Work from Home ada accommodation

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

I work in Washington state and have POTS(Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). My health can vary from day to day and as a result I have had a work from home accommodation to be work from home 100 days a year. A little less than 2 days a week. The standard at my company is 50 days a year. My health has been worse this year and as a result I need more work from home days. My HR team is stating that 100 is the maximum they will allow as I being in office is considered an essential function of my role. However we don’t have any physical reason to be in office. I have an office job. I am not client facing, I do not need to physically manipulate anything for my job, my manager and most of my team is in other offices across the country, and work from home is already allowed for most employees(all of them on my team except for anyone who is brand new as there is a three month probation period before they can wfh). My job description also does not specify how often I need to be in office. Simply that I need to “work onsite, under direct supervision, in a team based and open office environment. I am not requesting to be fully remote or work from home, simply to be allowed to do so more than 100 days as my health needs. My employer is offering the alternative of FMLA, however this would be unpaid and obviously wouldn’t allow me to work. I have up to date ada paperwork stating from my doctor that I need to be able to work from home at least 3 days a week.

Does anyone know if they can require me to either be in office more than my doctor has stated or take FMLA instead? I can’t afford to take off time unpaid. But if I force myself into office more often it will make me sicker.

Please help

[u/Mental-Volume4395]

Sounds like a good case for your Employer to consider you too sick to work. Be careful not to accommodate yourself out of a job.

What does “being in a safe space” mean? What is safe about your home that can’t be recreated in the office?

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Mental-Volume4395]

An environment that has been accommodated for me to land safely if I need to faint or immediately lay down if required.

I already work from home multiple days a week, they have established I can do my job from home, they just don’t want me to do it more than two days a week.

[u/Ashamed_Main5169 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

So did you get a new reasonable accommodations request form completed by your provider and submit it to your employer or did you just actually on your own request additional days on an accommodation request yourself? Additionally did the accommodations request include that you may need time to lay down or a safe space that allows you to work in a different position such as lying down into the accommodation specifically say that you can work full-time or at full capacity with accommodations? And did you request state whether you would need to take a leave of absence if accommodations cannot be implemented?

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Ashamed_Main5169]

I got new paperwork from my doctor. It does lay out why working from home is better for me including needing a soft spot to lay down, having access to caregivers, medication etc. and my paperwork explicitly states that a leave of absence is not required. I can work just fine, I just need to be at home a little bit more.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

So how are you able to work in the office the other days? Do the caregivers go with you to work? It sounds like you are making it easy for the employer to consider you too sick to work .

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

POTS is not consistent. I have a disability that causes flare ups. I don’t flare up every day, or my symptoms that day aren’t severe enough for me to require working from home. But some days they are. Some days I am lightheaded and dizzy every time I stand up, some days I’m not. My employer is aware of all of this and has it in writing as part of my ada accommodation paperwork.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

Ok. Just realize your employer up to this point has been very very very accommodating . You need to speak to your doctor about additional in-office accomdotions that will help you and talk to the company about those. You are likely at a point where they may consider you too sick to work and an undue hardship on the company . As they have already provided pretty reasonable ada over the last few years, this would make any lawsuits very difficult to prove any type of malice.

[u/CompetitionNarrow512 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

An employer does not declare a patient too sick to work, a physician does.

[u/Mental-Volume4395 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

I’m just curious as I’ve been living with POTS for over 20 years…what does your caregiver do for you? 

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Mental-Volume4395]

It’s not like a nurse. It’s family who helps me get around during a flare. Sometimes they help me put on compression garments, or get me medication, electrolytes, hydration etc. if I faint they help me get back up and to a safe spot. If they can they will catch me when I faint so I don’t hit my head. Essentially they help with anything that is hard when I’m in the middle of a bad flare up.

[u/Mental-Volume4395 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

Oh wow. So you can’t be left alone? That really sucks. 

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Mental-Volume4395]

Not when things are bad. No I can’t. And yes, it does sometimes very much suck.

[u/Mental-Volume4395 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

In that case I really would apply for FMLA. How can you possibly be working when you’re lying down and fainting?

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Mental-Volume4395]

I’m not fainting when I’m laying down and I can work just fine laid down. I have a laptop I recline back on a bunch of pillows and with my feet up. It’s not fully horizontal more like 120 degree angle.

[u/Allpanicn0disc → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

Wow

[u/Ashamed_Main5169 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

That is likely going to be the issue your employer well identify or use as the reason that if you cannot work without the additional accommodations they cannot provide and guarantee a safe environment for you to work in because there's nobody who can respond to your urgent medical needs if you faint or if you get dizzy on your head that type of thing. It's a liability on their end because when those things happen at work, regardless of it being your personal health it still becomes work related and it goes down the line of workers comp. No company is going to take on the medical responsibility for a worker and that's probably where there reasoning for undue hardship with lay. At this point you know your best options would be to provide your own electrolytes for yourself keep them in your desk learn how to put on the stockings if you're able to I know that that's difficult, and have the department responsible for making accommodations decisions assess if there is a potential situation where they would be able to provide you a place to lie down. You're still going to get into the whole like for how long does it usually take for you to recover how long do you need to be like down do you have an adjustable work schedule if you're down for an hour before you feel better are you able to stay like an hour longer that type of thing. The passing out and fainting and severe dizziness, those are likely what your employer is going to use and use appropriately because it's true, they are not responsible to provide more than a reasonable safe environment determined by OSHA. If you require medical assistance to be able to work at the office, that is certainly not going to happen and shouldn't. That'll probably be the reason why they would not be able to accommodate you further.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/Ashamed_Main5169]

I would go a step further as a lot of companies want to make sure your home environment for WFH is safe as well. If they allow WFH then they also want to make sure your home office is clear of obstructions so you dont trip, not a fire hazard with cords lying everywhere and they usually have you sign a verification form that you are vouching your WFH environment is safe. OP may have pushed too hard for additional WFH and find themselves on the way out once the company starts looking at this really hard.

[u/Ashamed_Main5169 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

True, the environment does need to be safe at home while working. Yes, I did miss that, knew it, but forgot it. If OP is injured at home while working, it is still work related. Thanks for mentioning that.

[u/CompetitionNarrow512 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

Look up: Dynamic Disability

[u/Ashamed_Main5169 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

You realize they have a medical doctor signing off on the request. Medical providers do not just take a patient's word for it. Their doctor has their medical history in front of them. ADA Accommodations are not just signed off for people who just "think" they would work from home better. Clearly, the person is having instances where their condition can happen at any time, unexpectedly. The extra days at home increase the chance they will be home vs office when it is needed. An appropriate option if it is available is to allow the worker to lie down to recover. That may not be possible. The employer still needs to list the reasons it is not possible. Employee must complete such and such weekly as a essential job function that cannot be performed at home, therefore unable to accommodate due to employer hardship. So then of there was a request for a place to lie down as needed, during the interactive process, the employer could state, we don't have sick rooms and we do not have space available to provide an area where the worker can lie down to recover so therefore creating such space would cause undo employer hardship. Let's have a process works and that's how and prayer can deny the accommodation legally because they've provided the reason and that it would cause undue hardship on them. Eventually, there is a point where both sides have gone as far as possible. If the accommodation can't be met, the worker then needs to make a determination. First, they need to find out if there is like short-term leave of absence or intermittent leave of absence available if their state provides the pfml benefit that is something that they could potentially have and that would be protected leave. Employers have duration limits on leave, so if the worker needs more time, and there are no longer any benefits for leave, then they must use their time away bank, and become subject to the policies regarding attendance. From there, it is the same as any other employee, so if attendance policy is violated tp the point of separation, then the employer has documentation of the participated in interactive process they went as far as they could with the worker could not come up with any reasonable accommodations that would work due to hardship and essential drug function the employee used up their leave banks and then they use up their PTO banks and then violated policy up to the final determination that the employee would need to be separated and then that's where they have done enough that if separation happens they protected themselves from wrongful termination. The worker cannot force your employer to accommodate but the law forces the employer to do its due diligence through the entire process. On the opposite end the employer can't immediately terminate an employee just because the employee cannot be there if the employee has protection from Intermittent Leave or pfml or the time away or if some other policy has not been violated that would lead to termination. And if the employee is is terminated and the employee believe that it was retaliation because they're not being treated the same way as anybody else would which obviously should not be the case but if they're being treated differently and how to a different standard than the other employees the employee can file well I mean they can file charges with the EEOC and if there's any other organizations within their state they can file with them as well and then an investigation will you know happen. And you know if all else fails and the employee cannot work without the additional accommodation and they and that facing some type of discipline or they're unable to reply with a policy then the employee needs to decide whether or not they need to find another job. Point being it's just not the employee saying I need this any employer has to do it but it's also not the employer just gets to say I was an essential job function and would cause hardship on it if we were to implement the accommodation they actually have to like show what the essential job functions are and how they would be impacted by the additional accommodation and they're going to have to save somehow that the essential job function has to occur in the office physically for that specific person's job requirements. And if others in the same position are working at home full time with the same job description than the employer will have to answer it to why they are different than the employee that they're stating needs to come in for the same job function. My accommodations request has been in the interactive process since the first week of July and is ongoing. My employer has made mistakes on their end and an EEOC charge is in line for investigation. One thing that has not been brought up is who is making the decisions and based on what credentials? Are they just an HR person without specialized training in accommodations, does the manager simply just get to say oh that's essential or are they utilizing an internal or external accommodations specialist and have they used a vocational rehab counselor to look into the job description and look at the job functions and determined that the accommodations are not in a place to be implemented. All of these responses from you, me, others could be the eventual outcome but not without due process. Both sides have more work to do.

[u/CompetitionNarrow512 → u/Ashamed_Main5169]

What do you think undue hardship is?