ptsd Where To Start?

[nlualum82]

I got word of my increase to 100% in February. The Postal Service was already talking about all the issues currently ongoing, including early retirement.

At the time I was logically unable to do disability retirement because obviously I could still report to work and do the same repititious job I've been doing for years.

My processing facility has since been given notice that processing operations will cease May 19th and for the most part will close June 30th.

Within the next 32 hours I need to bid on a newly posted job. There are positions for 56 people in my city and I am 55th on the list. All of these jobs are drastically different from what I have been doing the last 20 + years.

I have been working on a:machine, putting mail in one end and taking it off the other. The new jobs would in many cases require interacting with customers (window service). This is a problem due to my 70% rating for hearing loss.

I also have a 70% rating for PTSD/ GAD.

Learning any new task is complicated by the anxiety. There seems to be mucn information available backing up memory problems associated with GAD.

The remaining positions require learning a scheme. If you are not postal, a scheme is page after page of rote memorization. For instance, if your zip code is 97302, there may be 60 carriers delivering mail with that zip code and you must learn to look quickly at an address on a letter and without referring to anything but your:memory, place it in the correct carriers box.

I will most likely be placed in one of the 2 jobs that my 54 senior employees turn their nose up at, so looking at the list, I can reasonably expect a worse case:scenario.

Please advise! I will be terminated if I fail to meet the new qualifications! Can I attempt to meet the requirements and file for retirement based on my disability AFTER being fired? Do I need to initiate the process in advance:of likely failure? Is there any precedent for disability retirement based on memory problems associated with PTSD/GAD

[Philip Rogers]

I think john999 or a few others here will be able to advise you, on this. We have a few who are medically retired postal workers, that post here, on a regular basis. Hope you don't have to go "postal," in the meantime! ;-)

pr

[Chuck75]

"Please advise! I will be terminated if I fail to meet the new qualifications!"

The post office can make your present job "redundent" as the British say.

What benefits are due is beyond my knowledge.

If you cannot function in a new job, due to an SC'd disability, that's a new ball game.

Assuming you have a diagnosis of PTSD/GAD and the hearing loss, the post office would have to go the disability route,

or find themselves in violation of the handicapped/veteran's employment laws, assuming that the unique status of the post office

does not somehow exempt them. Or, lie a lot as to why they laid you off.

Many employers have used a series of multi-step tactics to lay off experienced and "well paid" workers.

1. Make an existing job "redundant", then transfer an experienced worker to a job that they have no experience with.

2. Transfer a worker again to a lower paid job than the original one, based upon "poor" performance in the new one.

3. The worker may then subsist at the lower paid job, then have it eventually eliminated after some time has elapsed.

4. Or, the worker may just quit, or take any early out payments and quit.

Doing this sort of thing can allow an employer to skirt around some of the provisions in the employment laws.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Chuck75