revealed status should deserve.

Distractions of daily living — perhaps a hobby, or following a sports team with greater exuberance than deserved; then, of course, there are the modes of virtual reality in modernity, of internet, video games and spawning friendships via Facebook, Twitter, etc.  At some point, however, the core of that which was pushed aside must come back and become the centrality of purpose it was always shouting out to be.

Pain, and the avoidance of pain, is somewhat akin to that.  For how long can a medical condition be disregarded, before the periphery to which we relegate it makes an end-run and becomes the central focus of one’s life?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, whether considering the impact of the medical condition upon one’s greater health and well-being has been ignored, pushed aside and relegated to the peripheral concerns of daily living — the centrality of its consequential residue must be considered at some point, and the remaining decisions about filing a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, must become the option to entertain.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM is never an easy decision to make, and thus do we relegate such considerations into the outer periphery of one’s thoughts — until that day when reality cannot be escaped, distractions can no longer be delayed, and the centrality of our lives must come first.

Preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM is a major decision which cannot remain in the peripheral accoutrements of a life; at some point, it must become the peripheral centrality of one’s decision-making process if you are a Federal or Postal employee whose medical condition has begun to prevent you from performing one or more of the essential elements of your Federal or Postal positional duties.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire