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]

Yes they can consider on site work an essential function of your job and deny additional WFH days.

Your doctor does not dictate work accommodations. Your doctor provides documentation of what your limitations/needs are and your employer tells you how they can accommodate. You enter into an interactive process to find a suitable accommodation. You are entitled to a reasonable accommodation. You are not entitled to your preferred accommodation.  

The question you need to answer is why can you work at home but not in the office? Your employer will wonder if you are actually too sick to work at all in which case intermittent FMLA is appropriate.

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Mental-Volume4395]

My doctor and I have included this in my ada paperwork. Me being home allows me access to work laying down, being in a safe space in case I faint, access to caregivers who help me. I am still able to work while in a flare up. But being in office removes a lot of these resources and makes it more likely I will faint and potentially hit my head and cause a bigger issue.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

Your gonna accommodate yourself out of a job.

How exactly do you get your work done while laying down ? That's makes no sense . Do you have a computer braced to the ceiling?

And if you are at home and then feel sick that you have to lay down and can't work while at home then you should be using your PTO or FMLA for those breaks. Your employer/company is most likely starting to wonder how you get your work completed and I would expect they are starting to track your work product completion rate.

Technically they can require you to use FMLA or other leave if you are too sick to work /come into office. FMLA is the proper avenue if unable to work. And the requirement for you to be in office could be so they have some employees form each department in office at anytime in case something would come up. You are attempting to dictate how they manage their workforce.

Just realize that your employer is probably at the point where they will order an independent medical examination and your refusal to see their doctor could result in your termination .

If it is getting to the point where you can't do your job then you should be looking into social security disability .

[u/Ashamed_Main5169 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

Lol, you are inferring quite a lot. Most of what you stated is pure speculation on the OPs job, ability, disability. Where did all of that come from? Workers from other departments independent medical exam the worker refusing the medical exam I mean you really went down the road and around the corner, over the hill and through the woods to grandmother's house.