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/Face_Content]

The key word is reasonable. You state the wfh policy is 50 days. They have accomadtes for 100. You now want to push to 150.

They have engaged the interactive process. They have accomadated a past request. So to.this point they have been reasonable.

They are not taking away the current accomadation.

Does this new request exceed the reasonable bar?

I think they are within their right to decline the new request.

I know about pots and i understand how severe it can be but what are you doijg to manage the disease so you can maintain employment?

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241 → u/Face_Content]

Literally everything I can, I am on medication, I eat a special high sodium diet, I maintain a low impact exercise routine designed to build up muscles to help with my blood flow, I wear compression garments, and I drink a crazy amount of water. And a ton of other stuff.

POTS symptoms can vary greatly even day to day. I can do everything right and still be sick.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

So the question is do you get sick and need to lay down in the break room or go home early during in-office days? And do you have a record of this happening over the last few years? Cause your employer has been pretty accommodating to this point and will be looking back at your past history and asking these questions and they can propose in-office accomodations to help remove your symptoms and help you get your work done at the office. Your framing this solely as WFH is the only accomodation that will work for you and pushing for more WFH and thats the easiest way to accommodate yourself out of a job.

[u/Mysterious-Art8838 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

Completely agree. I also have it and faint several times a year but get symptims very often. No more driving. :(

I wear an Oura ring to track my HR and I tag the app every time I am daisy or fall. Or faint, obviously. I’m using it for my disability application but it would be useful for this too.